The Haycraft-Queen cornerstones of detective fiction

Howard Haycraft originally published this list in his 1941 landmark book Murder For Pleasure, calling it 'A Reader's List of Detective Story Cornerstones'. It was subsequently updated by Ellery Queen and has become well-known to fans, collectors and dealers.

The list below is the final revision and includes books from 1748 to 1952. Any entry followed by an * indicates it was added by Ellery Queen.

1748 * - Voltaire - Zadig

1794 * - Godwin, William - The Adventures of Caleb Williams

1828 * - Vidocq, Francois Eugene - Memoirs De Vidocq

1845 - Poe, Edgar Allan - Tales

1853 - Dickens, Charles - Bleak House

1856 * - Waters, William Russell - Recollections of a Detective Police Officer

1860 * - Collins, Wilkie - The Woman in White

1862 * - Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables

1866 - Gaboriau, Emile - The Widow Lerouge

1866 - Seeley, Regester - The Dead Letter

1866 * - Dostoevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment

1866 * - Seeley, Regester - The Dead Letter

1867 * - Gaboriau, Emile - File No 13

1868 - Collins, Wilkie - The Moonstone

1868 * - Gaboriau, Emile - The Mystery Of Orcival

1869 - Gaboriau, Emile - Monsieur Lecoq

1870 - Dickens, Charles - The Mystery of Edwin Drood

1872 * - Halsey, Harlan Page - Old Sleuth, the Detective

1874 * - Pinkerton, Allan - The Expressman and the Detective

1878 - Green, Anna Katharine - The Leavenworth Case

1882 * - Stevenson, Robert Louis - New Arabian Nights

1886 * - Stevenson, Robert Louis - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

1887 * - Hume, Fergus - The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

1890 - Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - The Sign of the Four

1892 - Zangwill, Israel - The Big Bow Mystery

1894 - Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

1894 - Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

1894 - Morrison, Arthur - Martin Hewitt, Investigator

1894 * - Twain, Mark - The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson

1895 * - Shiel, MP - Prince Zaleski

1897 * - Stoker, Bram - Dracula

1899 * - Hornung, EW - The Amateur Cracksman

1902 - Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - The Hound of the Baskervilles

1903 * - Childers, Erskine - The Riddle of the Sands

1905 - Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - The Return of Sherlock Holmes

1905 * - Orczy, Baroness - The Scarlet Pimpernel

1906 - Barr, Robert - The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont

1906 - Benson, GR - Tracks in the Snow

1907 - Freeman, R Austin - The Red Thumb Mark

1907 - Futrelle, Jacques - The Thinking Machine

1907 - Leblanc, Maurice - Arsene Lupin, Gentleman - Cambrioleur

1907 - Leroux, Gaston - The Mystery of the Yellow Room

1907 * - Conrad, Joseph - The Secret Agent

1908 - Rinehart, Mary Roberts - The Circular Staircase

1908 - Rohmer, Sax - The Mystery of Dr Fu - Manchu

1908 * - Chesterton, GK - The Man Who Was Thursday

1908 * - Henry, O - The Gentle Grafter

1908 * - Leroux, Gaston - The Perfume of the Woman in Black

1909 - Orczy, Baroness - The Old Man in the Corner

1909 - Wells, Carolyn - The Clue

1909 * - Freeman, R Austin - John Thorndyke’s Cases

1909 * - Moffett, Cleveland - Through the Wall

1910 - Leblanc, Maurice - “813”

1910 - Mason, AEW - At the Villa Rose

1910 * - MacHarg, William & Edwin Balmer - The Achievements of Luther Trant

1911 - Chesterton, GK - The Innocence of Father Brown

1911 * - Freeman, R Austin - The Eye of Osiris

1912 - Freeman, R Austin - The Singing Bone

1912 - Reeve, Arthur B - The Silent Bullet

1913 - Bentley, EC - Trent’s Last Case

1913 - Lowndes, Mrs Belloc - The Lodger

1914 - Bramah, Ernest - Max Carrados

1914 * - Vance, Louis Joseph - The Lone Wolf

1915 - Buchan, John - The Thirty - Nine Steps

1915 - Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - The Valley of Fear

1916 * - Burke, Thomas - Limehouse Nights

1917 - Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - His Last Bow

1918 - Fletcher, JS - The Middle Temple Murder

1918 - Post, Melville Davisson - Uncle Abner

1920 - Bailey, HC - Call Mr Fortune

1920 - Crofts, Freeman Wills - The Cask

1920 * - Christie, Agatha - The Mysterious Affair at Styles

1920 * - Oppenheim, E Phillips - The Great Impersonation

1920 * - Sapper, - Bull - Dog Drummond

1920 * - Train, Arthur - Tutt and Mr Tutt

1921 - Phillpotts, Eden - The Grey Room

1922 - Leblanc, Maurice - The Eight Strokes of the Clock

1922 - Milne, AA - The Red House Mystery

1923 - Cole, GDH and M - The Brooklyn Murders

1923 * - Sayers, Dorothy L - [Whose Body?]

1924 - Crofts, Freeman Wills - Inspector French’s Greatest Case

1924 - MacDonald, Philip - The Rasp

1924 - Mason, AEW - The House of the Arrow

1925 - Biggers, Earl, Derr - The House Without a Key

1925 - Knox, Ronald A - The Viaduct Murder

1925 - Rhode, John - The Paddington Mystery

1925 - Wallace, Edgar - The Mind of J G Reeder

1925 * - Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy

1925 * - O’Flaherty, Liam - The Informer

1926 - Christie, Agatha - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

1926 - Van Dine, SS - The Benson Murder Case

1926 * - Forester, CS - Payment Deferred

1927 - Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - The Case - Book of Sherlock Holmes

1927 - Hart, Frances Noyes - The Bellamy Trial

1927 - Van Dine, SS - The Canary Murder Case

1928 * - Charteris, Leslie - Meet the Tiger

1928 * - Maugham, W Somerset - Ashenden: or The British Agent

1928 * - Rhode, John - The Murders in Praed Street

1929 - Berkeley, Anthony - The Poisoned Chocolates Case

1929 - Eberhart, Mignon G - The Patient in Room 18

1929 - Queen, Ellery - The Roman Hat Murder

1929 * - Burnett, WR - Little Caesar

1929 * - King, Rufus - Murder by the Clock

1929 * - O’Higgins, Harvey J - Detective Duff Unravels It

1929 * - Stribling, TS - Clues of the Caribbees

1930 - Anderson, Frederick, Irving - The Book of Murder

1930 - Frome, David - The Hammersmith Murders

1930 - Hammett, Dashiell - The Maltese Falcon

1930 - Sayers, Dorothy L & Eustace, Robert - The Documents in the Case

1931 - Palmer, Stuart - The Penguin Pool Murder

1931 - Taylor, Phoebe Atwood - The Cape Cod Mystery

1931 * - Beeding, Francis - Death Walks in Eastrepps

1931 * - Hammett, Dashiell - The Glass Key

1931 * - Runyon, Damon - Guys and Dolls

1931 * - Hilton, James - Murder at School

1932 - Bailey, HC - The Red Castle

1932 - Dane, Clemence and Helen Simpson - Re-enter Sir John

1932 - Iles, Francis - Before the Fact

1932 - Queen, Ellery - The Tragedy of X

1932 - Walling, RAJ - The Fatal Five Minutes

1932 * - Queen, Ellery - The Tragedy of Y

1933 - Gardner, Erle Stanley - The Case of the Sulky Girl

1933 * - Gardner, Erle Stanley - The Case of the Velvet Claws

1934 - Allingham, Margery - Death of a Ghost

1934 - Sayers, Dorothy L - The Nine Tailors

1934 - Stout, Rex - Fer de Lance

1934 * - Cain, James, M - The Postman Always Rings Twice

1935 - Hull, Richard - The Murder of My Aunt

1935 * - Marquand, John P - No Hero

1935* - Stout, Rex - The League of Frightened Men

1937 - Berkeley, Anthony - Trial and Error

1938 - Blake, Nicholas - The Beast Must Die

1938 - Carr, John Dickson - The Crooked Hinge

1938 - Carr, John Dickson - The Judas Window

1938 - Innes, Michael - Lament for a Maker

1938 - Seeley, Mabel - The Listening House

1938 * - Du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca

1938 * - Greene, Graham - Brighton Rock

1938 * - MacDonald, Philip - The Nursemaid Who Disappeared

1938 * - Rawson, Clayton - Death from a Top Hat

1939 - Ambler, Eric - The Mask of Dimitrios

1939 - Chandler, Raymond - The Big Sleep

1939 - Marsh, Ngaio - Overture to Death

1939 * - Paul, Elliot - The Mysterious Mickey Finn

1940 - Chandler, Raymond - Farewell, My Lovely

1940 - Coles, Manning - Drink to Yesterday

1940 - Coles, Manning - Pray Silence

1940 - Hughes, Dorothy B - The So Blue Marble

1940 - Lockridge, Frances and Richard - The Norths Meet Murder

1940 - Postgate, Raymond - Verdict of Twelve

1940 - Simenon, Georges - The Patience of Maigret

1941 - Rice, Craig - Trial by Fury

1941 * - Heard, HF - A Taste for Honey

1942 * - Boucher, Anthony - Rocket to the Morgue

1942 * - Cozzens, James Gould - The Just and the Unjust

1942 * - Queen, Ellery - Calamity Town

1942 * - Woolrich, Cornell - The Bride Wore Black

1943 * - Caspary, Vera - Laura

1944 - Lawrence, Hilda - Blood Upon the Snow

1944 * - Hammett, Dashiell - The Adventures of Sam Spade

1946 - Crispin, Edmund - The Moving Toyshop

1946 - Eustis, Helen - The Horizontal Man

1946 * - Armstrong, Charlotte - The Unsuspected

1946 * - De la Torre, Lilian - Dr Sam Johnson, Detector

1946 * - Dickson, Carter - Lord of the Sorcerers

1946 * - Vickers, Roy - The Department of Dead Ends

1947 - Lustgarten, Edgar - A Case to Answer

1948 - Coates, Robert M - Wisteria Cottage

1948 - Crispin, Edmund - Love Lies Bleeding

1948 - Ellin, Stanley - Dreadful Summit

1948 - Tey, Josephine - The Franchise Affair

1948 * - Faulkner, William - Intruder in the Dust

1949 - ~Macdonald, Ross - The Moving Target

1950 - Armstrong, Charlotte - Mischief

1950 - Chandler, Raymond - The Simple Art of Murder

1950 - Lipsky, Eleazar - The People Against O’Hara

1950 - McCloy, Helen - Through a Glass, Darkly

1950 - Piper, Evelyn - The Motive

1950 - Spicer, Bart - Blues for the Prince

1950 - Walsh, Thomas - Nightmare in Manhattan

1951 - Davis, Dorothy Salisbury - A Gentle Murderer

1952 - Dunsany, Lord - The Little Tales of Smethers