Monday, February 8, 2010

The classic crime curriculum

Given the comments on Saturday's post, I think it is fairly clear that the consensus is to add Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's, Roseanna, as the final book on the classic crime curriculum. That makes the full list:

James Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (1930)
Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr Ripley (1955)
Dorothy Sayers, The Nine Tailors (1934)
Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Roseanna (1965)
Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance (1934)
Jim Thompson, The Killer Inside Me (1952)

One thing that strikes me about this list is that 1934 was a very good year for crime fiction! I'm looking forward to reading these over the next 12 months. Many thanks for everybody's suggestions. I'll post more on the full list over the coming days.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...