John Dickson Carr’s 10 Best Detective Novels

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Originally posted June 3, 2024.

The Wikipedia page for The Lamp of God by Ellery Queen mentions that it is “included by the mystery writer John Dickson Carr in his list of the ten best mystery stories ever written.” Naturally I wondered: what are the other nine? The thing was, though, the list didn’t seem to be transcribed. Anywhere. And when I went a-googling, the only other novel described as one of JDC’s “ten best” was The Greene Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.

To the source, then! The “list” is actually the essay ‘The Grandest Game in the World,’ originally written in 1946, and which is reprinted in the collection The Door to Doom—specifically the 1991 edition. Dickson Carr is quick to clarify that these are not the best novels, rather some of the best novels—this was originally supposed to be the introduction to an anthology that never happened.

The essay itself doesn’t summarize the novels in an ordered list, rather discussing the significance of the ten authors to the genre, and how certain novels best exemplify the techniques pioneered by their creator. The seventeen-years-later author’s note in the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine version of the essay also suggests some alternate titles for a few authors. But here are the “ten best” in the original piece, in list form:

  1. The Valley of Fear (1915) by Arthur Conan Doyle
  2. The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907) by Gaston Leroux
  3. At the Villa Rose (1910) by A.E.W. Mason [1]
  4. Death on the Nile (1937) by Agatha Christie
  5. The Lamp of God (1935) by Ellery Queen [2]
  6. The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) by Anthony Berkeley
  7. The Greene Murder Case (1928) by S.S. Van Dine
  8. Murder Gone Mad (1931) by Philip MacDonald [3]
  9. The League of Frightened Men (1937) by Rex Stout
  10. Strong Poison (1930) by Dorothy L. Sayers [4]

The unabridged version of the essay actually goes into a discussion of the authors’ writing technique and the rationale for each inclusion, which I found the most interesting part. There’s some genre history I was completely unaware of, and analysis of what makes each writer tick. On the other hand, Dickson Carr’s biases are on full display here (some of what he says doesn’t even line up with his later expressed opinions), so keep that in mind if you seek it out.

There were also two omissions purely for reasons of length: G.K. Chesterton, who never wrote a detective novel (although ‘The Invisible Man’ is brought up a few times) and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins for being too long for an anthology.

[1] Per the afterword, Mason’s best could alternatively be represented by The House of the Arrow (1924).

[2] Alternatively The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934).

[3] Alternatively The Rasp (1924).

[4] Weirdly enough, the afterword suggests that Strong Poison wasn’t the original pick (that Sayers would be “better represented […] by Strong Poison“) even though it’s specifically named for inclusion in the essay. I’m not sure if this is a mistake or a joke. (Some-time-later author’s note: it was a mistake, as Dickson Carr seems to have believed that the book he originally chose was The Nine Tailors.)

 

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