Kate Jackson, otherwise known as the Armchair Reviewer, is celebrating 10 years as a blogger this month with an intriguing competition. She asks those of us who read classic crime to recommend 10 titles for someone unfamiliar with the subgenre. See the details here: https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/2025/06/13/kates-epic-10-year-blog-anniversary-competition/.
This is a challenging task. Because I have been happily reading the major authors in the field, and some of the lesser known, for years, I have my preferences but they might not necessarily appeal to someone new to classic crime conventions. The differences in writing style, the obscure historical references, or the century-old sociological attitudes toward gender, race, and religion can be off-putting to the reader of 2025.
So I tried very hard to remember my early days of Golden Age mystery reading to identify the titles that first captured my interest and to determine those that might attract contemporary crime fiction readers. Here is my final list, with a few alternates.
Absolutely there is no question but that readers have to start with Agatha Christie. I am sure that nearly everyone is already familiar with the plots at least of And Then There Were None (1939) and Murder on the Orient Express (1934). However, I selected two alternate Christies that I think a present-day bookworm will enjoy.
Cards on the Table (1936) has not only Hercule Poirot but also Ariadne Oliver and Inspector Battle, three of Christie’s investigative stalwarts, as well as a bridge game, solid clues, and brazen murder.
A Murder Is Announced (1950) checks the boxes for classic crime: a village, an assortment of characters with secrets, hidden identities, multiple murders, and great clues to the solution. Plus it’s a good story that shows Miss Jane Marple at her finest and readers will have no trouble engaging with it.
Then there is Dorothy L. Sayers. Sayers’ tendency to launch into Latin or French will not set well with today’s reader but Lord Peter Wimsey is an important character, not just for himself but for all of the derivative detectives who followed him into print. I selected Strong Poison (1930) as a good first title. The scenario with a defendant wrongly accused is one most readers have encountered, Wimsey has lost much of his Bertie Wooster persona by this time, and Harriet Vane is introduced here.
To continue with the Queens of Crime, I looked at Margery Allingham next. Albert Campion started out as a clear copy of Lord Peter Wimsey but he evolved into his own character over the series, which started in 1929. In fact he metamorphosed two or three times. One of his early cases, Flowers for the Judge (1936), is a favorite of mine and I am too biased to recommend anything else.
Ngaio Marsh created Roderick Alleyn as another detective with an upper-class background but he formally entered the police force instead of going the private investigator route. Marsh was terrific at creating attractive and well-rounded personalities, similar to the character-driven crime fiction of today. Almost any of her books are highly readable for that reason but I selected Death in a White Tie (1938) as a title likely to interest a new classic crime reader. High society and blackmail are always solid ingredients for a good story.
Those four authors are a given, considering the original parameters. The last half of my choices is where I diverge from the recommendations I have seen so far.
Patricia Wentworth wrote a number of thrillers and mysteries; she is most well known for her series character Miss Maude Silver, a retired governess turned private investigator. Miss Silver is sometimes dismissed as a copy of Miss Marple but Miss Silver appeared in print two years before Miss Marple did. Wentworth often used the confused communications and loss of official records caused by World War II to good effect in her plots. I am adding Miss Silver Deals with Death (1943) to my list, as it incorporates those two elements and amnesia, one of her favorite ploys. The main character is charming and it’s easy to become absorbed in the story.
The British Library Crime Classics series is responsible for reviving interest in the works of Edith Caroline Rivett, who wrote under the names E.C.R. Lorac and Carol Carnac. Her Detective Inspector Robert Macdonald books are almost uniformly excellent. It’s hard to choose one but I really like Murder of a Martinet (1951) and I think any mystery lover would too. The problems caused by a controlling family member are so universal that the narrative nearly writes itself.
Georgette Heyer is better known for her Regency romances but she wrote about a dozen mysteries before World War II. She tended to assemble a group of people at odds with each other and let events take their course. I think The Unfinished Clue (1934) is an excellent example of her ability to create a devious plot and vivid characters. The long weekend party at a country manor is a typical setting for Golden Age murder.
Now I cross the Atlantic Ocean to the United States and consider the works of Erle Stanley Gardner. Everyone has heard of Perry Mason via the television adaptations about the famous lawyer. The books are even better. Mason first appeared in 1933 but I am recommending his eighth appearance, The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece (1936), as a place to begin. The idea of committing a murder while sleepwalking has fascinated crime writers for a long time, and Gardner uses it here.
The investigator in the last title on my list will also be familiar through a number of unfortunate films. Inspector Charlie Chan as portrayed by his creator Earl Derr Biggers is clever, competent, and personable. His English is faultless. (Those movies are an outrage.) Biggers wrote a half-dozen mysteries about Chan; I am recommending the fourth, The Black Camel (1929); its Hollywood specifics and cold case details will please present-day readers.
Of course I couldn’t definitely narrow the list to 10 titles so I am adding a few more authors whose works are immensely readable and qualify as classic crime:
Colin Watson wrote the Flaxborough Chronicles, a series of 12 gently sardonic and clever police procedurals featuring Detective Inspector Walter Purbright and Detective Sergeant Sidney Love in the prosperous market and port town of Flaxborough in East Anglia. Flaxborough is supposedly a fictionalized version of a town in Lincolnshire where Watson was a journalist. The books are strongly plotted and savagely funny.
Patricia Moyes wrote mysteries about Detective Inspector Henry Tibbett of Scotland Yard. The third in the series, Death on the Agenda (1962), is a classic locked room mystery. Moyes traveled a great deal and she let her detective tag along, so while Tibbett’s home turf is London, his cases make him a globetrotter.
Catherine Aird wrote two dozen mysteries about Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan of the tiny Beresbury CID in West Calleshire, England. Between coping with his volatile superintendent and the astonishingly dense constable perpetually assigned to him because no one else will have him, Sloan sorts through a wide range of village and small town crime, using native intelligence and years of experience.
George Bellairs wrote nearly 60 books about Detective Inspector Thomas Littlejohn, an unflappable and skillful police officer. His superiors sent him to one small town after another, where the eccentricities of the locals tended to confound his investigation. I have only read a few titles but I found them all uniformly good. Death in Desolation (1967) has a byzantine plot and some fascinating characters.
I am of two minds about Edmund Crispin but I am including him anyway. While I love his books about English professor Gervase Fen, there are enough Oxford inside jokes and oblique references that a contemporary reader might give them up as a waste of time. It would be unfortunate though because in between making wisecracks Fen is a perceptive and capable detective.
To summarize, my recommended classic crime titles for the reader new to the field are:
- Cards on the Table (1936) by Agatha Christie — Hercule Poirot
- A Murder Is Announced (1950) by Agatha Christie — Miss Jane Marple
- Strong Poison (1930) by Dorothy L. Sayers — Lord Peter Wimsey
- Flowers for the Judge (1936) byMargery Allingham — Albert Campion
- Death in a White Tie (1938) by Ngaio Marsh – Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn
- Miss Silver Deals with Death (1943) by Patricia Wentworth – Miss Maude Silver
- Murder of a Martinet (1951) by E.C.R. Lorac – Detective Inspector Robert Macdonald
- The Unfinished Clue (1934) by Georgette Heyer
- The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece (1936) by Erle Stanley Gardner – Perry Mason
- The Black Camel (1929) by Earl Derr Biggers – Inspector Charlie Chan
Authors for additional consideration:
- Catherine Aird
- Patricia Moyes
- George Bellairs
- Edmund Crispin
- Colin Watson
The recommended titles are not necessarily the best work of the authors and the authors are not necessarily the best mystery writers but the books are easy to read with believable characters and plots that still resonate today. They are, as the original assignment asks, a starting point to begin delving into Golden Age crime fiction.