R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Just a few months back, Rap Sheet contributors were complaining (see here and here) that a New York Times selection of the best American novels published over the last quarter century didn’t include so much as one work of crime fiction. It seems that British authors and critics take a more respectful view of this genre.

“On the eve of this year’s Booker Prize,” explains The Observer, “we asked 150 literary luminaries to vote for the best British, Irish or Commonwealth novel from 1980 to 2005. How they defined ‘best’ was up to them ...” Although none of the top-10 choices fall within the boundaries of mystery and crime lit, a pair of other nominees--John le Carré’s A Perfect Spy (1986) and Derek Raymond’s I Was Dora Suarez (1990)--certainly do, and Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang (2000) can be fit beneath the crime-fiction rubric without bending or twisting of any extraordinary sort.

Read The Observer’s whole list of picks here.