KEATING’S 100 BEST CRIME AND MYSTERY BOOKS
H. R. F. Keating was the crime books reviewer for the London Times for 15 years, a former chairman of the British Crime Writers’ Association, and a past president of the Detection Club. His 100 Best Crime and Mystery Books was published 1987. Keating provides a page discussion of each of the titles that are listed below.
 The Moonstone | Wilkie Collins | 1868 |
| The Mystery of Edwin Drood | Charles Dickens | 1870 |
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1892 |
| The Amateur Cracksman | E. W. Hornung | 1899 |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1902 |
| The Thinking Machine | Jacques Futrelle | 1907 |
| The Circular Staircase | Mary Roberts Rinehart | 1908 |
| The Innocence of Father Brown | G. K. Chesterton | 1911 |
| Uncle Abner | Melville Davisson Post | 1918 |
| The Mind of J. G. Reeder | Edgar Wallace | 1925 |
| The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | Agatha Christie | 1926 |
| Red Harvest | Dashiell Hammett | 1929 |
| Death of My Aunt | C. H. B. Kitchin | 1929 |
| The Documents in the Case | Dorothy L. Sayers | 1930 |
| The Maltese Falcon | Dashiell Hammett | 1930 |
| The Sands of Windee | Arthur W. Upfield | 1931 |
| Before the Fact | Francis Iles | 1932 |
| The Case of the Sulky Girl | Erle Stanley Gardner | 1933 |
| Murder on the Orient Express | Agatha Christie | 1934 |
| The Postman Always Rings Twice | James M. Cain | 1934 |
| The Nine Tailors | Dorothy L. Sayers | 1934 |
| The Hollow Man (T Three Coffins) | John Dickson Carr | 1935 |
| The League of Frightened Men | Rex Stout | 1935 |
| The Wheel Spins | Ethel Lina White | 1936 |
| The Beast Must Die | Nicholas Blake | 1938 |
| The Bride Wore Black | Cornell Woolrich | 1940 |
| Surfeit of Lampreys or Death of a Peer | Ngaio Marsh | 1940 |
| Calamity Town | Ellery Queen | 1942 |
| Tragedy at Law | Cyril Hare | 1942 |
| The High Window | Raymond Chandler | 1942 |
| Green for Danger | Christianna Brand | 1944 |
| Appleby’s End | Michael Innes | 1945 |
| Murder Among Friends | Elizabeth Ferrars | 1946 |
| The Horizontal Man | Helen Eustis | 1946 |
| The Moving Toyshop | Edmund Crispin | 1946 |
| The Fabulous Clipjoint | Frederick Brown | 1947 |
| The Franchise Affair | Josephine Tey | 1948 |
| Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly | John Franklin Bardin | 1948 |
| More Work for the Undertaker | Margery Allingham | 1948 |
| My Friend Maigret | Georges Simenon | 1949 |
| The Asphalt Jungle | W. R. Burnett | 1949 |
| Smallbone Deceased | Michael Gilbert | 1950 |
| The Stain on the Snow, The Snow Was Black. | Georges Simenon | 1950 |
| The Daughter of Time | Josephine Tey | 1951 |
| Last Seen Wearing… | Hillary Waugh | 1952 |
| The Tiger in the Smoke | Margery Allingham | 1952 |
| Five Roundabouts to Heaven | John Bingham | 1953 |
| The Long Goodbye | Raymond Chandler | 1953 |
| Post Mortem | Guy Cullingford | 1953 |
| The Party at No. 5 | Shelley Smith | 1954 |
| The Talented Mr. Ripley | Patricia Highsmith | 1955 |
| The Beast in View | Margaret Millar | 1955 |
| Gideon’s Week | John Creasey (J. J. Marric) | 1956 |
| Mystery Stories | Stanley Ellin | 1956 |
| Maigret in Court | Georges Simenon | 1960 |
| The New Sonia Wayward | Michael Innes | 1960 |
| Gun Before Butter | Nicholas Freeling | 1963 |
| The Expendable Man | Dorothy Hughes | 1963 |
| Pop. 1280 | Jim Thompson | 1964 |
| R. S. V. P. Murder | E. B. Eberhart | 1966 |
| The Man Who Killed Himself | Julian Symons | 1967 |
| Murder Against the Grain | Emma Lathen | 1967 |
| Roseanna | Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo | 1967 |
| The Last Best Friend | George Sims | 1967 |
| The Glass-Sided Ants’ Nest | Peter Dickinson | 1968 |
| Mr. Splitfoot | Helen McCloy | 1968 |
| The Tremor of Forgery | Patricia Highsmith | 1969 |
| Blind Man With a Pistol | Chester Himes | 1969 |
| Young Man, I Think You're Dying | Joan Fleming | 1970 |
| Beyond This Point are Monsters | Margaret Millar | 1970 |
| Sadie When She Died | Ed McBain | 1972 |
| The Friends of Eddie Coyle | George V. Higgins | 1972 |
| The Players and the Game | Julian Symons | 1972 |
| Mirror, Mirror on the Wall | Stanley Ellin | 1972 |
| Dance Hall of the Dead | Tony Hillerman | 1973 |
| The Poison Oracle | Peter Dickinson | 1974 |
| Fletch | Gregory McDonald | 1974 |
| The Black Tower | P. D. James | 1975 |
| The Long Shadow | Celia Fremlin | 1975 |
| The Naked Nuns or Six Nuns and a Shotgun. | Colin Watson | 1975 |
| The Blue Hammer | Ross Macdonald | 1976 |
| Sleeping Murder | Agatha Christie | 1976 |
| A Death in the Life | Dorothy Salisbury Davis | 1976 |
| The Investigation | Dorothy Uhnak | 1976 |
| A Judgement in Stone | Ruth Rendell | 1977 |
| Laidlaw | William McIlvanney | 1977 |
| Nobody's Perfect | Donald Westlake | 1977 |
| A Pinch of Snuff | Reginald Hill | 1978 |
| Skinflick | Joseph Hansen | 1979 |
| Kill Claudio | P. M. Hubbard | 1979 |
| The Green Ripper | John D. MacDonald | 1979 |
| All On a Summer's Day | John Wainwright | 1981 |
| Death in a Tenured Position | Amanda Cross | 1981 |
| The Glitter Dome | Joseph Wambaugh | 1981 |
| To Make a Killing | June Thomson | 1982 |
| The False Inspector Dew | Peter Lovesey | 1982 |
| The Artful Egg | James McClure | 1984 |