Who should be on THAT list?

Following on from my posting yesterday, the Times Online list: The 50 Greatest Crime Writers is certainly provoking discussion, and a re-assessment of people's reading "syllabus" in crime fiction reading.

For example, at Crime Scraps there is a pondering of who has been left out; Petrona thinks 90% of the authors listed deserve to be there, but there are some unfortunate omissions; others on my blog roll have been very quiet about it; but on a couple of the online groups I belong to, there has been some desultory conversation, once again mainly on the theme of other authors who should be included.

Over on the Times Online site itself there has been much less comment than I would have expected, and they may be a bit disappointed. Among the suggestions for inclusion are Michael Connolly, Peter Robinson, John Creasey, Donald E. Westlake, Martha Grimes, Robert Crais, Kathy Reichs, Douglas Preston, and Lincoln Child. Ignore my own gormless whine there, repeated twice, that Ruth Rendell was missing - she wasn't - oh for a delete button!

I find such lists quite exciting because they make you re-assess what/who you read. I decided for example that I can't have read enough Highsmith (I thought I had read some, but perhaps not), and tracked THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY down at the local library on a 4MA member's recommendation.

My comments

• no Australian authors - my suggestions Peter Temple, Fergus Hume, Patricia Carlon at least
  
• no Canadian authors - my suggestions Peter Robinson, Giles Blunt, Louise Penny
  
• a very 19th and 20th century list, with few authors who've actually made their mark in the 21st
• seems to have been influenced by whether the author has influenced another media say in film or TV. An over representation of those whose work was picked up in the 1990s by television in particular
• a good smattering of non-British authors, and from that point of view, a good attempt to be "fair"
• a bit of blurring of genres with some inclusion of authors I would consider writers of thrillers rather than crime fiction. I asked myself whether John Le Carre ought to be there.