Best-Selling Eyes
P.I. Novels Among U.S. Bestsellers 1895-1975

This list, taken from combines hardback and paperback sales, signifies sales of at least 2 million copies. Although it must surely be out of date, it's hard to imagine any more recent P.I. novel outselling the whopping 6,096,700 (in 1975!) copies sold of Mickey Spillane's I, The Jury. (But to put it in perspective, Dr. Benjamin Spock's Pocket Book of Baby and Child Care sold over 23,000,000 copies, and the best selling novel, The Godfather, by Mario Puzo, sold over 12,000,000!). Still, it is illuminating. I had no idea Perry Mason moved so many units!
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• I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane (6,096,700)
• The Big Kill by Mickey Spillane
• My Gun Is Quick by Mickey Spillane
• One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane
• Kiss Me, Deadly by Mickey Spillane
• The Long Wait by Mickey Spillane
• Vengeance Is Mine by Mickey Spillane
• The Case of the Sulky Girl by Erle Stanley Gardner (3,564,334)
• The Case of the Lucky Legs by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Haunted Husband by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Rolling Bones by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Silent Partner by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Counterfeit Eye by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of theCaretaker's Cat by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Substitute Face by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Baited Hook by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Stuttering Bishop by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Half-wakened Wife by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Dangerous Dowager by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Lame Canary by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Damned by John D. MacDonald ("I wish I had written this book!"-- Mickey Spillane)* (2,300,000)
• The Case of the Empty Tin by Erle Stanley Gardner
• This Is Murder by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Careless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Cautious Coquette by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Clue of the Forgotten Murder by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Deep by Mickey Spillane*
• The Case of the Golddigger's Purse by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Crooked Candle by Erle Stanley Gardner
• The Case of the Borrowed Brunette by Erle Stanley Gardner (2,006,808)
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  * Neither of these are true P.I. novels, but they sure to please any fan of the genre. Likewise, not all the Perry Mason books really qualify as P.I. novels, but I won't tell if you won't.

The above stats were taken from The Book of Literary Lists, compiled and edited by Nicholas Parsons (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985). However, it should be noted that in a Publishers Weekly book called 70 Years of Best-Sellers, there was a chapter on best-selling mysteries (i.e. mysteries that had sold a million or more copies). 150 books were listed, and 16 of them, more than 10% of the list, were by Prather, making him probably the most successful PI writer of the 50s with the obvious exception of Spillane.

Publishers Weekly info supplied by Jim Doherty.

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