[billfruit]

Yes, but with so much material out there to read, it is good to have at least some vague indication of the worth of a work.

Also writers of crime fiction often have themselves question ed the worth of much of the production, see Raymond Chandler's Essay "The Simple Art of Murder'.

Why should we read Christie when we could rather read Graham Greene sounds like an interesting question to me

[taeric]

My assertion is there is no global ranking of value. The answer to the question is interesting; but as much for how personal the answer is than anything else.