SYMONS’ 100 BEST CRIME STORIES
Julian Symons was awarded the British Crime Writer's Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement, named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, served as President of the Detection Club in London and was a distinguished critic of the mystery genre. In 1957-58, Julian Symons selected the 100 Best Crime Stories for the London Sunday Times. That list follows.
 Caleb Williams | William Godwin | 1794 |
| Tales of Mystery and Imagination | Edgar Allan Poe | 1845 |
| The Woman in White | Wilkie Collins | 1860 |
| Uncle Silas | Sheridan Le Fanu | 1864 |
| The Moonstone | Wilkie Collins | 1868 |
| The Mystery of Edwin Drood | Charles Dickens | 1870 |
| The New Arabian Nights | Robert Louis Stevenson | 1882 |
| Crime and Punishment | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1886 |
| The Mystery of Orcival | Emile Gaboriau | 1887 |
| The Mystery of a Hansom Cab | Fergus Hume | 1887 |
| The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1894 |
| The Three Impostors | Arthur Machen | 1895 |
| Raffles | E. W. Hornung | 1899 |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1902 |
| The Thinking Machine | Jacques Futrelle | 1907 |
| The Seven of Hearts | Maurice Leblanc | 1907 |
| The Mystery of the Yellow Room | Gaston Leroux | 1909 |
| The Old Man in the Corner | Baroness Orczy | 1909 |
| At the Villa Rose | A. E. W. Mason | 1910 |
| The Innocence of Father Brown | G. K. Chesterton | 1911 |
| The Singing Bone | R. Austin Freeman | 1912 |
| Trent’s Last Case | E. C. Bentley | 1913 |
| Max Carrados | Ernest Bramah | 1914 |
| The Thirty-Nine Steps | John Buchan | 1915 |
| Bull-Dog Drummond | Sapper | 1920 |
| The Crimson Circle | Edgar Wallace | 1922 |
| The Red House Mystery | A. A. Milne | 1922 |
| The Pit-Prop Syndicate | Freeman Wills Crofts | 1922 |
| The House of the Arrow | A. E. W. Mason | 1924 |
| The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | Agatha Christie | 1926 |
| Payment Deferred | C. S. Forester | 1926 |
| The Greene Murder Case | S. S. Van Dine | 1928 |
| The Bellamy Trial | Frances Noyes Hart | 1928 |
| Ashenden | W. Somerset Maugham | 1928 |
| The Poisoned Chocolates Case | Anthony Berkeley | 1929 |
| Mr. Fortune Speaking | H. C. Bailey | 1929 |
| The Pleasantries of Old Quong | Thomas Burke | 1931 |
| The Glass Key | Dashiell Hammett | 1931 |
| Sanctuary | William Faulkner | 1931 |
| Malice Aforethought | Francis Iles | 1931 |
| Above the Dark Circus | Hugh Walpole | 1931 |
| The Greek Coffin Mystery | Ellery Queen | 1932 |
| Murder Must Advertise | Dorothy L. Sayers | 1933 |
| The Wheel Spins | Ethel Lina White | 1933 |
| Death of a Ghost | Margery Allingham | 1934 |
| The Postman Always Rings Twice | James M. Cain | 1934 |
| A Pin to See the Peep-Show | F. Tennyson Jesse | 1934 |
| Fer-de-Lance | Rex Stout | 1934 |
| The Adventures of Ellery Queen | Ellery Queen | 1935 |
| We, the Accused | Ernest Raymond | 1935 |
| Gaudy Night | Dorothy L. Sayers | 1935 |
| The Hollow Man | John Dickson Carr | 1935 |
| The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece | Erle Stanley Gardner | 1936 |
| A Gun For Sale | Graham Greene | 1936 |
| Hamlet, Revenged! | Michael Innes | 1937 |
| The Lady in the Morgue | Jonathan Latimer | 1937 |
| Rebecca | Daphne du Maurier | 1938 |
| The Nursemaid Who Disappeared (Warrant for X) | Philip Mac Donald | 1938 |
| The Mask of Demetrios | Eric Ambler | 1939 |
| Rogue Male | Geoffrey Household | 1939 |
| Overture to Death | Ngaio Marsh | 1939 |
| Verdict of Twelve | Raymonmd Postgate | 1940 |
| Hangover Square | Patrick Hamilton | 1941 |
| Never Come Back | John Mair | 1941 |
| Tragedy at Law | Cyril Hare | 1942 |
| The High Window | Raymond Chandler | 1943 |
| The Lodger | Georges Simenon | 1943 |
| Laura | Vera Caspary | 1944 |
| Death Comes as the End | Agatha Christie | 1945 |
| Phantom Lady | William Irish | 1945 |
| The Moving Toyshop | Edmund Crispin | 1946 |
| The Horizontal Man | Helen Eustis | 1946 |
| The Big Clock | Kenneth Fearing | 1947 |
| A Case to Answer or One More Unfortunate | Edgar Lustgarten | 1947 |
| Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly | John Franklin Bardin | 1948 |
| With My Little Eye | Roy Fuller | 1948 |
| The Department of Dead Ends | Roy Vickers | 1949 |
| Mischief | Charlotte Armstrong | 1950 |
| Cat and Mouse | Christianna Brand | 1950 |
| The Asphalt Jungle | W. R. Burnett | 1950 |
| Smallbone Deceased | Michael Gilbert | 1950 |
| Venetian Bird | Victor Canning | 1951 |
| Maigret in Montmartre | Georges Simenon | 1951 |
| The Daughter of Time | Josephine Tey | 1951 |
| My Name is Michael Sibley | John Bingham | 1952 |
| Reputation for a Song | Edward Grierson | 1952 |
| The Long Goodbye | Raymond Chandler | 1953 |
| The Ivory Grin | John Ross Macdonald | 1953 |
| Last Seen Wearing… | Hillary Waugh | 1953 |
| A Kiss Before Dying | Ira Levin | 1954 |
| The Man Who Didn’t Fly | Margot Bennett | 1955 |
| The Man From the Sea | Michael Innes | 1955 |
| A Beast in View | Margaret Millar | 1955 |
| The Man With Two Wives | Patrick Quentin | 1955 |
| A Tangled Web | Nicholas Blake | 1956 |
| The Blunderer | Patricia Highsmith | 1956 |
| The Lord Have Mercy | Shelley Smith | 1956 |
| Mystery Stories | Stanley Ellin | 1957 |
| From Russia With Love | Ian Fleming | 1957 |
| Compulsion | Meyer Levin | 1957 |