For a follow-up to our Agatha and Anthony-award winning collections of essays, 100 FAVORITE MYSTERIES OF THE CENTURY (2000) and THEY DIED IN VAIN: OVERLOOKED, UNDERAPPRECIATED AND FORGOTTEN MYSTERY NOVELS (2003), we asked 100 mystery writers: Did a mystery set you on your path to being a writer? Is there a classic mystery that remains important to you today? Find their answers in: MYSTERY MUSES: 100 CLASSICS THAT INSPIRE TODAY'S MYSTERY WRITERS.

Introduction

7

(2)

Rob Kantner on ``The Cask of the Amontillado''

9

(2)

Edgar Allan Poe

Karen Harper on ``The Tell-Tale Heart''

11

(2)

Edgar Allan Poe

Nancy Means Wright on The Moonstone

13

(2)

Wilkie Collins

David Thurlo on ``The Speckled Band''

15

(2)

Arthur Conan Doyle

Donna Andrews on The Red Thumb Mark

17

(2)

R. Austin Freeman

Michael Lister on The Innocence of Father Brown

19

(3)

G. K. Chesterton

Betty Webb on The Mysterious Affair at Styles

22

(2)

Agatha Christie

Kerry Greenwood on The Three Hostages

24

(2)

John Buchan

Valerie Wolzien on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

26

(2)

Agatha Christie

Ted Hertel, Jr. on The Tower Treasure

28

(2)

Franklin W. Dixon

Sharan Newman on The Poet and the Lunatics

30

(2)

G.K. Chesterton

Jan Burke on Red Harvest

32

(2)

Dashiell Hammett

Dean James on Mystery Mile

34

(2)

Margery Allingham

Katherine Hall Page on Murder at the Vicarage

36

(2)

Agatha Christie

Aaron Elkins on The Complete Sherlock Holmes

38

(2)

Arthur Conan Doyle

Michael A. Black on The Maltese Falcon

40

(3)

Dashiell Hammett

Kate Flora on Strong Poison

43

(2)

Dorothy L. Sayers

Mark Richard Zubro on Freddy the Detective

45

(2)

Walter R. Brooks

Margaret Maron on Have His Carcase

47

(2)

Dorothy L. Sayers

P.M. Carlson on The Fear Sign

49

(2)

Margery Allingham

Elaine Viets on The Sign of the Twisted Candles

51

(2)

Carolyn Keene

Sharon Fiffer on Murder Must Advertise

53

(2)

Dorothy L. Sayers

Laura Lippman on The Postman Always Rings Twice

55

(2)

James M. Cain

Barbara D'Amato on Murder on the Orient Express

57

(3)

Agatha Christie

Edward Hoch on The Chinese Orange Mystery

60

(1)

Ellery Queen

Sally Wright on The Nine Tailors

61

(3)

Dorothy L. Sayers

Gillian Roberts on Fer-de-Lance

64

(2)

Rex Stout

Dick Lochte on The Saint in New York

66

(2)

Leslie Charteris

Parnell Hall on The Case of the Counterfeit Eye

68

(2)

Erle Stanley Gardner

Jeanne M. Dams on Gaudy Night

70

(2)

Dorothy L. Sayers

Valerie S. Malmont on The Burning Court

72

(2)

John Dickson Carr

Roberta Gellis on Busman's Honeymoon

74

(3)

Dorothy L. Sayers

Linda Fairstein on Rebecca

77

(2)

Daphne du Maurier

Nicholas Kilmer on Lament for a Maker

79

(2)

Michael Innes

Jon L. Breen on Dance of Death

81

(3)

Helen McCloy

Lyn Hamilton on The Mask of Dimitrios

84

(2)

Eric Ambler

William Kent Krueger on The Big Sleep

86

(2)

Raymond Chandler

Tony Perona on And Then There Were None

88

(2)

Agatha Christie

Nancy Pickard on Double Indemnity

90

(2)

James M. Cain

Carole Nelson Douglas on Miss Pym Disposes

92

(2)

Josephine Tey

Hazel Holt on The Franchise Affair

94

(2)

Josephine Tey

Carolyn Wheat on Cat of Many Tails

96

(2)

Ellery Queen

Carola Dunn on Brat Farrar

98

(2)

Josephine Tey

K.j.a. Wishnia on Trouble is My Business

100

(2)

Raymond Chandler

Jeffrey Marks on A Murder is Announced

102

(2)

Agatha Christie

Peter Lovesey on Strangers on a Train

104

(2)

Patricia Highsmith

Susan Oleksiw on They Came to Baghdad

106

(2)

Agatha Christie

Bill Crider on The Big Kill

108

(2)

Mickey Spillane

Candace Robb on The Daughter of Time

110

(2)

Josephine Tey

Stephanie Kane on The Killer Inside Me

112

(2)

Jim Thompson

Mary Anna Evans on The Caves of Steel

114

(3)

Isaac Asimov

Terence Faherty on The Beckoning Lady

117

(2)

Margery Allingham

Ann Granger on Scales of Justice

119

(2)

Ngaio Marsh

Carl Brookins on Strip for Murder

121

(2)

Richard S. Prather

Marcia Talley on The Door Into Summer

123

(2)

Robert Heinlein

Roberta Isleib on The Pink Motel

125

(2)

Carol Ryrie Brink

Philip R. Craig on Watcher in the Shadows

127

(2)

Geoffrey Household

JoAnna Carl on Death and the Joyful Woman

129

(2)

Ellis Peters

Eileen Dreyeron The Ivy Tree

131

(2)

Mary Stewart

Kit Ehrman on Dead Cert

133

(2)

Dick Francis

Monette Michaels on The Moonspinners

135

(2)

Mary Stewart

Michael Jecks on The Night of the Generals

137

(2)

H.H. Kirst

Sharon Short on Harriet the Spy

139

(2)

Louise Fitzhugh

Dick Cady on The Chill

141

(2)

Ross Macdonald

Gary D. Phillips on Pop. 1280

143

(3)

Jim Thompson

Michael Allen Dymmoch on Odds Against

146

(1)

Dick Francis

Sam Hill on Darker Than Amber

147

(3)

John D. MacDonald

Jeffrey Cohen on Secret Agents Four

150

(1)

Donald J. Sobol

Judith Skillings on The Photogenic Soprano

151

(2)

Dorothy Dunnett

Sandra Balzo on Ammie, Come Home

153

(3)

Barbara Michaels

Mary Welk on Murder to Go by Emma Lathen

156

(2)

Michael Z. Lewin on

The Goodbye Look

158

(2)

Ross Macdonald

Rhys Bowen on The Blessing Way

160

(2)

Tony Hillerman

Zoe Sharp on The Day of the Jackal

162

(2)

Frederick Forsyth

Frankie Y. Bailey on Murder in the Walls

164

(2)

Richard Martin Stern

Sarah Stewart Taylor on An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

166

(2)

P.D. James

Jeremiah Healy on The Godwulf Manuscript

168

(2)

Robert B. Parker

John Lescroart on The First Deadly Sin

170

(3)

Lawrence Sanders

Dan Fesperman on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

173

(2)

John le Carre

Sandra Tooley on Salem's Lot

175

(2)

Stephen King

Ed Gorman on Buyer Beware

177

(1)

John Lutz

M.J. Rose on A Judgement in Stone

178

(2)

Ruth Rendell

Joanne Pence on Compromising Positions

180

(3)

Susan Isaacs

Elizabeth Gunn on The Empty Copper Sea

183

(2)

John D. MacDonald

J.A. Konrath on The Judas Goat

185

(1)

Robert B. Parker

Toni L.P. Kelner on The Tightrope Walker

186

(3)

Dorothy Gilman

Beverle Graves Myers on The Name of the Rose

189

(2)

Umberto Eco

Libby Fischer Hellmann on Briarpatch

191

(2)

Ross Thomas

Julie A. Hyzy on C is for Corpse

193

(2)

Sue Grafton

Jan Brogan on Presumed Innocent

195

(2)

Scott Turow

Colin Cotterill on The Silence of the Lambs

197

(2)

Thomas Harris

Phil Dunlap on A Thief of Time

199

(2)

Tony Hillerman

Harley Jane Kozak on The Eight

201

(2)

Katherine Neville

Carolyn Haines on Black Cherry Blues

203

(1)

James Lee Burke

Tim Cockey on Time's Witness

204

(3)

Michael Malone

Twist Phelan on Bootlegger's Daughter

207

(2)

Margaret Maron

Lea Wait on She Walks These Hills

209

(2)

Sharyn McCrumb

Larry D. Sweazy on Breakheart Hill

211

(2)

Thomas Cook

Pari Noskin Taichert on What's the Worst That Could Happen?

213

(2)

Donald E. Westlake

Michael Koryta on Gone, Baby, Gone

215

(3)

Dennis Lehane

Index

218

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Introduction What inspires a mystery writer? We asked 100 published writers: _Did a mystery set you on your path to being a writer? Is there a classic mystery that remains important to you today?_ This book, a follow-up to our two previous collections of essays, 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century (2000) and They Died in Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated and Forgotten Mystery Novels (2002), is the result. The writers we contacted represent the entire spectrum of the mystery genre, from cozy to hardboiled, from acclaimed veterans to some of the field_s most intriguing newcomers. Young or old, each of these writers reminds us of a basic truism: great writers are great readers first. Their essays reveal the extent to which the discovery of these seminal texts was not just literary inspiration but a life-altering event. We found it especially endearing to see how often contributors referred not just to a book_s text but to its literal form as well: a particular copy of a particular edition. We are reminded that the power of the printed word derives in part from the fact that it is printed and bound, fixed in both time and place. In these essays, we_re also reminded of the power of the genre itself. For many writers, their classics represent more than just a bar against which to measure their own work, they inspired a new way to look at the landscape of literature. These writers represent several generations of mystery lovers, and the classics they cite represent every era of the mystery story, from the 1840s to the 1990s. We_ve arranged these essays in the order of the publication of the classics they cover, from Edgar Allan Poe_s _The Cask of the Amontillado_ to Dennis Lehane_s Gone, Baby, Gone. This chronological arrangement offers something of a history of the genre, and reveals that the virtues of early crime stories are not necessarily the same as what we admire in more recent work. It_s striking how many of the classics covered are newer. Fifty essays cover books published in 1952 and earlier. Fifty essays cover books published since 1954. Can a book that_s just 25 years old be considered a classic? Just 10 years old? Our position is simple: just because a book was published recently doesn_t mean it didn_t influence someone. The power of a story doesn_t derive from its age; it_s in the story itself, and its reader. If genre truly is _a conversation among texts,_ as science fiction editor David Hartwell has written, we hope that Mystery Muses will become part of the conversation. These essays are not just about 100 beloved books. They are just as much about 100 of the genre_s finest current practitioners, writers who respect the past and who continue to be inspired by classics as they define the future of the mystery story. -- Jim Huang & Austin Lugar