Ten top crime writers turned detective

At the Guardian John Dugdale came up with a top ten list of crime writers turned detective, including:

James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia (1987)

Ellroy's novel follows LAPD cops investigating the grotesque and still-unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short (nicknamed the Black Dahlia by the press, largely because she wore a black suit), one of whom eventually links the crime, in classic Chandler-esque fashion, to a wealthy local family. Nine years later, Ellroy investigated his mother Geneva's murder in 1958 (when he was 10) in the non-fiction book My Dark Places.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Dark Places is among Errol Morris's five top tales of true crime and Peter Collier's five best books about writers' lives.

Ellroy's novel The Black Dahlia appears among Lynda La Plante's six best books and Jonathan Kellerman's six favorite books, and on David Bowman's list of five great noir novels from the post-Chandler generations.

--Marshal Zeringue