From: SSBM_Guy | #035
Isaac Asimov - The Naked Sun
Agatha Christie - And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie - Black Coffee
Agatha Christie - Cat Among the Pigeons
John Dickson Carr - The Three Coffins
And I got two kind of mystery novel encyclopedia-like books that another site recommended: H. Douglas Thomson - Masters of Mystery and Francis M. Nevins - The Mystery Writer's Art. I also got the .pdf of The Benson Murder Case. I'm currently reading through The Naked Sun and it's pretty damn good.
Awww yeah. I've read Masters of Mystery and while it's good, be careful. If I recall correctly there are tons of spoilers here and there. It's a bit of a study of mystery history citing the Golden Age/Harboiled history and how the genre evolved, and citing some books as stop points in the genre generally brings some spoilers. It's pretty well written, though it has a mistake or two.
...You know when you spend far too much time in a hobby when you can tell that an analysis book is incorrect.
Uh any case, don't have Mystery Writer's Art so let me know what you think of it. The Three Coffins is by far my favorite of the ones you cited above.
From: shadosneko | #037
I read a little bit of the Benson Murder Case
I want to keep reading, but I forget that I'm in the middle of reading it until it's too late for me to want to read any more of it.
I'll finish it eventually.
Aw yeah. A funny thing about Benson/Van Dine novels is how Vance is more well liked by younger(25 or younger) readers than older readers. This is probably because this generation has a bit more of a liking towards dicks, and Vance is the ultimate dick.
Keep us updated on what you are thinking of the story so far.
Also if anybody cares I'll do some trivia explaining why Van Dine novels are so important to the mystery genre.
From: MrGreenonion | #038
Tell No One by Harlan Coben
He's written a ton of other mystery-thrillers but that one's probably the best. And they are all a little samey after a while so you might as well start with the best one.
Never read this one. How good is his plotting? Is it the "fair" kind or the "SURPRISE" at you kind? I'm cool with either way, though I have a preference for the former.