Two main strands continue: the thriller and the puzzle

The cozy: inheritor of the Golden Age

• Mary Daheim
• Charlotte MacLeod
• M.C. Beaton
• Elizabeth Peters
• Jeff Abbott

Police procedural: cops and criminals

• Founders: Lawrence Treat, Hillary Waugh (Last Seen Wearing; 1952)
• Grand Masters: Ed McBain, Elizabeth Linington, Dell Shannon
• American cops: Joseph Wambaugh, James Lee Burke, Archer Mayor
• British cops: Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, Reginald Hill, Peter Robinson

The P.I. novel: alive & well

• Lawrence Block
• Parnell Hall
• Loren D. Estleman
• Stephen Greenleaf
• Joseph Hansen
• Bill Pronzini

The ethnic detective: amateurs and pros

• Earl Derr Biggers: Charlie Chan
• Dana Stabenow: Kate Shugak
• Tony Hillerman: Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee
• Dale Furutani: Ken Tanaka
• Walter Mosley: Easy Rawlins
• Marcia Muller: Elena Oliverez
• Michael Nava: Henry Rios
• Edna Buchanan: Britt Montero
• Harry Kemelman: Rabbi David Small

The historical mystery: solving old crimes & imagining new ones

• Classic beginnings: Josephine Tey (The Daughter of Time; 1951)
• Robert van Gulik: Judge Dee mysteries (ancient China)
• Leonard Tourney: Elizabethan England
• Philip Kerr: Nazi Germany
• J. Robert Janes: occupied France
• Steven Saylor: ancient Rome
• Laurie R. King: Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes' wife(!)
• Kate Ross: Regency England
• Lynda S. Robinson: ancient Egypt

Thrillers, serial killers and modern horrors: noir lives

• Mary Willis Walker
• James Ellroy
• Elmore Leonard
• Jeffery Deaver
• Thomas Harris
• Minette Walters

To Bibliography