Top 30 Mystery authors

Today's Blog/Website of the Day is At Home With a Good Book and a Cat ... found at http://misfitandmom.livejournal.com/.

So there's a thread going on over at 4MA about one's 30 Favorite (Mystery) authors. I've resisted so far because I'm sure it changes every day. And what does "favorite" mean in creating this list? Does it mean pure enjoyment regardless of merit or does it mean a list of the authors that one deems to be the best writers of the genre? Are they favorites because they have new books coming out soon or just recently therefore I have more of a warm fuzzy feeling about them than others? Do they go on the list for a body of work or just one good one? Or for one series he/she wrote but not another? What about authors who aren't writing anymore -- should I limit it to current ones? And who cares what I think? My list, of course, will have a preponderance of historical mystery writers because that is my preferred sub-genre. Oh, never mind, let's give it try.

1. CJ Sansom


2. Alan Gordon


3. Ellis Peters


4. Margaret Frazer


5. CS Harris


6. JD Robb


7. Deanna Raybourn


8. Arianna Franklin


9. Susanna Gregory


10. Susan Hill


11. Bernard Knight


12. Deryn Lake


13. Peter Robinson


14. Tasha Alexander


15. Laurie R. King


16. Steig Larsson


17. Val McDermid


18. Karen Maitland


19. Daniel Hecht


20. Michael Jecks


21. Michael Connelly


22. Reginald Hill


23. Candace Robb


24. Will Thomas


25. Ruth Dudley Edwards


26. Julia Spencer-Fleming


27. David Liss


28. Anne Perry (Monk)


29. Elizabeth George


30. Stephen Martin

This was actually very difficult. I've spent way too much time on this list. I've added and deleted a lot of names. Some because I think they're good but I haven't gotten around to reading a bunch like Ian Rankin, some because I think they are top writers like Sayers and Christie or Lawrence Block because I haven't read recently. I haven't even gotten to the Roman histmysts so I can't list them. Some are authors that I've just started reading and I know there's a lot in the series so they are favorable in my view right now. Some not included I like a lot but they don't have "heft" enough yet. It may have been easier to do a list of 10 or 20. Thirty gives too much leeway. I could still swap out about five names and still not be satisfied.

One noticeable thing when I was looking through my black book of things I've read, there's a lot of authors I've enjoyed over even the past five years who are writing anymore. How sad.

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster