Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics

Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics
Author: Stephen Knight
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2014-11-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1476618984

Starting with William Godwin's Caleb Williams and Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly, this book covers in detail the great works of detective fiction--Poe's Dupin stories, Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Sayers' Strong Poison, Chandler's The Big Sleep, and Simenon's The Yellow Dog. Lesser-known but important early works are also discussed, including Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, Emile Gaboriau's M. Lecoq, Anna Katharine Green's The Leavenworth Case and Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. More recent titles show increasing variety in the mystery genre, with Patricia Highsmith's criminal-focused The Talented Mr. Ripley and Chester Himes' African-American detectives in Cotton Comes to Harlem. Diversity develops further in Sara Paretsky's tough woman detective V.I. Warshawski in Indemnity Only, Umberto Eco's medievalist and postmodern The Name of the Rose and the forensic feminism of Patricia Cornwell's Postmortem. Notably, the best modern crime fiction has been primarily international--Manuel Vasquez Montalban's Catalan Summer Seas, Ian Rankin's Edinburgh-set The Naming of the Dead, Sweden's Stieg Larsson's The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and Vikram Chanda's Mumbai-based Sacred Games. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics

Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics
Author: Stephen Knight
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2014-11-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0786493984

Starting with William Godwin's Caleb Williams and Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly, this book covers in detail the great works of detective fiction--Poe's Dupin stories, Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Sayers' Strong Poison, Chandler's The Big Sleep, and Simenon's The Yellow Dog. Lesser-known but important early works are also discussed, including Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, Emile Gaboriau's M. Lecoq, Anna Katharine Green's The Leavenworth Case and Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. More recent titles show increasing variety in the mystery genre, with Patricia Highsmith's criminal-focused The Talented Mr. Ripley and Chester Himes' African-American detectives in Cotton Comes to Harlem. Diversity develops further in Sara Paretsky's tough woman detective V.I. Warshawski in Indemnity Only, Umberto Eco's medievalist and postmodern The Name of the Rose and the forensic feminism of Patricia Cornwell's Postmortem. Notably, the best modern crime fiction has been primarily international--Manuel Vasquez Montalban's Catalan Summer Seas, Ian Rankin's Edinburgh-set The Naming of the Dead, Sweden's Stieg Larsson's The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and Vikram Chanda's Mumbai-based Sacred Games. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators
Author: Martin Edwards
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 977
Release: 2022-05-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0008192456

Winner of four major prizes for the best critical/biographical book related to crime fiction: the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and H.R.F. Keating Awards; and shortlisted for both the Agatha and Gold Dagger Awards. ‘Martin Edwards is the closest thing there has been to a philosopher of crime writing.’ The Times

Malice Aforethought

Malice Aforethought
Author: Francis Iles
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2018-09-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0486827593

A philandering doctor resolves to poison his domineering wife in this classic of psychological suspense. No. 16 in the Crime Writers' Association's Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.

The Big Bow Mystery

The Big Bow Mystery
Author: Israel Zangwill
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2021-05-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 151328777X

The Big Bow Mystery (1892) is a novel by Israel Zangwill. Although he is frequently recognized as a writer who focused on the plight of London’s Jewish community, Zangwill also wrote works of genre fiction. Originally serialized in The Star, The Big Bow Mystery is a satirical take on the locked room mystery that continues to astound, entertain, and frustrate readers to this day. Having risen through poverty to become an educator and author, Zangwill dedicated his career to the voiceless, the oppressed, and the needy, advocating for their rights and bearing witness to their suffering in some of the most powerful novels and stories of the Victorian era. On a foggy morning in a working-class neighborhood on the East End of London, a landlady rises to light the fire and make a pot of tea. Eventually, Mrs. Drabdump realizes that one of her tenants has overslept, and goes upstairs to wake him. Finding his room locked from the inside, she grows concerned and enlists the help of another tenant. Forcing open the door, they find the man—a prominent activist for worker’s rights—dead in his own bed. When the coroner’s report reveals that the man was neither murdered or killed by his own hand, an investigation is launched involving inept policemen, a major politician, and several strange characters whose peculiarities provide a darkly humorous tint to an otherwise brutal tale of death and urban decay. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Israel Zangwill’s The Big Bow Mystery is a classic of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep
Author: Raymond Chandler
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2022-08-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Murder by the Book

Murder by the Book
Author: Martin Edwards
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2022-09-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1728261171

With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of bibliomysteries, where "golden age–inspired puzzle masters [are] doing what they do best: bringing together readers, books, and felonies [in] perhaps the single best collection yet in this blue-chip series (Kirkus Reviews)." There is no better hiding place for clues—or red herrings—than inside the pages of a book. But in this world of resentful ghost writers, indiscreet playwrights, and unscrupulous book collectors, literary prowess is often a prologue to disaster. Readers should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets. Featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent, Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and others, a bookish puzzle threatens an eagerly awaited inheritance; a submission to a publisher recounts a murder that seems increasingly to be a work of nonfiction; an irate novelist puts a grisly end to the source of his writer's block.

The Tiger in the Smoke

The Tiger in the Smoke
Author: Margery Allingham
Publisher: Ipso Books
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2015-10-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504048695

“The Tiger in the Smoke is a phenomenal novel.” —J. K. Rowling A fog is creeping through the weary streets of London—so too are whispers that the Tiger is back in town, undetected by the law, untroubled by morals. And the rumors are true: Jack Havoc, charismatic outlaw, knife-wielding killer, and ingenious jail-breaker, is on the loose once again. As Havoc stalks the smog-cloaked alleyways of the city, it falls to Albert Campion to hunt down the fugitive and put a stop to his rampage—before it’s too late . . . “Allingham’s work is always of the first rank.” —The New York Times

Detective Fiction

Detective Fiction
Author: Charles J. Rzepka
Publisher: Polity
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2005-09-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780745629421

'Detective Fiction' is a clear and compelling look at some of the best known, yet least-understood characters and texts of the modern day. Undergraduate students of Detective and Crime Fiction and of genre fiction in general, will find this book essential reading.

Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s

Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s
Author: Leslie S Klinger
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 1666
Release: 2018-10-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1681779269

Classic American Crime Writing of the 1920s—including House Without a Key, The Benson Murder Case, The Tower Treasure, The Roman Hat Mystery, The Tower Treasure, and Little Caesar—offers some of the very best of that decade’s writing. Earl Derr Biggers wrote about Charlie Chan, a Chinese-American detective, at a time when racism was rampant. S. S. Van Dine invented Philo Vance, an effete, rich amateur psychologist who flourished while America danced and the stock market rose. Edwin Stratemeyer, a man of mystery himself, singlehandedly created the juvenile mystery, with the beloved Hardy Boys series. The quintessential American detective Ellery Queen leapt onto the stage, to remain popular for fifty years. W. R. Burnett, created the indelible character of Rico, the first gangster antihero. Each of the five novels included is presented in its original published form, with extensive historical and cultural annotations and illustrations added by Edgar-winning editor Leslie S. Klinger, allowing the reader to experience the story to its fullest. Klinger's detailed foreword gives an overview of the history of American crime writing from its beginnings in the early years of America to the twentieth century.