From Ed Gorman’s Blog (2010; revised 2017)
This list originally appeared on Ed Gorman’s Blog on August 31, 2010. At the time, Ed wrote: “In addition to being both a fine novelist and short story writer as well as a very perceptive critic, Dick’s list is especially interesting to me because he includes novels I’ve never seen on any other list before. And now I want to read or re-read them. Keep (clicking) after the Top 20 Novels because Dick gets into movies and tv. Cool stuff. “
It’s still cool stuff, and Dick’s still the man. In 2017, he even added a few notes to his original choices.
In alphabetical order (limiting myself to one per author, or Chandler, Hammett and Macdonald would use up the 20).
- Goodey’s Last Stand by Charles E. Alverson (Joe Goodey)
- Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block (Matt Scudder)
- The Taste of Ashes by Howard Browne (Paul Pine)
- The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe)
- L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais (Elvis Cole)
- The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley (C.W. Sughrue)
- The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin (Murray Kirk)
- The Rainy City by Earl W. Emerson (Thomas Black)
- Every Brilliant Eye by Loren Estleman (Amos Walker)
- Dead Skip by Joe Gores (Dan Kearney & Associates)
- K Is For Killer by Sue Grafton (Kinsey Millhone)
- The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade)
- Hard Trade by Arthur Lyons (Jacob Asch)
- The Way Some People Die by Ross Macdonald (Lew Archer)
- Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (Easy Rawlins)
- Trace by Warren Murphy (Devlin “Trace” Tracy)
- The Judas Goat by Robert B. Parker (Spenser)
- Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker (Joe Trona)
- The Open Shadow by Brad Solomon (Fritz Thieringer & Maggie McGuane)
- Day of Wrath by Jonathan Valin (Harry Stoner)
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Robert Randisi’s PI Survey Results (1997)
PWA founder Randisi’s own personal P.I. Series & P.I. Novel Survey Results from the Spring of 1997, which he conducted on rec.arts.mystery. The results — and some of Randisi’s comments — are pretty interesting. - 100 Eyes of The Mystery Scene Era (2007)
My personal look back at the eyes who I felt had left their mark on the shamus game since Mystery Scene first hit the streets in 1985, published in conjunction with Mystery Scene’s 100 issue in 2007.
