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Summary
Summary
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
In the first major history of crime fiction in fifty years, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators traces the evolution of the genre from the eighteenth century to the present, offering brand-new perspective on the world's most popular form of fiction.
Author Martin Edwards is a multi-award-winning crime novelist, the President of the Detection Club, archivist of the Crime Writers' Association and series consultant to the British Library's highly successful series of crime classics, and therefore uniquely qualified to write this book. He has been a widely respected genre commentator for more than thirty years, winning the CWA Diamond Dagger for making a significant contribution to crime writing in 2020, when he also compiled and published Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club and the novel Mortmain Hall. His critically acclaimed The Golden Age of Murder (Collins Crime Club, 2015) was a landmark study of Detective Fiction between the wars.
The Life of Crime is the result of a lifetime of reading and enjoying all types of crime fiction, old and new, from around the world. In what will surely be regarded as his magnum opus, Martin Edwards has thrown himself undaunted into the breadth and complexity of the genre to write an authoritative - and readable - study of its development and evolution. With crime fiction being read more widely than ever around the world, and with individual authors increasingly the subject of extensive academic study, his expert distillation of more than two centuries of extraordinary books and authors - from the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann to the novels of Patricia Cornwell - into one coherent history is an extraordinary feat and makes for compelling reading.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Edwards (The Golden Age of Murder), an archivist for the Crime Writers' Association, puts his expertise to good use in this magisterial history of crime fiction. The author traces the roots of crime fiction beyond where most scholars start; while he credits Edgar Allan Poe as the father of detective fiction, he identifies a lesser-known figure, William Godwin (Mary Shelley's father), as having written the "first thriller about a manhunt" with his 1794 novel Things as They Are. Each chapter opens with an anecdote from the life of a consequential author, putting their literary efforts in the context of their lives. For example, Marie Belloc Lowndes "used mysterious real-life crimes" among London's early 1900s social elite "as source material for her fiction," and Kinsey Millhone creator Sue Grafton had been fantasizing about murdering her husband before channeling that anger and hatred into a mystery novel. Edwards doesn't hesitate to criticize weaknesses even in works by prominent authors (Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet is "flawed," for example), and unlike other major studies of the genre, gives plenty of space to non-Anglo authors and writers of color. The result is an encyclopedic and consequential volume, a must-read for readers who've wondered who-, how-, or whydunit. (Aug.)
Kirkus Review
How the literary imagination of crime has evolved over two centuries. In this ambitious historical survey, novelist and scholar Edwards charts the development of crime fiction from the late 18th century to the present moment, covering authors from around the globe. This is a big, sweeping text, with 55 chapters and 100 authors given close consideration. Each chapter, arranged in rough chronological order, introduces the work of one or more authors along with key biographical information, followed by extensive footnotes that provide additional commentary. Edwards examines pioneering figures--Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, and others--next to an impressive range of less-well-known authors, including Erskine Childers, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and Frank Castle Froest. Edwards devotes several chapters to authors of special merit, though most are organized around significant themes: narratives located in and seemingly influenced by a particular historical period, those dependent on framing devices such as courtroom or police procedures, or those defined by particular moods, as in noir and macabre fiction. The author's efforts at inclusiveness extend to his exploration of East Asian detective fiction, Scandinavian crime writing, and "women writing about private investigators." His descriptions of particular works, and of specific contributions to the genre, are often incisive and provide genuine insights, though the approach is generally to provide an overview of essential facts and patterns rather than close interpretive arguments. Among the most intriguing chapters are those that examine works by major authors primarily known for their contributions to other genres, such as Charles Dickens and Jorge Luis Borges. Ultimately, Edwards offers a thorough sketch of the genre's origins, its complex evolutions, and its flexibility in response to cultural shifts. The author also includes a 20-page select bibliography. A broad and absorbing overview of one of the most popular and enduring genres of fiction. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
It's been 50 years since Julian Symons published Mortal Consequences, his classic history of the detective story. The genre has continued to grow, throwing off new offshoots, inversions, and modes of expression; crime writers today come from all over the globe. It's time for a new study, and there can be no better fit for the task than Detection Club president Edwards (The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story), with 18 distinguished crime novels and numerous studies and anthologies of crime fiction to his credit. Edwards hasn't tried to clone Symons's book, as good as it was. There's much more personal detail in Edwards's study, which draws details from the lives of individual crime writers to explain how and why they wrote. The breadth of this book's grasp reflects the fuzziness of traditional definitions of detective fiction: Symons redefined it as "crime fiction," while Edwards expands it to include, e.g., spy thrillers. Beyond describing more than two centuries of key crime novels, Edwards reflects on subjects like the contributions of Borges and the differences and affiliations between Chandler and MacDonald; his analyses are acute, and his appreciation of his predecessor Symons is sharp and fair. VERDICT A delight to read, including the footnotes. Essential for all serious devotees of crime and detective fiction.--David Keymer
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| 1 Revolution: Origins | p. 9 |
| 2 Mystery and Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe and the first detective stories | p. 20 |
| 3 Guilty Secrets: Sensation novels | p. 29 |
| 4 Detective Fever: Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and early detective fiction | p. 37 |
| 5 Poacher Turned Gamekeeper: The French Revolution: Vidocq, Gaboriau and their worldwide influence | p. 49 |
| 6 The Great Detective: Sherlock Holmes | p. 58 |
| 7 Rogues' Gallery: Raffles and other villains | p. 71 |
| 8 The Nature of Evil: G. K. Chesterton and faith and sin in detective fiction | p. 81 |
| 9 Plot Minds: Marie Belloc Lowndes and Edwardian-era detective fiction | p. 92 |
| 10 The Science of Detection: R. Austin Freeman and scientific mysteries | p. 103 |
| 11 Had-I-But-Known: Mary Roberts Rinehart and 'women in jeopardy' novels | p. 116 |
| 12 War and Peace: The First World War and detective fiction | p. 127 |
| 13 Treacherous Impulses: Early spy fiction | p. 138 |
| 14 The Mistress of Deception: Agatha Christie | p. 149 |
| 15 American Tragedy: Van Dine and the American Golden Age | p. 161 |
| 16 Superfluous Women: Queens of crime | p. 174 |
| 17 Challenging the Reader: Detection and game-playing | p. 187 |
| 18 Locked Rooms: 'Impossible crime' mysteries | p. 199 |
| 19 The Long Arm of the Law: Early police stories | p. 212 |
| 20 Blood-Simple: Dashiell Hammett | p. 223 |
| 21 Murder and its Motives: True crime | p. 234 |
| 22 Twists of Fate: Francis Iles and ironic crime fiction | p. 245 |
| 23 The Sound of Mystery: Radio mysteries | p. 259 |
| 24 In Lonely Rooms: Raymond Chandler | p. 270 |
| 25 Brothers in Crime: Patrick and Bruce Hamilton | p. 281 |
| 26 Cracks in the Wall: Georges Simenon and European crime fiction | p. 291 |
| 27 Sensation in Court: Legal mysteries | p. 304 |
| 28 California Dreaming: Crime writers and Hollywood | p. 314 |
| 29 Carnival of Crime: Mystery and the macabre | p. 326 |
| 30 Waking Nightmares: Noir fiction | p. 336 |
| 31 Dagger of the Mind: Casebook novels | p. 347 |
| 32 Whose Body?: Whowasdunins: mysteries about the victim's identity | p. 355 |
| 33 Private Wounds: Transitioning from the Golden Age | p. 365 |
| 34 Out of this World: Traditional detective fiction evolves in the United States | p. 375 |
| 35 Perfect Murders: Crime and the end of empire | p. 387 |
| 36 Mind Games: Post-war psychological suspense | p. 398 |
| 37 Deep Water: Patricia Highsmith | p. 410 |
| 38 Forking Paths: Borges and postmodernism | p. 418 |
| 39 Bloody Murder: Julian Symons and crime fiction criticism | p. 429 |
| 40 People with Ghosts: Post-war private investigators and the legacy of Vietnam | p. 443 |
| 41 Killing Jokes: Comedy and crime | p. 454 |
| 42 Literary Agents: Post-war spy fiction | p. 466 |
| 43 Nerve: Adventure novels and thrillers | p. 480 |
| 44 Outsider in Amsterdam: Dutch crime | p. 490 |
| 45 Whodunwhat?: Theatrical murder | p. 502 |
| 46 Black and Blue: British police fiction | p. 511 |
| 47 Home Discomforts: Domestic suspense | p. 522 |
| 48 Mystery Games: East Asian detective fiction | p. 533 |
| 49 Early Graves: Difference and diversity | p. 545 |
| 50 A Suitable Job for a Woman: Women writing about private investigators | p. 560 |
| 51 A Feeling for Snow: Scandinavian crime writing | p. 571 |
| 52 Fatal Inversions: Ruth Rendell and modern psychological suspense | p. 581 |
| 53 Dark Places: American police fiction | p. 591 |
| 54 Long Shadows: Historical crime | p. 601 |
| 55 A Taste for Death: P. D. James and the truth about human character and experience | p. 613 |
| Select Bibliography | p. 623 |
| Acknowledgements | p. 644 |
| Index of Titles | p. 646 |
| Index of Names | p. 688 |
| Subject Index | p. 716 |