A more recent list of favorites comes from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association:
The Tiger in the Smoke,
Marjorie Allingham
A Coffin for Dimitrios,
Eric Ambler
A Dram of Poison,
Charlotte Armstrong
Aunt Dimity's Death,
Nancy Atherton
In the Heat of the Night,
John Ball
Death by Sheer Torture,
Robert Barnard
Track of the Cat,
Nevada Barr
The Beast Must Die,
Nicholas Blake
When the Sacred
Ginmill Closes,
Lawrence Block
Green for Danger,
Christina Brand
The Fabulous Clipjoint,
Frederic Brown
The 39 Steps,
John Buchan
Black Cherry Blues, James Lee Burke
The Postman Always Rings Twice, James Cain
The Thin Woman,
Dorothy Cannell
The Three Coffins,
John Dickson Carr
Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Sarah Caudwell
The Big Sleep,
Raymond Chandler
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
The Concrete Blonde,
Michael Connelly
The Man Who Liked
Slow Tomatoes, K.C. Constantine
The Monkey's Raincoat,
Robert Crais
The Moving Toyshop,
Edmund Crispin
Dreaming of the Bones,
Deborah Crombie
The Last Good Kiss,
James Crumley
The Yellow Room Conspiracy, Peter Dickinson
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
Rebecca,
Daphne DuMaurier
Booked to Die,
John Dunning
Old Bones,
Aaron Elkins
One for the Money,
Janet Evanovich
Time and Again,
Jack Finney
Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca?, G.M. Ford
Whip Hand,
Dick Francis
The Hours Before Dawn,
Celia Fremlin
A Great Deliverance,
Elizabeth George
Smallbone Deceased,
Michael Gilbert
“A” is for Alibi,
Sue Grafton
The Killings at Badger's Drift, Caroline Graham
The Man With the
Load of Mischief,
Martha Grimes
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
An English Murder,
Cyril Hare
The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris
Tourist Season,
Carl Hiaasen
The Talented Mr. Ripley,
Patricia Highsmith
On Beulah Height,
Reginald Hill
A Thief of Time,
Tony Hillerman
Cotton Comes to Harlem, Chester Himes
Hamlet, Revenge,
Michael Innes
An Unsuitable Job
for a Woman, P.D. James
The Ritual Bath,
Faye Kellerman
When the Bough Breaks, Jonathan Kellerman
The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie King
Dark Nantucket Noon,
Jane Langton
The Spy Who Came In
From the Cold,
John LeCarre
To Kill a Mockingbird,
Harper Lee
Darkness, Take My Hand, Dennie Lehane
Get Shorty,
Elmore Leonard
Sleeping Dog,
Dick Lochte
Rough Cider,
Peter Lovesey
The Deep Blue Good-by,
John D. MacDonald
The List of Adrien Messenger, Philip MacDonald
The Chill,
Ross Macdonald
Bootlegger's Daughter,
Margaret Maron
Death of a Peer, Ngaio March
Sadie When She Died,
Ed McBain
The Sunday Hangman,
James McClure
If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-o, Sharyn McCrumb
Stranger in My Grave,
Margaret Millar
Devil in a Blue Dress,
Walter Moseley
Edwin of the Iron Shoes,
Marcia Muller
Death's Bright Angel,
Janet Neel
Mallory's Oracle,
Carol O'Connell
Child of Silence,
Abigail Padgett
Deadlock,
Sara Paretsky
Looking for Rachel Wallace, Robert Parker
The Club Dumas,
Arturo Perez-Reverte
Vanishing Act,
Thomas Perry
Crocodile on the Sandbank,
Elizabeth Peters
One Corpse Too Many,
Ellis Peters
Blue Lonesome,
Bill Pronzini
Cat of Many Tails,
Ellery Queen
No More Dying Then,
Ruth Rendell
The Wrong Murder,
Craig Rice
The Circular Staircase,
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Blood at the Root,
Peter Robinson
Strike Three You're Dead, Richard Rosen
A Broken Vessel,
Kate Ross
Concourse,
S.J. Rozan
Murder Must Advertise,
Dorothy Sayers
The Laughing Policeman, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo
Some Buried Caesar,
Rex Stout
Brat Farrar,
Josephine Tey
Chinaman's Chance,
Ross Thomas
A Test of Wills,
Charles Todd
Presumed Innocent,
Scott Turow
The Sands of Windee,
Arthur Upfield
The Ice House, Minette Walters
Sanibel Flats,
Randy Wayne White
I Married a Dead Man,
Cornell Woolrich