They Died in Vain

They Died in Vain grows out of editor Jim Huang’s work in assembling a list of the 100 favorite mystery novels of the twentieth century for the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association’s list of 100 favorite mysteries of the twentieth century. Huang asked contributors to suggest some titles “should have” been on this list, and he received a number of recommendations that were relatively unknown even among die-hard mystery fans. Inspired by these suggestion, Huang asked mystery booksellers, reviewers, and others to write about one or two favorites mysteries that they felt were overlooked, underappreciated or forgotten. The results are collected in They Died in Vain

•According to the Evidence, Henry Cecil
•The Apostrophe Thief, Barbara Paul
•Asia Rip, George Foy
•A Back Room in Somers Town, John Malcolm
•Bearing Witness, Michael A. Kahn
•Before the Fact, Francis Iles
•Beyond Reasonable Doubt, C.W. Grafton
•Beyond the Grave, Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini
•The Big Blowdown, George S. Pelecanos
•Bird Dog, Philip Reed
•Blanche Cleans Up, Barbara Neely
•Borderlines, Archer Mayor
•Boy’s Life, Robert R. McCammon
•Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart
•Bucket Nut, Liza Cody
•Burn Season, John Lantigua
•The Butcher’s Boy, Thomas Perry
•Chicken Little Was Right, Jean Ruryk
•The Christening Day Murders, Lee Harris
•A Comedy of Murders, George Herman
•Common or Garden Crime, Sheila Pim
•Complicity, Iain Banks
•The Concrete River, John Shannon
•A Cool Breeze on the Underground, Don Winslow
•Dead Letters, Sean McGrady
•Death and Other Lovers, Jo Bannister
•Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon
•Death from the Woods, Brigitte Aubert
•Death of the Duchess, Elizabeth Eyre
•Death’s Favorite Child, Frankie Y. Bailey
•The Debt to Pleasure, John Lanchester
•Dog in the Dark, Gerald Hammond
•The Dogs of Winter, Kem Nunn
•Done Wrong, Eleanor Taylor Bland
•Dover and the Unkindest Cut of All, Joyce Porter
•Down in the Valley, David M. Pierce
•The Edge of the Crazies, Jamie Harrison
•Envious Casca, Georgette Heyer
•Falling Angel, William Hjortsberg
•A Famine of Horses, P.F. Chisholm
•Fast Company, Marco Page
•Fugitive Colors, Margaret Maron
•Good Cop, Bad Cop, Barbara D’Amato
•Hardly a Man Is Now Alive, Herbert Brean
•The Hotel Detective, Alan Russell
•I Was Dora Suarez, Derek Raymond
•Irene’s Last Waltz, Carole Nelson Douglas
•Iron Lake, William Kent Krueger
•Jitterbug, Loren D. Estleman
•Just What the Doctor Ordered, Colin Watson
•Kahawa, Donald E. Westlake
•Kill Me Again, Terence Flaherty
•Killing Suki Flood, Robert Leininger
•The Last Known Address, Joseph Harrington
•The Latimer Mercy, Robert Richardson
•Laura, Vera Caspary
•The Leavenworth Case, Anna Katharine Green
•The Left Leg, Alice Tilton
•The Line-Up, Helen Reilly
•Lonely Hearts, John Harvey
•The Loud Adios, Ken Kuhlken
•The Man in the Green Chevy, Susan Rogers Cooper
•The Man in Lower Ten, Mary Roberts Rinehart
•Matricide at St. Martha’s, Ruth Dudley Edwards
•Mecca for Murder, Stephen Marlowe
•Midnight Baby, Wendy Hornsby
•Murder in the OPM, Leslie Ford
•Murders in Volume 2, Elizabeth Daly
•The Murders of Mrs. Austin and Mrs. Beale, Jill McGown
•The Mystery of the Yellow Room, Gaston Leroux
•Never Quite Dead, Seymour Shubin
•Night Dogs, Kent Anderson
•The Nightrunners, Joe R. Lansdale
•Nine Coaches Waiting, Mary Stewart
•Not a Creature Was Stirring, Jane Haddam
•The Paladin, Brian Garfield
•Panicking Ralph, Bill James
•Park Lane South, Queens, Mary Anne Kelly
•Pest Control, Bill Fitzhugh
•The Pew Group, Anthony Oliver
•The Portland Laugher, Earl Emerson
•A Question of Guilt, Frances Fyfeld
•The Red, White, and Blues, Rob Kantner
•Rought Cut, Stan Cutler
•Running Blind, Lee Child
•The Seventh Sinner, Elizabeth Peters
•Shackles, Bill Pronzini
•Shadow of a Broken Man, George C. Chesbro
•A Show of Hands, David A. Crossman
•Sleep Long, My Love, Hillary Waugh
•The Stately Home Murder, Catherine Aird
•The Tightrope Walker, Dorothy Gilman
•A Trouble of Fools, Linda Barnes
•Unpunished, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
•The Victim in Victoria Station, Jeanne M. Dams
•The Wailing Frail, Richard S. Prather
•Warrant for X, Philip MacDonald
•The Whispering Wall, Patricia Carlon
•Wilde West, Walter Satterthwait
•With a Bare Bodkin, Cyril Hare
•Without Lawful Authority, Manning Coles
•Working Murder, Eleanor Boylan
•The Zero Trap, Paula Gosling