A Catalogue of Crime

This is the most beat-up book in my library. In fact, I have opened & closed this book so many times that one of the middle signatures fell out and got lost (pp. 417-438). I had to photocopy the missing pages from the public library and stick them back in. I always consult it whenever I've read a

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mystery, to check my opinion against Barzun & Taylor's thumbnail review. And we disagree, often. What they seem to like best is narrative thrust and cumulative suspense. And that's not always what I read mysteries for. One very odd thing: They have an inventory of the 100 "classics of crime" (actually two sets of 50 each, one pre-1950, one post-1950 until 1975.) These are all designated by a star in the catalog. Yet, in reading the little critical precis for many of these "classics", it's hard to understand why they were singled out. Just an example -- [Death and Letters] by Elizabeth Daly. Here's the entire critique: "This is a well-organized and appropriately atmospheric novel about a woman kept under drugs and restraint in a big Hudson River family mansion. Gamadge {the detective} does a good job of work, and there are no embarassing episodes of spiritualism or bibliomania to spoil a standard plot". Hardly a candidate for one of the 100 best of all time, would you think?

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