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BOURGEAU'S CLASSIC MYSTERY BOOKS
In his Mystery Lovers Companion of 1986, Art Bourgeau uses a rating scheme of one to five daggers to indicate the quality of the work he lists and briefly describes. The Mystery Lover's Companion reviews and rates some 2500 books. His highest rating, five daggers, is used to indicate “A True Classic.” These Classics are listed below
| 1860 | Wilkie Collins | The Woman in White |
| 1868 | Wilkie Collins | The Moonstone |
| 1878 | Anna Katharine Green | The Leavenworth Case |
| 1886 | Fergus Hume | The Mystery of a Hansom Cab |
| 1894 | Mark Twain | Pudd'nhead Wilson |
| 1905 | Baroness Orczy | The Scarlet Pimpernell |
| 1908 | C.K. Chesterton | The Man Who Was Thursday |
| 1911 | C.K. Chesterton | The Innocence of Father Brown |
| 1913 | E.C. Bentley | Trent's Last Case |
| 1913 | Marie Belloc Lowndes | The Lodger |
| 1914 | C.K. Chesterton | The Wisdom of Father Brown |
| 1915 | John Buchan | The Thirty-Nine Steps |
| 1919 | Christopher Morley | The Haunted Bookshop |
| 1920 | Agatha Christie | The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
| 1920 | E. Phillips Oppenheimer | The Great Impersonation |
| 1922 | A.A. Milne | The Red House Mystery |
| 1925 | John Buchan | John McNab |
| 1925 | Agatha Christie | The Mousetrap |
| 1926 | Agatha Christie | The Murder of Roger Ackroyd |
| 1926 | Earl Derr Biggers | The Chinese Parrot |
| 1927 | S.S. Van Dine | The Canary Murder Case |
| 1927 | P.G. Wodehouse | Meet Mr. Mulliner |
| 1928 | Ronald A. Knox | The Footsteps at the Lock |
| 1928 | S.S. Van Dine | The Greene Murder Case |
| 1929 | Anthony Berkeley | The Poisoned Chocolate Case |
| 1929 | Dashiell Hammett | Red Harvest |
| 1929 | Elery Queen | The Roman Hat Murder |
| 1930 | R. Austin Freeman | Mr. Pottermack's Oversight |
| 1930 | Dashiell Hammett | The Maltese Falcon |
| 1930 | Kenneth Roberts | Arundel |
| 1930 | Dorothy Sayers | Strong Poison |
| 1930 | Raoul Whitfield | Green Ice |
| 1931 | Francis Beeding | Death Walks in Eastrepps |
| 1931 | Maxwell Grant | The Living Shadow |
| 1931 | Maxwell Grant | The Shadow Laughs |
| 1931 | Francis Iles | Malice Aforethought |
| 1931 | Dorothy Sayers | Five Red Herrings |
| 1932 | Earl Derr Biggers | Keeper of the Keys |
| 1932 | C.P. Snow | Death Under Sail |
| 1932 | T.H. White | Darkness at Pemberly |
| 1933 | James Hilton | Was it Murder? |
| 1933 | J.C. Masterman | An Oxford Tragedy |
| 1933 | Kenneth Roberts | Rabble in Arms |
| 1934 | James M. Cain | The Postman Always Rings Twice |
| 1934 | Agatha Christie | Murder on the Orient Express |
| 1934 | Dorothy Sayers | The Nine Tailors |
| 1934 | Rex Stout | Fer-de-Lance |
| 1934 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | The Mystery of Cape Cod Tavern |
| 1934 | Elery Queen | The Chinese Orange Mystery |
| 1934 | P.G. Wodehouse | Thank You, Jeeves |
| 1935 | John Dickson Carr | The Three Coffins |
| 1935 | Ngaio Marsh | Enter a Murderer |
| 1935 | Rex Stout | The League of Frightened Men |
| 1935 | Ethel Lina White | Wax |
| 1936 | Nicholas Blake | Thou Shell of Death |
| 1936 | Nicholas Blake | The Beast Must Die |
| 1936 | Agatha Christie | The ABC Murders |
| 1936 | Graham Greene | This Gun for Hire |
| 1936 | Kenneth Roberts | Northwest Passage |
| 1936 | Ethel Lina White | The Lady Vanishes |
| 1937 | Michael Innes | Hamlet Revenge! |
| 1938 | Daphne DuMaurier | Rebecca |
| 1938 | C.S. Forester | Ship of the Line |
| 1938 | R. Austin Freeman | The Stoneware Monkey |
| 1938 | Michael Innes | Lament for a Maker |
| 1938 | Clayton Rawson | Death from a Top Hat |
| 1938 | P.G. Wodehouse | The Code of the Woosters |
| 1939 | Eric Ambler | A Coffin for Demetrios |
| 1939 | James Hadley Chase | No Orchards for Miss Blandish |
| 1939 | Agatha Christie | And Then There Were None |
| 1939 | Geoffrey Household | Rogue Male |
| 1939 | Eliot Paul | The Mysterious Mickey Finn |
| 1939 | Clayton Rawson | Footprints on the Ceiling |
| 1940 | Kenneth Roberts | Oliver Wiswell |
| 1940 | Cornrll Woolrich | The Bride Wore Black |
| 1941 | James M. Cain | Mildred Pierce |
| 1941 | Richard & Francis Lockridge | A Pinch of Poison |
| 1941 | Cornrll Woolrich | The Black Curtain |
| 1942 | C.S. Forester | Payment Deferred |
| 1942 | Vera Gaspary | Laura |
| 1942 | Helen McCloy | Cue for Murder |
| 1942 | Ellery Queen | Calamity Town |
| 1942 | Cornell Woolrich | The Black Angel |
| 1943 | Raymond Chandler | The Lady in the Lake |
| 1943 | Graham Greene | The Ministry of Fear |
| 1945 | Edmund Crispin | Holy Disorders |
| 1945 | Gladys Mitchell | The Rising of the Moon |
| 1945 | Joel Townley Rogers | The Red Right Hand |
| 1946 | Edmund Crispin | The Moving Toyshop |
| 1946 | Kenneth Fearing | The Big Clock |
| 1946 | Roy Huggins | The Double Take |
| 1946 | Dorothy B. Hughes | Ride the Pink Horse |
| 1946 | Hilda Lawrence | The Pavilion |
| 1948 | John Franklin Bardin | Devil Take the Blue Tail Fly |
| 1948 | Carter Dickson | The Skeleton in the Clock |
| 1948 | Edna Sherry | Sudden Fear |
| 1948 | Mickey Spillane | I, the Jury |
| 1948 | Cornell Woolrich | Rendezvous in Black |
| 1949 | Raymond Chandler | The Little Sister |
| 1949 | Edmund Crispin | Buried for Pleasure |
| 1949 | Ellery Queen | Cat of Many Tails |
| 1950 | Graham Greene | The Third Man |
| 1950 | Patricia Highsmith | Strangers on a Train |
| 1950 | Dorothy B. Hughes | In a Lonely Place |
| 1950 | Mickey Spillane | My Gun Is Quick |
| 1950 | Josephine Tey | To Love and Be Wise |
| 1951 | Josephine Tey | The Daughter of Time |
| 1952 | Margery Allingham | The Tiger in the Smoke |
| 1952 | Rocc Macdonald | The Ivory Green |
| 1952 | Jim Thompson | The Killer Inside Me |
| 1953 | Frederick Brown | Meatball |
| 1953 | Raymond Chandler | The Long Goodbye |
| 1953 | Davis Grubb | The Night of the Hunter |
| 1953 | Ira Levin | A Kiss Before Dying |
| 1954 | Rex Stout | The Black Mountain |
| 1954 | Jim Thompson | A Hell of a Woman |
| 1955 | Herbert Brean | Wilders Walk Away |
| 1955 | Margaret Millar | Beast in View |
| 1956 | Patricia Highsmith | The Talented Mr. Ripley |
| 1956 | Robert Robinson | Landscape for Dead Dons |
| 1958 | Graham Greene | Our Man in Havana |
| 1958 | Robert Traver | Anatomy of a Murder |
| 1959 | Robert Bloch | Psycho |
| 1959 | Philip McDonald | The List of Adrian Messenger |
| 1960 | Geoffrey Household | Watcher in the Shadows |
| 1962 | Lionel Davidson | The Rose of Tibet |
| 1962 | Len Deighton | The Ipcress File |
| !962 | Fletcher & Bailey | Seven Days in May |
| 1962 | Ross Macdonald | The Zebra-Striped Hearse |
| 1962 | Margaret Millar | How Like an Angel |
| 1962 | Arthur W. Upfield | The Will of the Tribe |
| 1963 | John Le Carre | The Spy Who Came in From the Cold |
| 1963 | Alistair MacLean | Ice Station Zebra |
| 1963 | Robert Van Gulik | The Emperor's Pearl |
| 1964 | Len Deighton | Funeral in Berlin |
| 1964 | John Garner | The Liquidator |
| 1964 | Hans Helmut Kirst | The Night of the Generals |
| 1964 | Jane Langton | The Minuteman Murder |
| 1964 | Mary Stewart | This Rough Magic |
| 1964 | Jim Thompson | Pop, 1280 |
| 1964 | David Walker | Winter of Madness |
| 1965 | John Ball | In the Heat of the Night |
| 1965 | L.P. Davies | Who Is Lewis Pinder? |
| 1965 | Adam Hall | The Quiller Memorandum |
| 1965 | Rex Stout | The Doorbell Rang |
| 1966 | Helen MacInnes | The Double Image |
| 1967 | Stanley Hyland | Green Grow the Tresses-O |
| 1967 | Ross Thomas | The Seersucker Whipsaw |
| 1967 | Robert van Gulik | Necklace and Calabash |
| 1968 | Sjowall & Wahloo | The Laughing Policeman |
| 1969 | George MacDonald Fraser | Flashman |
| 1969 | Alistair MacLean | Puppet on a Chain |
| 1969 | Mario Puzo | The Godfather |
| 1969 | Sjowall & Wahloo | The Fire Engine that Disappeared |
| 1970 | Jack Finney | Time and Time Again |
| 1971 | Frederick Forsyth | The Day of the Jackal |
| 1971 | George V. Higgins | The Friends of Eddie Coyle |
| 1971 | Alistair MacLean | Bear Island |
| 1971 | Ross Macdonald | The Underground Man |
| 1972 | David Anthony | Blood on a Harvest Moon |
| 1972 | Victor Canning | The Rainbird Pattern |
| 1972 | Frederick Forsyth | The Odessa File |
| 1972 | Trevanian | The Eiger Sanction |
| 1973 | Robert Littell | The Defection of A.J. Lewinter |
| 1973 | Lawrence Sanders | The First Deadly Sin |
| 1973 | Mark Smith | The Death of the Detective |
| 1973 | Ross Thomas | If You Can't Be Good |
| 1973 | Julian Symons | The Plot Against Roger Ryder |
| 1973 | Trevanian | The Loo Sanction |
| 1974 | Peter Benchley | Jaws |
| 1974 | Frederick Forsyth | The Dogs of War |
| 1974 | John Le Carre | Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy |
| 1974 | John D. MacDonald | The Dreadful Lemon Sky |
| 1974 | Anthony Price | Other Paths to Glory |
| 1974 | Joseph Wambaugh | The Onion Field |
| 1975 | Jack Higgins | The Eagle Has Landed |
| 1975 | William Gardner | A Big Enough Wreath |
| 1975 | Tony Kenrick | Stealing Lilian |
| 1975 | Wilbur Smith | The Eye of the Tiger |
| 1976 | Thomas Gifford | The Cavanaugh Quest |
| 1976 | Ira Levin | The Boys from Brazil |
| 1976 | Nan & Ivan Lyons | Someone Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe |
| 1976 | Arthur Morrison | Best Martin Hewitt Detective Stories |
| 1976 | Wilbur Smith | Cry Wolf |
| 1977 | George MacDonald Fraser | Flashman's Lady |
| 1977 | Brian Freemantle | Charlie M. |
| 1977 | George Hart | The Punch and Judy Murders |
| 1977 | Ruth Rendell | A Judgement in Stone |
| 1978 | Desmond Bagley | Flyaway |
| 1978 | James Crumley | The Last Good Kiss |
| 1978 | Ken Follett | The Eye of the Needle |
| 1978 | Irving & Bukholz | The Death Freak |
| 1978 | La Rosa & Tannenbaum | The Random Factor |
| 1979 | William Gardner | The Mobius Strip |
| 1979 | Trevanian | Shibumi |
| 1980 | Collins & LaPierre | The Fifth Horseman |
| 1980 | Michael Crichton | Congo |
| 1980 | Peter Fox | Mantis |
| 1980 | George MacDonald Fraser | Mr. American |
| 1981 | David Gurr | A Woman Called Scylla |
| 1981 | Ann Perry | Paragon Walk |
| 1981 | Thomas Harris | Red Dragon |
| 1982 | W. R. Duncan | The Queen's Messenger |
| 1982 | Dick Francis | Twice Shy |
| 1982 | Duff Hart-Davis | The Heights of Rimring |
| 1983 | Joe McGinniss | Fatal Vision |
| 1984 | Dorothy Dunnett | Dolly and the Bird of Paradise |
| 1984 | Duncan Kyle | The King's Commissar |
| 1984 | Raymond Paul | The Tragedy at Tiverton |
| 1984 | Ross Thomas | Briarpatch |
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