The Drood Review of Mystery

The Crum Creek Press grew out of our work on The Drood Review of Mystery, a newsletter that we published for twentysome years starting in 1982. For twelve of those years (1989 through 2000), the editors of The Drood Review of Mystery curated an Editors' Choice List, the ten or so books that we "most enjoyed" during the year. The selections often highlighted writers early in their careers, and often recognized titles that were overlooked by genre awards.

The full list of all 111 Editors' Choice titles appears below, and it’s a great place to find recommendations for what to read next. At bookshop.org, we have put together a list of titles that remain in print. We hope that you will purchase books from your local, independent store or from bookshop.org, which supports independents across the country. The current editions of three titles are now part of our publishing program and are linked directly below.

It is interesting (and disappointing) to note that among the 46 titles by women on the list, only 19 (41%) remain in print. Among the 64 by men, 36 (56%) are in print. Throughout the period that we published the Drood, we saw substantially increased representation of female authors in our genre — something we tracked and reported on regularly. However, the in-print differential that we see today is likely a legacy of publisher practices that failed to support mysteries by women as well as books by men.

Editors’ Choice Selections of The Drood Review

Death by Deception by Anne Wingate (1989)

Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen (1989)

The Ripper's Apprentice by Donald Thomas (1989)

Little Boxes of Bewilderment by Jack Ritchie (1989)

Burn Season by John Lantigua (1989)

A Mouthful of Sand by M.R.D. Meek (1989)

The Mother Shadow by Melodie Johnson Howe (1989)

Not as Far as Velma by Nicholas Freeling (1989)

The Fourth Durango by Ross Thomas (1989)

The Four Last Things by Timothy Hallinan (1989)

Dead in the Scrub by B.J. Oliphant (1990)

The Scarred Man by Keith Peterson (1990)

C.A.T. Caper by Margaret Logan (1990)

Murder Misread by P.M. Carlson (1990)

Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill (1990)

Burn Marks by Sara Paretsky (1990)

If Ever I Return Pretty Peggy-O by Sharyn McCrumb (1990)

Forced Entry by Stephen Solomita (1990)

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (1990)

Still Among the Living by Zachary Klein (1990)

Messiter's Dream by Brian Cooper (1991)

The Ransom by Brian Tobin (1991)

The Nine Giants by Edward Marston (1991)

The Deceiver by Frederick Forsyth (1991)

Death and Other Lovers by Jo Bannister (1991)

Death Qualified by Kate Wilhelm (1991)

Orignal Sin by Mary Monica Pulver (1991)

The Shadow of the Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (1991)

A German Requiem by Philip Kerr (1991)

A Scandal in Belgravia by Robert Barnard (1991)

Hope Against Hope by Susan B. Kelly (1991)

Protection by Bill James (1992)

For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George (1992)

Booked to Die by John Dunning (1992)

Every Crooked Nanny by Kathy Hogan Trochek (1992)

A Walk Among the Tombstones by Lawrence Block (1992)

The Ice House by Minette Walters (1992)

Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton (1992)

Lullaby Town by Robert Crais (1992)

To Die Like a Gentleman by Bernard Bastable (1993)

The Way Through the Woods by Colin Dexter (1993)

Bucket Nut by Liza Cody (1993)

Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr (1993)

The Poison Pool by Patricia Hall (1993)

The Red White and Blues by Rob Kantner (1993)

Saratoga Haunting by Stephen Dobyns (1993)

Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell (1994)

The Judas Pool by George Owens (1994)

Extraordinary Powers by Joseph Finder (1994)

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King (1994)

Frobisher's Savage by Leonard Tourney (1994)

The Dying of the Light by Michael Dibdin (1994)

The Yellow Room Conspiracy by Peter Dickinson (1994)

Inches by William Marshall (1994)

Blue Lonesome by Bill Pronzini (1995)

An Easy Day for a Lady by Gillian Linscott (1995)

A Maiden's Grave by Jeffery Deaver (1995)

The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly (1995)

A Famine of Horses by P.F. Chisholm (1995)

Frost at Christmas by R.D. Wingfield (1995)

Concourse by S.J. Rozan (1995)

The Weatherman by Steve Thayer (1995)

No Birds Sing by Jo Bannister (1996)

Hearts and Bones by Margaret Lawrence (1996)

A Brother's Blood by Michael C. White (1996)

Tularosa by Michael McGarrity (1996)

The Death of Friends by Michael Nava (1996)

The Whispering Wall by Patricia Carlon (1996)

Kill Me Again by Terence Faherty (1996)

The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook (1996)

Dance for the Dead by Thomas Perry (1996)

The Mermaid's Singing by Val McDermid (1996)

Bellows Falls by Archer Mayor (1997)

A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly (1997)

Pest Control by Bill Fitzhugh (1997)

Dreaming of the Bones by Deborah Crombie (1997)

The Ax by Donald E. Westlake (1997)

All Emergencies, Ring Super by Ellen Emerson White (1997)

Los Alamos by Joseph Kanon (1997)

Steel Ashes by Karen Rose Cercone (1997)

The Devil in Music by Kate Ross (1997)

Scam by Parnell Hall (1997)

Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust & Emma Bull (1997)

Judas Child by Carol O’Connell (1998)

Remedy for Treason by Caroline Roe (1998)

Catfish Cafe by Earl Emerson (1998)

One False Move by Harlan Coben (1998)

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears (1998)

The Face on the Wall by Jane Langton (1998)

The Contrary Blues by John Billheimer (1998)

Jitterbug by Loren D. Estleman (1998)

A Bitter Feast by S.J. Rozan (1998)

The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb (1998)

Time to Hunt by Stephen Hunter (1998)

Thirteenth Night by Alan R. Gordon (1999)

The Gumshoe, The Witch & The Virtual Corpse by Keith Hartman (1999)

A Darker Place by Laurie R. King (1999)

Run Jane Run by Maureen Tan (1999)

Faded Coat of Blue by Owen Parry (1999)

Some Deaths Before Dying by Peter Dickinson (1999)

River of Darkness by Rennie Airth (1999)

Steel City Confessions by Thomas Lipinski (1999)

Half Moon Street by Anne Perry (2000)

A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss (2000)

The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale (2000)

A Dangerous Road by Kris Nelscott (2000)

A Little Death by Laura Wilson (2000)

Privileged Communications by Pat Frieder (2000)

First Fruits by Penelope Evans (2000)

Cold Is the Grave by Peter Robinson (2000)

A Place of Execution by Val McDermid (2000)