Changes

The first is that it is a little out-of-date. The books reviewed are good, many are excellent, but quite a few are difficult to find. Some authors have not reached their peak and the books chosen do not represent their best. Reginald Hill's A Pinch of Snuff is good but On Beulah Height, published in 1998 is much better. Similarly, Ruth Rendell's A Judgement in Stone is bettered by some of her later work. Some excellent crime novelists had not yet come to prominence. The first Rebus novel, [[Knots And Crosses]] wasn't published until March 1987, so Ian Rankin is a notable omission, as is Michael Dibdin with his Aurelio Zen books. This is probably not too important as Keating doesn't suggest that the selection is definitive - just that these books are his favourites.

Right - that's the problems out of the way. What we're left with is a very good book with an engagingly simple format. Each of the hundred book is reviewed over two pages (oh, what skill to be able to do that consistently) and we get a concise overview of the author's oeuvre and any relevant background followed by details of the book itself. Sometimes this includes quotations and there's usually an analysis of the plot. Each review is incisive and there's rarely, if ever, a spare word. Humour plays its part and any criticism is light - but then it probably would be if you were choosing a hundred favourite books.