For readers building a summer reading list, Five Books has named its selection of the five best 20th-century detective novels. Crime fiction accounts for a huge proportion of the book industry and is widely considered the most popular genre, and the list brings together authors including Paul Auster, Ross Macdonald, Rex Stout, Jonathan Latimer, and Dashiell Hammett.
The top five detective novels of the 20th century
Here is the full selection, counting down from fifth to first.
5. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
This uniquely stylised trilogy begins with City of Glass, in which Quinn, a mystery writer, receives an ominous late-night phone call and is drawn into a case more puzzling than anything he could have written himself. In Ghosts, Blue is hired by White to spy on Black from a window on Orange Street, only to find his subject on a similar mission. The Locked Room centres on Fanshawe's disappearance, leaving behind his wife, baby, and a cache of novels, plays, and poems.
4. The Chill by Ross Macdonald
In The Chill, a distraught young man hires Archer to find his runaway bride. After he locates Dolly Kincaid, Archer becomes entangled in two murders — one twenty years old, the other so recent that the blood is still wet. The novel delivers nerve-racking suspense, desperately believable characters, and one of the most intricate plots ever spun by an American crime writer.
3. Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout
A Balkan beauty in trouble over missing diamonds asks Nero Wolfe for help, claiming to be his long-lost daughter. When a student at her fencing school ends up dead after a lesson, Wolfe and his sidekick Archie are pulled into a tangle of documents, identities, and international intrigue. Another body soon turns up, expertly skewered through the heart, leaving the question of whether Wolfe's daughter, the black sheep of the family, is a mistress of murder.
2. Solomon's Vineyard by Jonathan Latimer
Solomon's Vineyard centres on a missing girl, a cult, an entombed body, and a private detective pushed against the wall. It also includes a dash of raw lust and a pinch of sadomasochistic hatred. The book is the totally unexpurgated version of Latimer's The Fifth Grave.
1. Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Taking the top spot is Red Harvest, originally titled The Cleansing of Poisonville. The Continental Op stays in Poisonville after the last honest citizen is murdered, determined to punish the guilty even if that means taking on the entire town. The Op had travelled to Personville after a letter from publisher Donald Willsson, and as soon as the Op arrives, the body count begins with his client.
