“I keep saying ‘where’s the body? Kill someone,’” Marilyn Stasio told us in the latest episode of Criminal. She reads at least 200 crime novels a year to determine which are worthy of her prestigious “Crime Column” in the New York Times Book Review. We spoke with her about crime as entertainment — and why people are so addicted to the genre that she can’t stay away from: “My fingers just itch when I see something that’s says ‘murder.’”
Her favorite Agatha Christie novel is The Murderous Affair at Styles (the book in which Christie introduced the world to her famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot). But Stasio says her all-time favorite crime novel is The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins. Listen to the full conversation here.
We asked our listeners to send in their favorite crime novels, which we’re listing here. Add yours in the comments below. Happy puzzling!
CRIMINAL LISTENERS RECOMMEND:
Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham
Blaze by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
The Naturals (series) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Trent’s Last Case by Edmund C. Bentley
Minute for Murder by Nicholas Blake
The Burglar in the Rye by Lawrence Block
The Face On The Cutting-Room Floor by Ernest Borneman writing as Cameron McCabe (true crime)
The Cat Who… (series) by Lilian Jackson Braun
The Sacred Art of Stealing by Christopher Brookmyre
And The Sea Will Tell by Vincent Bugliosi and Bruce Henderson
Tin Roof Blowdown by James Burke
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (true crime)
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Poirot & Marple (series) by Agatha Christie
The Girl on the Volkswagen Floor by William A. Clark
Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Glimpses of the Moon by Edmund Crispin
Inspector Morse (series) by Colin Dexter
The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
White Jazz by James Ellroy
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
The Collector by John Fowles
High Stakes by Dick Francis
Dublin Murder Squad (series) by Tana French
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
Zodiac by Robert Graysmith (true crime)
That Affair Next Door by Anna Katharine Green
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Who Guards the Prince? by Reginald Hill
Mortal Fear by Greg Iles
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by Phyllis D. James
Bags of Bones by Stephen King
Intensity by Dean Koontz
The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The False Inspection Dew by Peter Lovesey
One Step Behind by Henning Mankell
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
The City & the City by China Miéville
All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda
Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell
The Case of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart
In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson
The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
Eyes of Prey by John Sandford
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
Les Sept Jours du Talion by Patrick Senécal (no English translation of the book though, so that was probably suggested by a francophone…)
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
Nero Wolfe (series) by Rex Stout
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
A Dark Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine
A Dark Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine
The Billionaire’s Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace
Leave Her to Heaven by Ben Ames Williams
Inspector Jack Frost (series) by Rodney D. Wingfield
Authors suggested for “anything by…” include Michael Connelly, Tana French, Joe Lansdale, Louise Penny, Dorothy L. Sayers.
