Recommendations

The Victorians

Wilkie Collins

• The Moonstone (1868)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• The complete Sherlock Holmes stories
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
• The Valley of Fear (1914)

The Edwardians

R. Austin Freeman

• The Eye of Osiris (1911)
• The Singing Bone (1912; short stories)
• The Mystery of 31, New Inn (1912)
• The Mystery of Angelina Frood (1924)
• The D’Arblay Mystery (1926)
• As a Thief in the Night (1928)
• Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight (1930)

G. K. Chesterton

• The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
• The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)
  • The Secret Garden
  • The Queer Feet
  • The Flying Stars
  • The Invisible Man
  • The Sins of Prince Saradine
  • The Hammer of God
  • The Eye of Apollo
  • The Sign of the Broken Sword
• The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914)
  • The Absence of Mr. Glass
  • The Duel of Dr. Hirsch
  • The Man in the Passage
  • The Head of Caesar
  • The God of the Gongs
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922)
  • The Bottomless Well
  • The Hole in the Wall
  • The Garden of Smoke
• The Incredulity of Father Brown (1926)
  • The Oracle of the Dog
  • The Dagger with Wings
• The Secret of Father Brown (1927)
  • The Mirror of the Magistrate
  • The Vanishing of Vaudrey
  • The Worst Crime in the World
  • The Chief Mourner of Marne
• The Poet and the Lunatics (1929)
  • The Shadow of the Shark
  • The Finger of Stone
• The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond (1937)
  • The Three Horsemen of Apocalypse
  • When Doctors Agree

Cleveland Moffett

• Through the Wall (1909)

A. E. W. Mason

• At the Villa Rose (1910)
• The House of the Arrow (1924)
• The Prisoner in the Opal (1928)

E. C. Bentley

• Trent’s Last Case (1913)

Ernest Bramah

• Max Carrados stories

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THE GOLDEN AGE

The English Whodunnit?

Agatha Christie

• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
• Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
• Cards on the Table (1936)
• Death on the Nile (1937)
• And Then There Were None (1939)
• Evil Under the Sun (1941)
• Five Little Pigs (1942)
• Towards Zero (1944)
• A Murder is Announced (1950)

Val Gielgud

• Death at Broadcasting House (1934)

Ngaio Marsh

• Artists in Crime (1938)
• Overture to Death (1939)
• Death at the Bar (1940)
• Death and the Dancing Footman (1941)
• Colour Scheme (1943)
• Final Curtain (1947)
• Scales of Justice (1955)
• Off With His Head (1957)
• Singing in the Shrouds (1958)

Nicholas Blake

• A Question of Proof (1935)
• Thou Shell of Death (1936)
• The Case of the Abominable Snowman (1941)
• Head of a Traveller (1949)
• The Widow’s Cruise (1959)

Leo Bruce

• Case for Three Detectives (1936)

Elspeth Huxley

• Murder at Government House (1937)
• Murder on Safari (1938)
• Death of an Aryan (1939)
• The Merry Hippo (1963)

Christianna Brand

• Green for Danger (1944)
• Death of Jezebel (1948)
• London Particular / Fog of Doubt (1952)
• Tour de Force (1955)

The Bailey school

H. C. Bailey

• Shadow on the Wall (1934)
• The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935)
• Black Land, White Land (1937)
• The Bishop’s Crime (1940)
• The Mr. Fortune short stories – particularly:
  • The Unknown Murderer
  • The Little House
  • The Broken Toad
  • The Long Dinner
  • The Yellow Slugs
  • The Holy Well
  • The Dead Leaves

Philip MacDonald

• The List of Adrian Messenger (1960)

The orthodox British detective story (Humdrums and Realists)

Freeman Wills Crofts

• The Cask (1920)
• The Groote Park Murder (1923)
• Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy (1927)
• The Sea Mystery (1928)
• Sir John Magill’s Last Journey (1930)

G. D. H. and M. Cole

• The Death of a Millionaire (1925)
• The Man from the River (1928)
• Superintendent Wilson’s Holiday (1928)
  • In a Telephone Cabinet
• Dead Man’s Watch (1931)
• Death in the Quarry (1934)

John Rhode

• The Davidson Case (1929)
• The Claverton Mystery (1933)
• The Corpse in the Car (1935)
• Death on the Board (1937)
• Death in Harley Street (1946)

As Miles Burton

• Murder, M.D. (1943)
• The Three Corpse Trick (1944)

Ronald A. Knox

• Still Dead (1934)
• “Solved by Inspection”

Christopher Bush

• Dead Man Twice (1930)
• Cut Throat (1932)
• The Case of the April Fools (1933)
• The Case of the Missing Minutes (1937)

J. J. Connington

• Murder in the Maze (1927)
• The Case with Nine Solutions (1928)
• No Past is Dead (1942)
• Jack-in-the-Box (1944)

Henry Wade

• The Duke of York’s Steps (1929)
• No Friendly Drop (1931)
• The Hanging Captain (1932)
• Constable, Guard Thyself! (1934)
• Heir Presumptive (1935)

Anthony Gilbert

• The Clock in the Hat-Box (1939)
• The Vanishing Corpse (1941)
• The Mouse Who Wouldn’t Play Ball (1943)

E. R. Punshon

• Death Comes to Cambers (1935)
• Diabolic Candelabra (1942)

Josephine Bell

• Death at Half-Term (1939)
• Death at the Medical Board (1944)
• The Catalyst (1966)

Cyril Hare

• Tenant for Death (1937)
• Suicide Excepted (1939)
• Tragedy at Law (1942)

The literary-fantastical school

Dorothy L. Sayers

• Whose Body? (1923)
• Unnatural Death (1927)
• Lord Peter Views the Body (1928)
• The Documents in the Case (1930)
• Strong Poison (1930)
• Have His Carcase (1932)
• Murder Must Advertise (1933)
• Hangman’s Holiday (1933)
  • The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey
  • The Image in the Mirror
• The Nine Tailors (1934)
• Gaudy Night (1935)

Margery Allingham

• Police at the Funeral (1931)
• Flowers for the Judge (1936)
• Dancers in Mourning (1937)
• The Fashion in Shrouds (1938)
• More Work for the Undertaker (1948)
• Hide My Eyes (1958)

Gladys Mitchell

• The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop (1929)
• The Saltmarsh Murders (1932)
• Death at the Opera (1934)
• The Devil at Saxon Wall (1935)
• Come Away, Death (1937)
• St. Peter’s Finger (1938)
• Brazen Tongue (1940)
• The Rising of the Moon (1945)
• Tom Brown’s Body (1949)
• The Echoing Strangers (1952)
• Merlin’s Furlong (1953)
• The Twenty-third Man (1957)

C. St. John Sprigg

• The Perfect Alibi (1934)
• Death of a Queen (1935)

Michael Innes

• Death at the President’s Lodging (1936)
• Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
• Lament for a Maker (1938)
• Stop Press (1939)
• The Daffodil Affair (1942)
• From London Far (1946)
• What Happened at Hazelwood (1946)
• The New Sonia Wayward (1960)

Edmund Crispin

• The Case of the Gilded Fly (1944)
• Holy Disorders (1945)
• The Moving Toyshop (1946)
• Swan Song (1947)
• Love Lies Bleeding (1948)
• The Long Divorce (1951)

The Berkeley / Iles school: Satire and psychology

Anthony Berkeley

• The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
• The Piccadilly Murder (1929)
• Top Storey Murder (1931)
• Trial and Error (1937)
• Not to be Taken (1938)

As Francis Iles

• Malice Aforethought (1931)

Milward Kennedy

• The Murderer of Sleep (1932)

Richard Hull

• The Murder of My Aunt (1934)
• Excellent Intentions (1938)

The American detective story

S. S. Van Dine

• The Greene Murder Case (1928)
• The Bishop Murder Case (1929)
• The Scarab Murder Case (1930)

Ellery Queen

• The French Powder Mystery (1930)
• The Tragedy of X (1932)
• The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934)
• The New Adventures of Ellery Queen (1940)
• Calamity Town (1942)
• Ten Days’ Wonder (1948)
• And on the Eighth Day (1964)

Harriette Ashbrook

• The Murder of Sigurd Sharon (1933)

John Dickson Carr

• The Corpse in the Waxworks (1932)
• The Blind Barber (1934)
• The Three Coffins (1935)
• The Arabian Nights Murder (1936)
• The Problem of the Green Capsule (1939)
• The Emperor’s Snuff-box (1942)
• The Devil in Velvet (1951)
• The Nine Wrong Answers (1952)

As Carter Dickson

• The Plague Court Murders (1934)
• The Red Widow Murders (1935)
• The Unicorn Murders (1935)
• Death in Five Boxes (1938)
• The Reader is Warned (1939)
• Nine – and Death Makes Ten (1940)

C. Daly King

• Obelists Fly High (1935)

Patrick Quentin

• A Puzzle for Fools (1936)
• Puzzle for Players (1938)

As Q. Patrick

• Death and the Maiden (1939)

Anthony Boucher

• The Case of the Crumpled Knave (1939)

Helen McCloy

• Dance of Death (1938)
• The Man in the Moonlight (1940)
• The Deadly Truth (1941)
• Who’s Calling? (1942)
• Cue for Murder (1942)
• She Walks Alone (1948)
• The Slayer and the Slain (1957)

Clayton Rawson

• Death from a Top Hat (1938)

Hake Talbot

• Rim of the Pit (1944)

POST-WWII

Julian Symons

• The 31st of February (1950)
• The Colour of Murder (1957)
• The Man Who Killed Himself (1967)
• The Plot Against Roger Rider (1973)
• The Blackheath Poisonings (1978)
• Death’s Darkest Face (1990)

Michael Gilbert

• Smallbone Deceased (1950)
• Death Has Deep Roots (1951)
• Death in Captivity (1952)
• The Dust and the Heat (1967)
• The Night of the Twelfth (1976)
• The Black Seraphim (1983)

H. R. F. Keating

• Inspector Ghote Goes by Train (1971)
• Inspector Ghote Draws a Line (1979)
• Under a Monsoon Cloud (1986)
• Doing Wrong (1994)

P. D. James

• A Mind to Murder (1963)
• Unnatural Causes (1967)
• Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
• A Taste for Death (1986)

Ruth Rendell

• Wolf to the Slaughter (1967)
• The Lake of Darkness (1980)
• Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter (1992)
• The Crocodile Bird (1993)
• Short stories

Reginald Hill

• Recalled to Life (1992)
• Pictures of Perfection (1994)
• The Wood Beyond (1996)
• On Beulah Height (1998)
• Dialogues of the Dead (2001)
• A Cure for All Diseases (2008)

Paul Halter

• La Quatrième porte / The Fourth Door (1987)
• La Chambre du fou / The Madman’s Chamber (1990)
• La Septième hypothèse / The Seventh Hypothesis (1991)
• Le diable de Dartmoor / The Demon of Dartmoor (1993)

Boris Akunin

• Murder on the Leviathan (1998)
• The Death of Achilles (1998)
• The State Counsellor (1999)

Christopher Fowler

• The Water Room (2004)
• Ten Second Staircase (2006)
• Hall of Mirrors (2018)