Just a quick post before the big 1000 – a review that I’m starting to think that I just might be over-hyping a bit – but a quick summary of 1000 reviews.

Number of Authors Read: Unless I’ve missed a pseudonym, it’s 324 different scribes who have been entertaining me to a greater or lesser extent over the past eight or so years.

Number of Authors I’ve Only Read Once: Um, that’s 203 of them. Now that seems harsh, as I certainly haven’t read 207 books I didn’t enjoy. Casting my eye of the list of authors, there’s a collection of authors who I’ve discovered recently, authors who, yes, I didn’t enjoy and authors who I just haven’t gotten round to getting back to. Loads of names on the list of writers who I need to get back to…

Top Ten Most Reviewed Authors:

Bubbling under, with 10 or more titles but not enough to crack the top ten are Christophers Bush and Fowler, Len Tyler, Paul Halter, Peter Lovesey and Martin Edwards. But the top ten most reviewed authors on the blog are:

10. Simon Brett – 20 reviews

I will be absolutely honest, this surprises me a bit. I had no idea I’d read so many of Simon’s books. I always use them as quality light relief, easy reads when I’ve got a lot of my plate. My plate must be fuller than I thought…

9. Peter Tremayne – 21 reviews

The Sister Fidelma books are a constant source of pleasure for me. I’ve slowed down on my reading of them recently, and I’m not entirely sure why, but I’ll try and rectify this in the near future.

8. Brian Flynn – 22 reviews

Possibly the only person to even own 22 Brian Flynn books, my most recent obsession is a rapid climber up the charts so to speak. I hope this number can significantly rise in the future…

7. Ellery Queen – 23 reviews

It’s been a long time since I read about old Ellery. The bibliography ground to a halt an age ago, but there are still some titles that I need to take a look at. Just can’t muster the enthusiasm though when there are more entertaining unread classics out there.

6. Kate Ellis – 28 reviews

And soon to be 29 as I’ve a review copy of Kate’s latest, The Boy Who Lived With The Dead, on my shelf. Kate is an author that I may not have come across were it not for the blog – as I mentioned in my review posts, I’ve met Kate a few times, first of all when promoting The Jackal Man, and (admittedly like every crime writer I’ve met) is lovely. And the only author who I’ve got a photograph of me with them – which I feel I have to reproduce if only to annoy Santosh again 🙂

5. Michael Jecks – 34 reviews

Seriously, all readers of crime fiction should try Mike’s work. I finally got the chance to meet him at Alibis last year and did monopolise his time a little so you could accuse me of being biased. Or not, as I had read and enjoyed about 30 of his books before meeting him… Anyway, here’s someone else’s review of The Sticklepath Strangler to convince you…

4. John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson – 39 reviews

I thought I’d combine Carr and Dickson titles into a single author because… well, he was a single author. Interestingly (or not) despite there being more Carr books, my reviewing over the first 1000 titles comes out at 20-19, almost even. I have admittedly always preferred Merrivale, but maybe in the second millenium, it’s time to take a look at those early Fell titles that were unsatisfying to a much younger me…

3. Agatha Christie – 45 reviews

You might have heard of her. I’m actually surprised that I’ve read that many Christie titles for the blog as most of them were re-reads. Anyway, nothing more to say about her that hasn’t been said.

2. John Rhode/Miles Burton – 46 reviews

Humdrum, my arse!

Just pipping Dame Agatha, my obsession with Major Street’s work has led to some wonderful titles that if my blog hadn’t been in full swing, I would never have approached. Dear whoever, seriously, we need a mass re-print of Rhode’s work, not just the four we got this year. And if it is four, pick four good ones – there are loads of non-Paddington Mystery titles to choose from.

1. Paul Doherty – 92 reviews

Yes, nearly 10% of my reviews are of Paul’s work. And again, if historical mysteries aren’t your thing having been burned by that match-making monk, then suck it up and try a good one with a proper mystery instead. By Murder’s Bright Light, that’s a good one to start with…

Oh, and one other thing – one other result of reading 1000 books over eight years…

Yup, I now need reading glasses…

Anyway, 1000th review coming tomorrow – and a clue to its identity. It was written by one of the authors mentioned above. And I probably should have reviewed it ages ago.

Start (or continue) the guessing…