Today’s Top Ten Tuesday post is a genre freebie, and at first I thought I’d reprise favourite non-fiction, with some updated choices. But it’s not that long since I did that, so instead I thought I’d talk about something extremely hyper-specific: classic crime, as republished by the British Library Crime Classics series!

1. The Judas Window, by John Dickson Carr. I finished this one last night, so it’s freshest in my mind as I come to write this post! I’m not always a fan of John Dickson Carr, and some of his most lauded works have left me cold, but I really liked this one. The only thing I was kinda “eh” about was the actual murderer, but the courtroom stuff is great and it’s a well worked-out locked room mystery that doesn’t seem too farfetched.
2. Fear Stalks the Village, by Ethel Lina White. There’s something completely febrile about both of White’s novels in this series, and in pretty much all the short stories of hers that I’ve read as well. Her books are really, really tense, and I enjoyed both, but this one wins out because The Wheel Spins had an unworthy male protagonist who shouldn’t have got the girl. Warning, though: as I mention in the linked review, there are several suicides in the book, described fairly clearly.
3. Death of an Author, by E.C.R. Lorac. It’s difficult to pick a favourite E.C.R. Lorac book. I love her series detective, Macdonald, a lot: he’s intelligent and humane, and never so much a policeman he forgets to be human. If there have to be cops, you want them all to be like Macdonald. This one is not a Macdonald book, but it was a five-star read for me, with a clever mystery that I actually wanted to solve myself. Highly recommended.
4. Death in Captivity, by Michael Gilbert. I’m kind of mixed on including this one, because it’s not a favourite (and I only rated it 3/5 stars, “liked it”). But part of why I didn’t love it is that it’s a very fine evocation of life in a PoW camp, an experience Gilbert had himself. Something about the matter-of-factness of discussing the awfulness made this a difficult read for me — but a worthwhile one. It’s unusual for a mystery of the period, and a book deeply, deeply grounded in World War II.
5. Smallbone Deceased, by Michael Gilbert. I was trying not to play favourites and pick more than one by the same author, but I really wanted to choose this one as well because it’s really stuck in my head (and might even merit a reread). As easily as he made the reader bring to life and inhabit a PoW camp, he evokes Lincoln’s Inn.
6. Crimes of Cymru, ed. Martin Edwards. It’s hard to pick a favourite among the short story collections of this series, because quite often it’s not purely the content of the stories or the theme of the anthology, but the fact that each one is a selection of stories from different authors and different times, giving a kind of overview. But this one is themed around Welsh authors/writing about Wales, so how could I not choose it? I could’ve stood to see more Welsh authors chosen (rather than just stories about Wales), but I was pleased by the inclusions.
7. Twice Round the Clock, by Billie Houston. There are lots of examples of country house mysteries in the series, of course, but this one sticks in my mind because of how well timed it is. The action is kept ticking along very literally, with each chapter ratcheting up the tension. It’s very classic, with melodrama and mysterious poisons, and it enjoys itself with it.
8. Death on the Down Beat, by Sebastian Farr. In this one, a piece of musical score is a clue, which makes it pretty unique! It’s also epistolary, which helped it stand out, and though I had a few quibbles, I think things like that helped it stand out and seem quite fresh (even if much of the rest of the plot isn’t that innovative).
9.  The Murder of a Quack, by George Bellairs. Bellairs’ novels aren’t paragons of literary merit, this must be admitted, but there’s something very classic about them. They’re like the platonic ideal of what you expect from a Golden Age crime story with a police detective. They’re also kind; the characters feel human, not like caricatures, and despite it being a fairly generic mystery plot, you can care about it.
10. The Mysterious Mr. Badman, by W.F. Harvey. This one’s a bibliomystery, though the book is really a bit of a MacGuffin. It’s one of those British Library Crime Classics which felt quintessentially like a classic mystery, and it doesn’t revolve around the police. I don’t actually remember a lot about it now except that I liked it, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s fine! It was a pleasant read and did exactly what I wanted from it.

So there we go! Honestly I could’ve filled up the list with E.C.R. Lorac’s books, probably; I’ve had a lot of fun with the British Library Crime Classics series, but her books are a particular highlight. I’m sure I’ve missed some lovely ones, especially the ones I read longest ago, but

(Connoisseurs might deplore the utter lack of Christianna Brand, but I’m not a great fan of her work, sorry!)