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Members of the Crime Writers' Association are to vote for the "best ever" crime writer as part of celebrations to mark the CWA's 60th anniversary.
The 600-plus members are being asked to decide who is the best ever crime writer, which is the best ever crime novel and which the best ever crime series.
The last such CWA poll, conducted 15 years ago, named Raymond Chandler as a convincing winner, with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers the runners up.
However Sayers got her revenge when her 1934 novel The Nine Tailors was voted the best crime novel ever, beating Chandler's The Big Sleep into second place. Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone came third.
However Chandler triumphed again when his Philip Marlowe novels were voted the best crime series, beating Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey tales and Conan Doyls Sherlock Holmes stories.
New CWA chair Alison Joseph said that some contemporary writers may give the classic greats a run for their money this time around.
"Crime fiction has always had a deservedly huge readership, but, more than ever, readers expect a lot," she said. "We see authors today stretching the limits of the genre, examining the truth of criminality, its causes, its effects, yet still telling page-turning stories . . .
"Personally I think it will be close-run thing. A great work of fiction, in whatever genre, whenever it was written, is a rare thing, and it may well be that Sayers, Chandler et al, still merit their place at the top. Watch this space."
The results of the polling will be announced later in the year.
The CWA was founded by prolific crime novelist John Creasey on Guy Fawkes Day 1953.