Making the Detective Story American

Making the Detective Story American
Author: J.K. Van Dover
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2010-04-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0786456892

This critical text examines the fiction of Earl Derr Biggers, S. S. Van Dine, and Dashiell Hammett during a crucial half-decade when they transformed the detective story. The characters they created, including Charlie Chan, Philo Vance, and the Continental Op, represented a new style of detective solving crimes in fresh ways. Their successes would push crime and detective fiction in startling and rejuvenating directions. Topics covered include the highbrow detective, the ethnic detective, the exploitation of contemporary sensations, and the exploitation of women. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

The Origins of the American Detective Story

The Origins of the American Detective Story
Author: LeRoy Lad Panek
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2015-01-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0786481382

Edgar Allan Poe essentially invented the detective story in 1841 with Murders in the Rue Morgue. In the years that followed, however, detective fiction in America saw no significant progress as a literary genre. Much to the dismay of moral crusaders like Anthony Comstock, dime novels and other sensationalist publications satisfied the public's hunger for a yarn. Things changed as the century waned, and eventually the detective was reborn as a figure of American literature. In part these changes were due to a combination of social conditions, including the rise and decline of the police as an institution; the parallel development of private detectives; the birth of the crusading newspaper reporter; and the beginnings of forensic science. Influential, too, was the new role model offered by a wildly popular British import named Sherlock Holmes. Focusing on the late 19th century and early 20th, this volume covers the formative years of American detective fiction. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Talking About Detective Fiction

Talking About Detective Fiction
Author: P. D. James
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2011-05-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0307743136

P. D. James, the undisputed queen of mystery, gives us an intriguing, inspiring and idiosyncratic look at the genre she has spent her life perfecting. Examining mystery from top to bottom, beginning with such classics as Charles Dickens's Bleak House and Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, and then looking at such contemporary masters as Colin Dexter and Henning Mankell, P. D. James goes right to the heart of the genre. Along the way she traces the lives and writing styles of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and many more. Here is P.D. James discussing detective fiction as social history, explaining its stylistic components, revealing her own writing process, and commenting on the recent resurgence of detective fiction in modern culture. It is a must have for the mystery connoisseur and casual fan alike.

Lagos Noir

Lagos Noir
Author: Jude Dibia
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1617756482

“A stellar cast of award-winning Nigerian authors . . . a must-read for crime lovers looking for something different.”—Brittle Paper In Akashic Books’s acclaimed series of original noir anthologies, each book comprises all new stories set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Now, West Africa enters the Noir Series arena, meticulously edited by one of Nigeria’s best-known authors. In Lagos Noir, the stories are set in “a city of more than 21 million and an amazing amalgam of wealth, poverty, corruption, humor, bravery, and tragedy. Abani and a dozen other contributors tell stories that are both unique to Lagos and universal in their humanity . . . This entry stands as one of the strongest recent additions to Akashic’s popular noir series” (Publishers Weekly, starred review, pick of the week). The anthology includes stories by Chris Abani, Nnedi Okorafor, E.C. Osondu, Jude Dibia, Chika Unigwe, A. Igoni Barrett, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Adebola Rayo, Onyinye Ihezukwu, Uche Okonkwo, Wale Lawal, ’Pemi Aguda, and Leye Adenle. “The beauty of this book, which contains 13 stories from Nigerian writers, is that it serves as a travelogue, too.”—Bloomberg, “The Darkest Summer Reading List for Those Bright, Beachy Days” “With writers like Igoni Barrett, Leye Adenle, and E.C. Osondu contributing, Lagos Noir offers wildly different perspectives on both the city itself and the state of noir fiction. This book is almost like a world in itself, one that you’ll want to dive back into and get lost in again and again.”—CrimeReads, “One of the 10 Best Crime Anthologies of 2018”

Death and the Seaside

Death and the Seaside
Author: Alison Moore
Publisher: Biblioasis
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2019-10-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1771962763

Nearing thirty, with an abandoned literature degree and half-hearted dreams of becoming a writer, Bonnie Falls gives in to her parents’ insistence that she finally move out of their home and takes up residence in a shabby first-floor flat with a concrete garden. When her landlady takes an uncommon interest in her—and one of her unfinished stories—Bonnie’s aspirations are rekindled, and when Sylvia suggests the two of them take a summer holiday to a seaside town oddly similar to the one in which the story is set, Bonnie is quickly persuaded to accompany the enigmatic older woman. A tense exploration of power and vulnerability, obsession and manipulation, Death and the Seaside is a masterpiece of form and gripping psychological novel about the stories that we tell ourselves.

The Enigma of Stonehenge

The Enigma of Stonehenge
Author: John Fowles
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 128
Release: 1981
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780671437589

The history and meaning of Stonehenge with photographs of the ancient monument as it is today.

The Detective

The Detective
Author: Roderick Thorp
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2014-12-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1497680948

In this bestselling book that inspired the hit movie by the same name, starring Frank Sinatra, an apparent suicide forces a PI to reconsider his most famous case Joe Leland returned from World War II with a chest full of medals, but his greatest honor came after he traded his pilot’s wings for a detective’s shield. Catching the Leikman killer made Joe a local hero, but the shine quickly wore off, and it wasn’t long before he left the police force to start his own private agency. Years after his greatest triumph, Joe has a modest income and a quiet life—both of which may soon fall apart. When Colin MacIver dies at the local racetrack, the coroner rules that he took his own life, but his widow knows better. Because MacIver’s life insurance policy doesn’t cover suicide, his wife is left broke, desperate, and afraid for her safety. She hires Leland to find out who could have killed her gentle, unassuming husband—a simple question that will turn this humble city inside out.

Dreams for Dead Bodies

Dreams for Dead Bodies
Author: Michelle Robinson
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2016-02-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0472119818

Explores U.S. detective fiction's deep engagement with the shifting dynamics of race and labor in America

Detecting Texts

Detecting Texts
Author: Patricia Merivale
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2011-06-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0812205456

Although readers of detective fiction ordinarily expect to learn the mystery's solution at the end, there is another kind of detective story—the history of which encompasses writers as diverse as Poe, Borges, Robbe-Grillet, Auster, and Stephen King—that ends with a question rather than an answer. The detective not only fails to solve the crime, but also confronts insoluble mysteries of interpretation and identity. As the contributors to Detecting Texts contend, such stories belong to a distinct genre, the "metaphysical detective story," in which the detective hero's inability to interpret the mystery inevitably casts doubt on the reader's similar attempt to make sense of the text and the world. Detecting Texts includes an introduction by the editors that defines the metaphysical detective story and traces its history from Poe's classic tales to today's postmodernist experiments. In addition to the editors, contributors include Stephen Bernstein, Joel Black, John T. Irwin, Jeffrey T. Nealon, and others.

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.