Philip K Dick Elmore Leonard Agatha Christie

Honorable mention - Joe Lansdale, Ross MacDonald, John MacDonald, Donald Westlake (Richard Stark)

Confederacy of Dunces. It was 30 years ago when I tried this book, and I couldn’t finish it, and tossed it in the trash (don’t hate, it was a used, well worn, copy). Every time I see it in a bookstore on a summer reading table, I cringe.

Nowadays, we’d see the main character as autistic, but back then, I did not care about the protagonist a bit, and every thing he did just made me cringe.