Top Whatever Mystery Authors

Okay, so here we go. I could have made this list longer, included Ellery Queen, Doyle or maybe even Franklin W. Dixon, but I think I'll start here.

Number 5: Agatha Christie

Dame Christie was a very prolific author and she created several iconic characters. Everyone who knows anything about mystery stories knows about Poirot and Miss Marple. If you're a bit more familiar with mysteries, you might even know the names of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Inspector Japp, and Superintendent Battle.

Christie didn't always write a fantastic plot or concoct a convincing mystery, but she did sometimes write a real corker. And most of the rest were at least passable. She did sometimes write a really awful book (I'm looking at you Passenger to Frankfurt), but some of her lesser known stories are delightful (I still remember the excitement of the end of Witness for the Prosecution when I read it for the first time as a teenager) as well as some her lesser known detectives.

Since it's kind of a theme with the first three I'll note that Christie wrote herself into a number of her stories as Ariadne Oliver, the mystery authoress who regretted she ever concocted an eccentric Finnish detective because he became popular and was in demand long after she wearied of writing about him.*cough*Poirot*cough*

The final verdict is that when she was good, she was very good indeed, but when she was bad, she was horrid.

Number 4: Ngaio Marsh

Marsh was not so prolific as Christie and, perhaps as a result, she kept her writing a bit more taut. All her novels (and about half her short stories) feature her gentleman detective, Roderick Alleyn. Her early work is considerably weaker than the later, but she found her stride pretty quickly even if it did take her some considerable time to dispose of all her youthful follies. (Was there ever a more annoying side-kick than Nigel Bathgate?)

Despite her protests, Alleyn clearly begins as a rip-off of Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, but, to her credit, she manages to make him his own man after a few novels. She also falls into the pitfall that Sayers' did by writing herself into her story as a Mary Sue and getting hitched up with the dreamy Chief Inspector Alleyn.

Despite the high quality and consistency of her work after getting over the first few struggles, Marsh never manages to shine too brightly. None of her books seems like a work of genius. Which is why she loses out to the next author.

Number 3: Dorothy Sayers

Sayers Wimsey is the epitome of the gentleman detective. He's dashing, debonair and smart as a whip to boot. Sayers didn't write nearly as many books as the others on this list, though that is partially because she died relatively young. (Christie lived to be 86 and Marsh to be 87, while Sayers died more than two decades younger at 64.)

It's also partially because she was writing other, more scholarly works, and quite possibly because she didn't want to just churn out another novel. I'm not saying that Marsh would thrown any old thing down on paper in order to get another volume to the publishers (though it seems at times that Christie was doing that), but Sayers wrote a few detective stories in which were better than just good. They were superb. She takes time to deal with the actual characters in her stories in a serious way during Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon.

True, Sayers did give in to the temptation to write a mystery novelist into her book that resembled her to an obvious degree and then make her swoon-inducing hero fall desperately in love with her. So points off for that. But I think she more than made up for it by writing one of the best mystery stories of all time, Murder Must Advertise. The whole book is balanced perfectly, as if on the edge of a knife. Plot, characters, clues, humour, atmosphere; it is all perfectly in sync and makes for a story that can be re-read over and over.

Sayers was a marvellous writer and wrote excellent mystery stories, for the most part, when she was writing mystery stories, which was not all the time.

Number 2: Rex Stout

Stout wrote a lot of novels. More than Marsh, less than Christie, but with a greater degree of consistency than both. Stout wrote most of his books about Nero Wolfe, the world's largest and most sedentary detective. (Wolfe edges out Mycroft Holmes for these honours.)

I said it in the previous post, but it bears repeating. One of the biggest strengths of these stories is that one can read them all over and over. The characters are unique and interesting. Wolfe is a detective who doesn't like to and doesn't want to detect. He merely does it to finance the other things in his life he likes. His Watson, Archie Goodwin, is one of the better side-kicks and narrators going. His insouciance and hard-boiled patter are eminently enjoyable.

Stout's books are not only consistent, they have flashes of brilliance and he doesn't appear to suffer from the desire to write himself into the tales. The supporting characters are unique and interesting and he maintains a pretty good continuity for someone who wrote books across four decades.

The characters exceed those of the previous authors because their flaws are more real. Wolfe's overweening self-regard and his laziness. Goodwin's eye for the ladies and delight in the discomfort of others. Though they are good at heart, they have definite foibles.

Number 1: Raymond Chandler

Chandler wrote very few stories; fewer than anyone else on this list. But, such stories! The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, The Long Goodbye... Okay, Playback wasn't as strong as the rest, but it was still on par with anything written by Marsh or Stout and probably a cut above all but Christie's best.

Chandler's prose was often stunning, his plots were convoluted and fascinating.  The characters are decent enough, but they are all merely minor planets orbiting the protagonist. The detective is the iconic Philip Marlowe, whose status as the model private eye is challenged only by Sam Spade. Marlowe is the knight in armor that doesn't shine. He's Columbo with a smart mouth. He's Archie Goodwin in an old suit and down on his luck.

Despite his flaws he has a deeply moral core and will refuse to compromise on matters of great import. Marlowe has a fondness for the little guy, the guy getting picked on or not getting a fair shake. Despite his instincts, his desire not to get involved and to avoid trouble, he finds himself caught up in dangerous cases because of his curiosity, his sympathy and his need to take a job.

Maybe I'm not the best at making a good case for the primacy of Chandler's fiction, but if you've read it, I think you'll understand why I put him at the top even if you disagree.