Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones

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About this list

Murder For Pleasure (Book), 180 Books

A list of "cornerstone" detective novels first published by editor and publisher Howard Haycraft in 1941 book "Murder For Pleasure", and later updated by Ellery Queen in the '50s.

This list was originally published in 1955 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
3378 Zadig Voltaire 1747 French French
757 The Adventures of Caleb Williams William Godwin 1794 British English
15916 Memoirs De Vidocq Francois Eugene Vidocq 1828 French French
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
121 Bleak House Charles Dickens 1852 British English
15916 Recollections Of A Detective Police Officer William Russell Waters 1856 British English
139 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
40 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1862 French French
15916 The Widow Lerouge Émile Gaboriau 1866 French French
15916 The Dead Letter Seeley Regester 1866 American English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
15916 File No 13 Émile Gaboriau 1867 French French
393 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins 1868 British English
15916 The Mystery Of Orcival Émile Gaboriau 1866 French English
14719 Monsieur Lecoq Émile Gaboriau 1869 French French
1789 The Mystery Of Edwin Drood Charles Dickens 1870 British English
17164 Old Sleuth, The Detective Harlan Page Halsey 2014 American English
17164 The Expressman And The Detective Allan Pinkerton 2004 American English
5319 The Leavenworth Case Anna Katharine Green 1878 American English
5863 The New Arabian Nights Robert Louis Stevenson 1882 Scottish English
218 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
17164 The Mystery Of A Hansom Cab Fergus Hume 2006 Australian English
15916 Sherlock Holmes, Volume I Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 British English
15916 The Big Bow Mystery Israel Zangwill 1895 British English
2124 The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1892 British English
14767 The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1893 British English
15916 Martin Hewitt, Investigator Arthur Morrison 1894 British English
2445 Pudd'nhead Wilson Mark Twain 1894 American English
15916 Prince Zaleski M. P. Shiel 1895 British English
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
14788 The Amateur Cracksman E. W. Hornung 1899 British English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
831 Riddle of the Sands Erskine Childers 1903 British English
14782 Return Of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1905 British English
2435 The Scarlet Pimpernel Baroness Emmuska Orczy 1905 British English
16552 The Triumphs Of Eugene Valmont Robert Barr 1906 British English
16552 Tracks In The Snow Godfrey Rathbone Benson 1906 British English
16646 The Red Thumb Mark R Austin Freeman 1907 British English
14788 The Thinking Machine Jacques Futrelle 1905 American English
16646 Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Cambrioleur Maurice Leblanc 1907 French French
2531 The Mystery Of The Yellow Room Gaston Leroux 1907 French French
470 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
2735 The Circular Staircase Mary Roberts Rinehart 1908 American English
17164 The Mystery Of Dr Fu Manchu Rohmer Sax 1913 British English
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
16809 The Gentle Grafter O. Henry 1908 American English
16809 The Perfume Of The Woman In Black Gaston Leroux 1908 French French
16809 The Old Man In The Corner Baroness Emmuska Orczy 1908 British English
17164 The Clue Carolyn Welles 1909 Unknown English
17164 John Thorndyke's Cases R Austin Freeman 1909 British English
17164 Through The Wall Cleveland Moffett 1909 American English
17164 813 Maurice Leblanc 1910 French French
17164 At The Villa Rose A. E. W. Mason 1910 British English
17164 The Achievements Of Luther Trant William MacHarg, Edwin Balmer 1910 American English
581 The Innocence of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton 1911 British English
17164 The Eye Of Osiris R Austin Freeman 1911 British English
17164 The Singing Bone R Austin Freeman 1912 British English
17164 The Silent Bullet Arthur B Reeve 1910 American English
953 Trent's Last Case E. C. Bentley 1913 British English
17164 The Lodger Mrs Belloc Lowndes 1913 British English
17164 Max Carrados Ernest Bramah 1914 British English
17164 The Lone Wolf Louis Joseph Vance 2003 American English
345 The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan 1915 British English
5918 The Valley Of Fear Arthur Conan Doyle 1915 British English
17164 Limehouse Nights Thomas Burke 1917 British English
17164 His Last Bow Arthur Conan Doyle 1917 British English
17164 The Middle Temple Murder J. S. Fletcher 1919 British English
14899 Uncle Abner Melville Davisson Post 1918 American English
17164 Call Mr. Fortune H.C. Bailey 1920 British English
3142 The Cask Freeman Wills Crofts 1920 British English
801 The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie 1920 British English
3041 The Great Impersonation E. Phillips Oppenheim 1920 British English
17164 Bull Dog Drummond Sapper 1920 British English
17164 Tutt And Mr Tutt Arthur Cheney Train 1920 American English
17164 The Grey Room Eden Phillpotts 1920 British English
17164 The Eight Strokes Of The Clock Maurice Leblanc 1923 French French
14899 The Red House Mystery A. A. Milne 1922 British English
17164 The Brooklyn Murders G. D. H. Cole 1923 British English
3041 Whose Body? Dorothy L. Sayers 1923 British English
17164 Inspector French’s Greatest Case Freeman Wills Crofts 1924 British English
17164 The Rasp Philip MacDonald 1924 British English
17164 The House Of The Arrow A. E. W. Mason 1924 British English
17164 The House Without A Key Earl Derr Biggers 1925 American English
17164 The Viaduct Murder Ronald Knox 1925 British English
17164 The Paddington Mystery John Rhode 1925 British English
14899 The Mind Of J G Reeder Edgar Wallace 1925 British English
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
14985 The Informer Liam O'Flaherty 1925 Irish English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
17164 The Benson Murder Case S. S. Van Dine 1926 American English
17164 Payment Deferred C. S. Forester 1926 British English
14865 The Case Book Of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1927 British English
17164 The Bellamy Trial Frances Noyes Hart 1927 American English
17164 The Canary Murder Case S. S. Van Dine 1927 American English
17164 Meet The Tiger Leslie Charteris 1968 British English
2841 Ashenden, Or, The British Agent W. Somerset Maugham 1928 British English
948 The Poisoned Chocolates Case Anthony Berkeley 1929 British English
5326 The Patient In Room 18 Mignon G. Eberhart 1929 American English
17164 The Roman Hat Murder Ellery Queen 1929 American English
3470 Little Caesar W. R. Burnett 1929 American English
17164 Murder By The Clock Rufus King 1929 American English
17164 Detective Duff Unravels It Harvey J O'Higgins 2008 American English
17164 Clues Of The Caribbees T. S. Stribling 1929 American English
17164 The Book Of Murder Frederick Irving Anderson 1930 American English
17164 The Hammersmith Murders David Frome 1930 British English
142 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
14899 The Documents In The Case Dorothy L. Sayers, Robert Eustace 1930 British English
17164 The Penguin Pool Murder Stuart Palmer 1932 American English
17164 The Cape Cod Mystery Phoebe Atwood Taylor 1931 American English
17164 Death Walks In Eastrepps Francis Beeding 1931 British English
698 The Glass Key Dashiell Hammett 1931 American English
14899 Guys And Dolls Damon Runyon 1932 American English
17164 Murder At School James Hilton 1931 British English
17164 The Red Castle H.C. Bailey 1932 Unknown English
17164 Re Enter Sir John Clemence Dane, Helen Simpson 1932 British English
14899 Before The Fact Francis Iles 1932 British English
3003 The Tragedy Of X Ellery Queen 1932 American English
17164 The Fatal Five Minutes R.A.J. Walling 1932 British English
2885 The Tragedy Of Y Ellery Queen 1932 American English
14899 The Case Of The Sulky Girl Erle Stanley Gardner 1933 American English