Fave crime writer/fiction of all time?

Chandler is definitely better than Hammett, and Hammett had been my favorite. I also like Ross MacDonald and Elmore Leonard.

Ross MacDonald.

I’d also say Chandler but JamesM. Cain is no slouch.

Among the modern writers, James Ellroy is impressive but his world is way too disturbing for me.

I really like Hammett’s work but he’s got such an extreme stripped down Hemingwayesque style that it’s like reading play scripts or screenplays rather than novels.

I like Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer series of detective novels (and subsequent TV series on Amazon Prime and Netflix).

Are we leaving classic whodunnit authors like Agatha Christie off the list?

I love Donald E. Westlake's comic crime novels (the John Dortmunder series, especially) and his very un-comical Parker crime novels written under the name of Richard Stark.

And yes, Chandler is sublime.

Elmore Leonard.

Dorothy L. Sayers and "Gaudy Night"

I am re-reading Arthur Conan Doyle after many years and I am delighted by how well the stories hold up. He is still the best. I’d put Raymond Chandler up there with Agatha Christie (best whodunnit’s), P.D. James (fave modern writer, good plots married with good writing and psychological insight).

After many years of curiosity about Dorothy Sayers, I finally read Gaudy Night last year. Though it began interestingly enough, giving a vivid portrait of women at Oxford in the 1920s, the murder and general mischief seemed contrived and unconvincing. Far too many female academics, professors, alumni and students to keep straight. By the time the murderer was revealed, I couldn't have cared less. And Peter Wimsey seemed like a big poofter.

r8, what did you like about it?

Ruth Rendell, but she just recently had a great long thread of her own.

Dennis Lehane

James M. Cain - Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice

The books are better than the movies and have totally different endings.

R10 - wish I could remember, read it 25 years ago. I just remember that I really liked it - I was fresh from "Brideshead Revisited" at the time and loved any and everything Oxford.

James Ellroy. Although the plots are extremely complicated, and the racist language of the characters likely upsets people.

The original Inspector Morse mysteries by Colin Watson are brilliant writing.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Ross Macdonald is my very favorite, with Chandler second. I also very much like Chester Himes and Patricia Highsmith.

Among the Brits, I love Colin Watson, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, and PD James.

Please add Julian Symons and Reginald Hill to r19's list of the Brit greats.

Mo Hayder and her Jack Caffery series

Jim Thompson for gritty, pulp fiction. Plus such good old timey dialogue, like in The Grifters: "He was so crooked he could eat soup with a corkscrew."

[quote]After many years of curiosity about Dorothy Sayers, I finally read Gaudy Night last year.

That's like jumping into the deep end before you know how to swim R10. I would never recommend reading [italic]Gaudy Night[/italic] as an introduction to Sayers. Much better choices would be [italic]Strong Poison[/italic] (the first with Harriet Vane), [italic]Murder Must Advertise[/italic], or [italic]Have His Carcase[/italic] (a favorite of mine).

My favorite crime writers: Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Rex Stout, James Lee Burke, Patricia Highsmith, and P.D. James. Christie is really in a class by herself.

Josephine Tey is also in a class by herself. Only 8 mystery/crime novels, none of them traditional, each brilliant. In 1990, the British Crime Writers' Association voted "The Daughter Of Time" as "the greatest crime novel of all time". I love them all.

Tom Hillerman - The Dark Wind was made into a pretty good series on AMC.

^ Tony Hillerman.

Reading Daughter of Time is like watching Rear Window.

Edmund Crispin's detective Gervase Fen is an English prof who'd rather be a detective. Christianne Brand's novels are braintwisters. Both authors were British and outstanding.

Dorothy Sayers. I currently like Kate Atkinson.

Denise Mina

I haven't read any of his most recent stuff but based on his early work, James Ellroy is a master. Like r3 says, his work is very dark and disturbing because he's lived it. What makes him so interesting is that his writing seems to be an act of somehow repetitively, symbolically solving his mother's murder. His own history is in "My Dark Places." He was a child when his mother was murdered after a night out. The killer was never caught. Ellroy went to live with his father and began a long, downward spiral of his own. Highly recommend the book.