The Crime Life List

This is the last day for readers to nominate books for The Rap Sheet’s list of “crime, mystery, and thriller novels that every fan of this genre should be sure to read before he or she dies.” We’ve had a splendid turnout so far, with nominations coming in for James Ellroy’s American Tabloid, Ruth Rendell’s A Judgment in Stone, Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, Geoffrey Household’s Rogue Male, Val McDermid’s A Place of Execution, Dorothy B. Hughes’ In a Lonely Place, and so many, many more. While I don’t expect the finished list to include everything and anything, I do want it not to miss books that are truly remarkable. So if there are any that you think deserve to be included on our rundown, and you aren’t sure whether they’ve been suggested yet, please do put their names in yourself.

All you need to do to is e-mail the title and author of the book you’re nominating, plus two or three sentences explaining why you think it deserves a place on our list, to jpwrites@wordcuts.org. And in the subject line, please type “Book List.”

After all of the suggestions have been made, I shall enlist the help of several contributors to The Rap Sheet and other experts in the crime-fiction field, and narrow down the long-list to those books we can all agree are essential reading. That may take some time, as all of us are busy; but I think it’s more important to get the list right than to complete it expeditiously. We will, of course, publicize the results, probably in the form of several posts put up here over a given period of time.

For now, the important thing is to let your opinions be heard. Which books and authors do you think should be included? We look forward to receiving your e-mail.