Off the top of my head mystery reading list...

Some of these are old and may be out of print so part of the fun will be the hunt.  Except for the first one, they are in no order whatsoever. Although I'm giving you just one title per author--often the first in a series--just about anything you can find by them would be worth reading. And remember, these are just off the top of my head so I may have missed some good ones.  If you have a favorite you would like to see added, let me know.  Here goes:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (written in 1860)
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Roseanna by Maj Sjowell and Per Wahloo (first in the Martin Beck series)
Outsider in Amsterdam by Janwillem Van de Wetering (first in Grijpstra/deGier series)
From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell (first in the Inspector Wexford series)
The Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter (first in the Inspector Morse series)
Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin (first in the John Rebus series)
Gallow's View by Peter Robinson (first in Inspector Banks series)
Yellowthread Street by William Marshall
Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers
The First Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders
Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (first in the Nero Wolfe series)
Love in Amsterdam by Nicholas Freeling
Marathon Man by William Goldman
Man With a Squirrel by Nicholas Kilmer (second in the Fred Taylor art mystery series)
The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears
Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Staked Goat by Jeremiah Healy
The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry
The Stalker by Bill Pronzini
Flood by Andrew Vachss (first in the Burke series)
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey (first in the Peter Diamond series)
Chinaman's Chance by Ross Thomas (I wish someone would put his books back in print.)
Lonely Hearts by John Harvey (first in the Charlie Resnick series)
A Clubbable Woman by Reginald Hill (first in the Dalziel/Pascoe series)
People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman (first in the Jim Chee series)
32 Cadillacs by Joe Gores (part of the DKA series)
Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr (his first three books republished as a trilogy)
Death in Uptown by Michael Raleigh (first in the series set in Chicago)
A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don Winslow (first in the Neal Carey series)
Skin Tight by Carl Hiassen
The Sculptress by Minette Walters
A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King (first in the Martinelli series)
The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman (first in the Decker/ Lazarus series)
Booked to Die by John Dunning
China Trade by S. J. Rozan (first in the Chin/Smith series)
Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely
Until Proven Guilty by J. A. Jance (first in the Beaumont series)
Dead Beat by Val McDermid (first in the Kate Brannigan series). And don't miss A Place of Execution.
Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron (first in the Deborah Knott series)
A Trouble of Fools by Linda Barnes (first in the Carlotta Carlyle series)

And, of course, don't forget the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.

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