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This page lists non-fiction books about broad areas of crime fiction and crime fiction writers.

Murder For Pleasure: The Life And Times Of The Detective Story

Howard Haycraft

1941

The first history of the genre.

An enlarged and revised edition was published by Biblo & Tannen in 1968.

The chapter headings are:

• Time: 1841 - Place: America (Genesis)
• The In-Between Years (Development)
• Profile by Gaslight (Renaissance)
• England: 1890-1914 (The Romantic Era)
• America: 1890-1914 (The Romantic Era)
• The Continental Detective Story
• England: 1918-1930 (The Golden Age)
• America: 1918-1930 (The Golden Age)
• England: 1930- (The Moderns)
• America: 1930- (The Moderns)
• The Rules of the Game (A Reader Looks at Writers)
• The Murder Market
• Friends and Foes (The Critical Literature)
• A Detective Story Bookshelf
• Dictators, Democrats, and Detectives
• The Future of the Detective Story
• A Comprehensive Detective Story Quiz
• Who’s Who in Detection
• Appendix A: 'The Purloined Letter' Controversy
• Appendix B: Sherlock Holmes' Name and Other Addenda

The Art Of The Mystery Story: A Collection Of Critical Essays

Editor / commentary: Howard Haycraft

1946

From the foreword:

"The purpose of this book is to bring together under one cover a representative selection of the best critical and informative writing about the modern mystery-crime-detective story, from Poe to the present time. Ever since the day some five years ago that I ventured to perpetrate a history of detective fiction, lovers of this variety of literature have been writing me of the need for such a book. Concurrently, the last few years have witnessed in the public prints an outpouring of serious critical discussion of the once-lowly who-dunit and its relations-by-marriage unequalled in any comparable period in the 100-year history of the genre. In view of these circumstances, it seemed to my publishers and myself that the time had arrived for the compilation of the first and definitive anthology devoted solely to this aspect of the subject."

• A Defence of Detective Stories (G. K. Chesterton)
• The Art of the Detective Story (R. Austin Freeman)
• Crime and Detection (E. M, Wrong)
• The Great Detective Stories (Willard Huntington Wright)
• The Omnibus of Crime (Dorothy L, Sayers)
• The Professor and the Detective (Marjorie Nicolson)
• Masters of Mystery (H. Douglas Thomson)
• The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Vincent Starrett)
• Murder for Pleasure (Howard Haycraft)
• 'Only a Detective Story' (Joseph Wood Krutch)
• Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories (S. S, Van Dine)
• Detective Story Decalogue (Ronald A, Knox)
• The Detection Club Oath
• The Case of the Early Beginning (Erle Stanley Gardner)
• Gaudy Night (Dorothy L. Sayers)
• The Simple Art of Murder (Raymond Chandler)
• Murder Makes Merry (Craig Rice)
• Trojan Horse Opera (Anthony Boucher)
• Dagger of the Mind (James Sandoe)
• Clues (Marie F. Rodell)
• The Locked-Room Lecture (John Dickson Carr)
• Command Performance (Lee Wright)
• Mystery Midwife: The Crime Editor's Job (Isabelle Taylor)
• Hollywoodunit (Richard Mealand)
• There's Murder in the Air (Ken Crossen)
• Watson Was a Woman (Rex Stout)
• Don’t Guess, Let Me Tell You (Ogden Nash)
• The Pink Murder Case, (Christopher Ward)
• Murder at $2.50 a Crime (Stephen Leacock)
• Everything Under Control (Richard Armour)
• The Whistling Corpse (Ben Hecht)
• Oh, England! Full o£ Sin (Robert J. Casey)
• Murders and Motives (E. V. Lucas)
• Murder on Parnassus (Pierre Very)
• The Life of Riley (Isaac Anderson)
• Battle of the Sexes: The Judge and His Wife Look at Mysteries ('Judge Lynch')
• How to Read a Whodunit (Will Cuppy)
• Four Mystery Reviews
• The Ethics of the Mystery Novel (Anthony Boucher)
• Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? (Edmund Wilson)
• The Detective Story - Why? (Nicholas Blake)
• Leaves from the Editors’ Notebook (Ellery Queen)
• From the Memoirs of a Private Detective (Dashiell Hammett)
• Inquest on Detective Stories (R. Philmore)
• TheXawyer Looks at Detective Fiction (J. B. Waite)
• The Crux of a Murder: Disposal of the Body (F. Sherwood Taylor)
• Collecting Detective Fiction (John Carter)
• The Detective Short Story: The First Hundred Years (Ellery Queen)
• Readers’ Guide to Crime (James Sandoe)

Blood in their Ink. The March of the Modern Mystery Novel

Sutherland Scott

1953

A history of the British detective novel.

In The Queens' Parlour: And Other Leaves From The Editors' Notebook

Ellery Queen

1957

Crime in Good Company: Essays On Criminals And Crime-Writing

Editors: Michael Gilbert

1959

A collection of 14 essays.

The contributors are Raymond Chandler, Michael Gilbert, Eric Ambler, Mary Fitt, Cyril Hare, Maurice Procter, Jacques Barzun, Stanley Ellin, David Alexander, Julian Symons, L. A. G. Strong, Roy Vickers, Josephine Bell and Michael Underwood.

The Detective Story In Britain

Julian Symons

Longmans, Green & Co

1962

Tough Guy Writers of the Thirties

Editor: David Madden

1968

Snobbery with Violence

Colin Watson

1971

"In Snobbery with Violence: English Crime Stories and Their Audience, Colin Watson explores the social attitudes that are reflected in the detective story and the thriller. From Conan Doyle and Edgar Wallace to Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming, Watson takes the reader on an entertaining and informative investigation into the world of crime fiction."

The Murder Book: An Illustrated History of the Detective Story

Tage La Cour & Harald Morgensen

1971

Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History

Julian Symons

1972

"When it appeared in 1972 'Bloody Murder' was greeted as the classic study of crime fiction, a book 'heartily recommended to anyone who has ever enjoyed a detective story or a crime novel' as Kingsley Amis wrote. Subsequent edition ensured that this study was kept up to date to include later authors, and a third and final revised edition was issued in 1993 in celebration of distinguished author/critic Julian Symons' 80th year. The views expressed are as candid as ever. One bestselling writer is called unreadable, another compared to writers of 'strip cartoon stories'. But the general tone is warmly appreciative of every sort of book within the genre."

The Puritan Pleasures Of The Detective Story: From Sherlock Holmes To Van der Valk

Erik Routley

1972

The contents are:

• Prologue: What Fun It All Was
• The Master
  The Master - Sherlock Holmes
  The Master's World - Sherlock Holmes
  Romance - Sherlock Holmes
  A Whisper of 'Norbury' - Sherlock Holmes
• The Classics
  Severe Science - John Thorndyke
  In the Dark - Max Carrados
  The Art of Making Objections - Reginald Fortune
  The Mystery of Iniquity - Father Brown
  The Fairy Tale and the Secret - Father Brown
• Puritans And Romantics
  Coming of Age - E. C. Bentley : Freeman Wills Crofts : John Rhode
  Quartet of Muses: First Pair - Agatha Christie: Dorothy Sayers
  Quartet of Muses : Second Pair - Ngaio Marsh : Margery Allingham
  Politeness and Protest - Michael Innes: Edmund Crispin : Joanna Cannan : John Bingham
  And a Large Supporting Cast - Anthony Berkeley: John Dickson Carr : Josephine Bell : Gladys Mitchell : Chris­tianna Brand: Glyn Carr: Thurman Warriner: Anthony Gilbert: Andrew Garve: Cyril Hare: Nicholas Blake: Josephine Tey: Georgette Heyer: Mary Fitt: Mary Kelly : Winston Graham : Macdonald Hastings : Stanley Hyland: John Trench: Georges Simenon: Nicolas Freeling, and others
  Certain Americans - E. A. Poe : Ellery Queen : Erle Stanley Gardner: Patrick Quentin: Francis Kemelman: Lesley Egan, and others
• Excellences And Limitations
  The Case against the Detective Story
  On Being Serious-minded
• Appendices

Murder Must Appetize

H.R.F. Keating

1975

Also published by The Mysterious Press in 1981.

"H.R.F. Keating, doyen of modern detective writers, has little doubt that there's nothing like a corpse in a vicarage or country house conservatory to soothe away the tensions of modern living. In Murder Must Appetize the creator of Inspector Ghote makes an affectionate return journey to the halcyon days of the detective story when Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey were young and a touch of arsenic was still the ultimate deterrent. Apart from old friends like Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie, we meet the less well remembered pioneers of detective fiction, including E.C.R. Lorac (alias for Edith Caroline Rivett) and her bookworm hero Inspector Macdonald; E.R. Punshon and his water swilling Chief Constable: not to mention Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, Gladys Mitchell's 'cacklingly reptilian psychiatric adviser to the Home Office' and many others. H.R.F. Keating's unashamed nostalgia is blended with the critical eye of a master of the detective fiction craft. In fact, Mr. Keating is uniquely equipped to act as guide and philosopher on this enthralling tour of Britain's rich heritage of fictional murder."

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The Mystery Story

Editor: John Ball

1976

A collection of essays about crime fiction. The contents are (probably):

• Murder at Large (John Ball)
• The Mystery Story in Cultural Perspective (Aaron Marc Stein)
• The Mystery Versus the Novel (Hillary Waugh)
• The Amateur Detectives (Otto Penzler)
• The Private Eye (James Sandoe)
• Women in Detective Fiction (Michele Slung)
• The Ethnic Detective (John Ball)
• The Police Procedural (Hillary Waugh)
• Locked Rooms and Puzzles: A Critical Memoir (Donald A. Yates)
• The Spy in Fact and Fiction (Michael Gilbert)
• Gothic Mysteries (Phyllis A. Whitney)
• Death Rays Demons and Worms Unknown to Science (Robert E. Briney)
• Patterns in Mystery Fiction: The Durable Series Character (Allen J. Hubin)
• The Great Crooks (Otto Penzler)
• Name Games: Mystery Writers and Their Pseudonyms (Francis M. Nevins Jr.)
• And Why Do We Read This Stuff (E. T. Guymon Jr.)
• The Literature of the Subject: An Annotated Bibliography (Robert E. Briney)

Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Doyle

Ian Ousby

1976

"Charts the transformation of the detective in English fiction from rogue to hero in light of the history of the English police force and the English social milieu."

Murder Ink: The Mystery Reader's Companion

Perpetrated by Dilys Will

1977

"A host of crime buffs including Interpol consultants, forensic anthropologists, psychiatrists, and novelists contribute articles on the many faces, factors, and techniques of crime in fact and fiction."

Crime Writers: Reflections On Crime Writing

Editor: H.R.F. Keating

1978

Includes chapters by Reginald Hill, P.D. James, H.R.F. Keating, Troy Kennedy Martin, Maurice Richardson, Julian Symons, and Colin Watson.

Watteau's Shepherds: The Detective Novel in Britain 1914-1940

Leroy Lad Panek

1979

"Detective stories should be examined from a literary point of view, with special attention to literary history and to materials and patterns from which the writers created their fictions. This book sheds new light into the fascinating field of detective fiction."

Murderess Ink: The Better Half of the Mystery

Perpetrated by Dilys Will

1979

"Psst. Murderess Ink proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, that women in the mystery are round dead as often as men, commit just as many murders as men, make just as many wisecracks as men, drink just as much booze as men, and in the final analysis, the female is not only deadlier than the male, but wackier. .... More than 50 fearless contributors, over 100 statements in the mystery's defense, enough mug shots to make Interpol jealous, and a bloody good time (in matching color)."

Detective Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays

Editor: Robin W. WInks

1980

"Essays argue whether detective stories are a legitimate genre of literature, an enjoyable self-indulgence, a mirror of society, or a waste of time."

The Lady Investigates, Women Detectives & Spies in Fiction

Patricia Craig & Mary Cadogan

1981

"In the early chapters of this book, the authors examine the crime novels of Wilkie Collins, George R. Sims, Grant Allen, and Anna Katherine Green, and discover the splendid and daunting lady detective Miss Van Snoop. Later on, they explore the period in this century in which women writers made the detective story their own - Christie, Sayers, Allingham, Marsh, and many more."

Deadlier Than The Male: Why Are Respectable English Women So Good At Murder?

Jessica Mann

1981

"Why are respectable English women so good at murder? The intriguing phenomenon of the female crime writer is explored with an account of the Grandes Dames of the traditional detective novel. There are chapters on D.L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey and consideration of many others. These women’s lives were ostensibly peaceful, conventional, conformist and respectable. So what was it in their experience which gave them such violent imaginations and made them excel in what might seem a most unlikely field? This book attempts to answer that question."

Whodunit? A Guide to Crime, Suspense & Spy Fiction

Editor: H.R.F. Keating

1982

"Surveys the history of the different types of fiction concerning crime, offers advice on how to write mysteries, and rates the various crime writers and their novels."

The Police Procedural

George N. Dove

1982

"In the late 1940s and early 1950s a new kind of detective story appeared on the scene. This was a story in which the mystery is solved by regular police detectives, usually working in teams and using ordinary police routines. This kind of narrative is customarily called the police procedural story. And it is the subject of this book. Though there has been numberless writers of these stories, there has never been a book of criticism before."

Writing Crime Fiction

H.R.F. Keating

1986

Second edition published in 1994.

"This guide to writing crime fiction is based on the author's analysis of the craft from the classic detective story of the 1920s and 30s up to the female private eye novels of the 1990s. It features tips on fictional structure, the plot and its characters, and on submitting a script to publishers."

Colloquium On Crime: Eleven Renowned Mystery Writers Discuss Their Work

Editor: Robin W. Winks

1986

The contributing authors are: Robert Barnard, Rex Burns, K. C. Constantine, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Michael Gilbert, Donald Hamilton, Joseph Hansen, Tony Hillerman, Reginald Hill, James McClure, and Robert B. Parker.

Heroes And Humanities : Detective Fiction And Culture

Ray B. Browne

1986

"The present study of American, Australian, and Canadian detective fiction concerns literature which speaks in the ways of heroes and humanities about the human condition. All authors studied here, to one degree or another, demonstrate their concern with human society, some more strongly than others, but all with their eyes on the human situation and human existence. At times these studies lean toward the tragic in their outlook and development. In all instances they center on the humanistic."

An Introduction to the Detective Story

Leroy Lad Panek

1987

"It begins with an examination - and rejection - of a number of pseudo-detective stories from biblical apocrypha to accounts in Herodotus. LeRoy Lad Panek examines seventeenth-century stories of highwaymen and Godwin's The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) before getting down to Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), Wilkie Collins's Woman in White and Moonstone, and, surprisingly, many of Charles Dickens's tales. Also reviewed are Gaboriau, Arthur Conan Doyle, the turn-of-the-century writers, the Golden Age stories, the hard-boileds, and the police procedurals. Finally, Panek takes a look at works from the late twentieth-century."

Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books

H.R.F. Keating

Xanadu / Carroll & Graf

1987

"H.R.F Keating, author of The Perfect Murder and mystery reviewer for teh Times of London, offers a concise commentary on the finest mystery books ever written. From Poe's tales of mystery and imagination to P.D. James's A Taste for Death, Keating delivers a highly-readable evaluation of the 100 authors and their masterpieces. This collection is a must for all devoted mystery readers."

Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction

Editor: Frank N. Magill

1988

The first edition was published in four volumes. A second edition of five volumes, edited by Carl E. Rollyson, was published in 2008.

"This is a comprehensive survey of mystery and detective fiction that covers more than 390 writers and includes overviews on more than three dozen aspects of the genre. Continuing the Salem Press tradition of 'Critical Survey' series it provides detailed analyses of the lives and writings of major contributors to the fascinating literary subgenre of mystery and detective fiction. This greatly expanded five-volume set is the first full revision of a work that originally appeared in 1988. This new edition updates or replaces all the original articles and adds entirely new articles on 118 more authors, raising the total to 393 articles. It also adds 38 entirely new overview essays and 5 new appendixes."

The Woman Detective: Gender and Genre

Kathleen Gregory Klein

1988

Second edition published in 1995.

"Kathleen Gregory Klein traces female paid, professional private investigators in British, Canadian, and American novels, revealing that the detective novel is both a reflection of and potential barrier to social change for women. The second edition adds sixty new female private eyes to the roster and includes an afterword that assesses the current state of the genre's new and old novels. A comprehensive bibliography and a character list update the field through mid-1994."

Murder Will Out: The Detective In Fiction

T.J. Binyon

1989

"This study follows the trail of the detective story from its earliest appearance to the present. It is the history of a character: the fictional detective in his many guises, ranging from brilliant, eccentric amateur to plodding, imperceptive policeman. It illustrates not only how the genre has grown out of the character but also how the character of the detective has often overshadowed its creator. The book is aimed at those who are interested in detective fiction on any level."

The Bedside Companion to Crime

H.R.F. Keating

1989

"Keating succeeds in entertaining mystery buffs by gathering hundreds of facts and foibles from the world of crime writing. He features 20 great crooks, providing a run-down of great crimes in boarding schools, a catalogue of parodies and pastiches, a look at murders on trains, and a compendium of embarrassing mistakes."

Murder Off The Rack: Critical Studies Of Ten Paperback Masters

Jon L. Breen and Martin H. Greenberg

1989

"The surge in paperback book production in the 1950s created a market for pulp-style crime fiction written by fast-fingered authors who could pound out potboilers on tight deadlines. These are the stories of ten genre pioneers whose work still packs a punch today. Noted mystery fiction scholars analyze each author's major works and provide insight into his background, commercial success (or lack thereof), and writing style."

• Introduction (Jon L. Breen)
• Harry Whittington (Bill Crider)
• Ed Lacy (Marvin Lachman)
• Jim Thompson (Max Allan Collins)
• The novels of Vin Packer (Jon L. Breen)
• Marvin H. Albert (George Kelley)
• Fifteen impressions of Charles Williams (Ed Gorman)
• Donald Hamilton (Loren D. Estleman)
• Peter Rabe (Donald E. Westlake)
• The executioner phenomenon (Will Murray)
• Warren Murphy and his heroic oddballs (Dick Lochte)

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Twentieth Century Suspense: The Thriller Comes Of Age

Editor: Clive Bloom

1990

"The 17 critical essays, most by British scholars, examine the works of Agatha Christie, Dennis Wheatley, Dorothy Sayers, lesser known writers, and the new feminist thrillers."

Detective Fiction and Literature: The Figure on the Carpet

Martin Priestman

1991

"A literary study exploring detective fiction as a specialized literary genre, from its origins in the works of Poe, Wilkie Collins and Doyle to present-day writer."

Into the Badlands: Travels Through Urban America

John Williams

1991

"In 'a vital mix of literary criticism, personality profiles, and imaginary geography', Williams seeks out the mythical America of the nation's most astute chroniclers - the crime writers - to find Elmore Leonard's Miami, Sara Paretsky's Chicago, and Andrew Vachss' New York, among others."

Criminal Practices: Symons on Crime Writing 60s to 90s

Julian Symons

1994

"This is a collection of articles, reviews, interviews and essays by the 1990 Cartier Diamond Dagger award winner - critic and writer, Julian Symons. Following an introduction entitled 'The Crime Story Yesterday, Today, Tommorrow', this book offers a collection of Symons's writing on crime fiction from Britain, the United States and elsewhere, plus a section on real life stories, such as The Hiss Affair and the Yorkshire Ripper. Authors that come under Symons's microscope include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Len Deighton and John Le Carre, Edgar Allan Poe, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and Martin Cruz Smith."

Women Times Three: Writers, Detectives, Readers

Editor: Kathleen Gregory Klein

1995

"This volume explores the range of relationships among women writers, women detectives and women-centered mystery fiction, and women readers. Focusing on writers as diverse as Sara Paretsky, Joan Hess, Sarah Caudwell, P.D. James, Katherine V. Forrest, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Sue Grafton, D.R. Meredith, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Barbara Wilson, the authors analyze the development of detective fiction with a different agenda: the woman-authored woman detective. Examined through the eyes of actual and hypothetical women readers of the genre, these eleven essays concentrate new attention on the trio of reader, writer, and text when all three are modified by the terms 'woman' and 'mystery'."

Crime Fiction: From Edgar Allan Poe to the Present Day

Martin Priestman

1996

A Reader's Guide to the Spy and Thriller Novel

Nancy-Stephanie Stone

1997

"With synopses of 1,372 spy and thriller novels by more than 150 authors, this is simply the most valuable and comprehensive guide for all interested in this popular genre. From the early works of Ian Fleming, Somerset Maugham, and Graham Greene to todays best-sellers by John Le Carr and Tom Clancy, the author catalogs the series characters and creators, period and story locations, and film and television adaptations."

Diversity And Detective Fiction

Editor: Kathleen Gregory Klein

1999

"The first collection to articulate the pedagogical strategies of using detective fiction to investigate the politics of difference. The volume examines the many ways in which diversity is posited by contemporary writers exploring distinctive American subcultures. The distinguishing characteristic of the book is its mix of essays focusing on teaching cultural diversity in the classroom and illustrating diversity through fiction to the general reader. Among the issues addressed are definitions of diversity; what constitutes ethnicity or race, especially in terms of multiple subjectivities; how race, gender, and ethnicity are culturally constructed; and what part is played by identity politics."

Detective Agency: Women Rewriting the Hard-Boiled Tradition

Priscilla L. Walton and Manina Jones

1999

"Priscilla L. Walton and Manina Jones focus on this recent proliferation of women writers of detective fiction, providing the first book-length study of the historical and societal changes that fueled this popularity, along with insightful and entertaining readings of the texts themselves. Walton and Jones place the genre within its aesthetic, social, and economic contexts, reading it as an index of cultural beliefs. Addressing the ways that Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, and others work through the conventions of the "hard-boiled" genre made popular by writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane, the authors show how the male hard-boiled tradition has been challenged and transformed."

Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science

Ronald R. Thomas

Cambridge University Press

1999

"This is a book about the relationship between the development of forensic science in the nineteenth century and the invention of the new literary genre of detective fiction in Britain and America. Ronald R. Thomas examines the criminal body as a site of interpretation and enforcement in a wide range of fictional examples, from Poe, Dickens and Hawthorne through Twain and Conan Doyle to Hammett, Chandler and Christie. He is especially concerned with the authority the literary detective manages to secure through the 'devices' - fingerprinting, photography, lie detectors - with which he discovers the truth and establishes his expertise, and the way in which those devices relate to broader questions of cultural authority at decisive moments in the history of the genre. This is an interdisciplinary project, framing readings of literary texts with an analysis of contemporaneous developments in criminology, the rules of evidence, and modern scientific accounts of identity."

Twentieth Century Crime Fiction: Gender, Sexuality and the Body

Gill Plain

2001

"In the book Gill Plain uses contemporary theories of gender and sexuality to challenge the dominant perception of crime fiction as a conservative genre. The rise of lesbian detection and the impact of serial killing are considered alongside detailed analyses of works by popular writers such as Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Dick Francis and Sara Paretsky. Beginning with a radical reconceptualisation of genre categories, the book goes on to consider recent revisions and reappropriations of the form. The final section focuses on textual pleasure and the destabilising of genre boundaries, raising the timely question of whether the queering of crime fiction represents a revitalising paradigm shift or the conceptual collapse of the genre."

Russian Pulp: The Detektiv and the Russian Way of Crime

Anthony Olcott

2001

"The detektiv, Russia's version of the murder mystery, has conquered what in Soviet days loved to call itself "the most reading nation on earth." The first full-length study of the genre, Russian Pulp vividly illustrates how Russians understand law-breaking and crime, policemen and criminals in ways wholly different from those of Westerners. After explaining why solving a crime is always a social function in Russia, Anthony Olcott examines the staples of thrillers-sex, theft, and murder-to demonstrate that Russians see police officer and criminal, thief and victim, as part of a single continuum: all are products of human imperfection. Offering a unique window into Russian society and culture, this book is intended for all students of Russia, from those making first acquaintance to those who have worked for years to understand this puzzling country and its people."

They Died in Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated and Forgotten Mystery Novels

Editor: Jim Huang

2002

"If characters die in a mystery novel, and no one reads their story, have they died in vain? Mystery experts - booksellers, reviewers, genre devotees - introduce you to personal favorites: obscure classics, up-and-coming new writers, great books that unaccountably disappeared and lesser-known titles by bestselling authors."

Nice and Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction

Richard B. Schwartz

2002

"Richard B. Schwartz explores the work of his favourite writers, building on a reading of almost 700 novels from the 1980s and 1990s. By looking at reoccuring themes in these mysteries, Schwartz offers readers new ways to approach the works in relation to contemporary cultural concerns. With sensitivity to a cutlure consisting of frontiers and borders, Schwartz, examines the posistion of the vigilante in art and society, racial bridges and divides, the absence of divine presence and compensating narrative strategies, the unresolved nature of the crime plot and its roots in chivalric romance. The importance of setting, and the growing importance of grotesque humour in the fiction studies here are addressed by the author, as is the journalistic/instructional dimension of the field and the importance of crossover narratives."

Crime Fiction 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity

Stephen Knight

2003

"Stephen Knight's book is a full analytic survey of crime fiction from its origins in the nineteenth century to the most recent developments. Knight explains how and why the various forms of the genre evolved and explores major authors and movements. The best criticism is cited and the book provides full references and a helpful chronology, making this a highly-readable complete study of a popular and still relatively underexamined genre."

The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction

Editor: Martin Priestman

2003

"The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction covers British and American crime fiction from the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth. As well as discussing the detective fiction of writers like Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, it considers other kinds of fiction where crime plays a substantial part, such as the thriller and spy fiction. It also includes chapters on the treatment of crime in eighteenth-century literature, French and Victorian fiction, women and black detectives, crime on film and TV, police fiction and postmodernist uses of the detective form. The collection, by an international team of established specialists, offers students invaluable reference material including a chronology and guides to further reading."

Hardboiled and High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture

Linda Mizejewski

2004

"Can a gumshoe wear high heels? In a genre long dominated by men, women are now taking their place-as authors and as characters-alongside hard-boiled legends like Sam Spade and Mike Hammer. Hardboiled and High Heeled examines the meteoric rise of the female detective in contemporary film, television, and literature. Richly illustrated and written with a fan's love of the genre, Hardboiled and High Heeled is an essential introduction to women in detective fiction, from past to present, from pulp fiction to blockbuster films."

The Gay Detective Novel: Lesbian and Gay Main Characters and Themes in Mystery Fiction

Judith A. Markowitz

McFarland & Co

2004

"This survey of gay and lesbian detective fiction examines series and groundbreaking stand-alone novels published since 1964, analyzing main characters, themes, plot elements and more. Author interviews provide insights that are incorporated into the analyses. The work begins with an overview of gay and lesbian detective fiction, and an outline of the mystery genre's development. Subsequent chapters, arranged by the main character's profession (police, private investigator, amateur sleuth, etc.), examine the series or work in the contexts of mainstream mystery fiction and gay and lesbian culture. Author biographies are included. The final chapter covers series-spanning gay and lesbian themes, and provides a thematically organized list of works and authors."

City and Shore: The Function of Setting in the British Mystery

Gillian Mary Hanson

2004

"Certain settings have long been a common element in British mystery and detective fiction: the quaint village; the country manor; the seaside resort; the streets of London. More than simply providing background, physical setting - in particular the city of London and the British seashore - takes on an added dimension, in a sense becoming a player in the mysteries, one that symbolizes, intensifies, and illuminates aspects of the British mystery novel. The first section examines 18 British mystery novels set in the city of London; the second covers 15 novels set by the sea. The novels span the twentieth century; among the authors whose works are included are Agatha Christie, Graham Greene, G.K. Chesterton and P.D. James."

Crime Fiction

John Scaggs

Routledge

2005

"Crime Fiction provides a lively introduction to what is both a wide-ranging and hugely popular literary genre. Using examples from a variety of novels, short stories, films and televisions series, John Scaggs: presents a concise history of crime fiction - from biblical narratives to James Ellroy - broadening the genre to include revenge tragedy and the gothic novel; explores the key sub-genres of crime fiction, such as 'Rational Criminal Investigation', The Hard-Boiled Mode', 'The Police Procedural' and 'Historical Crime Fiction'; locates texts and their recurring themes and motifs in a wider social and historical context; outlines the various critical concepts that are central to the study of crime fiction, including gender, narrative theory and film theory; considers contemporary television series like C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation alongside the 'classic' whodunnits of Agatha Christie."

Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction

Lee Horsley

2005

"Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction aims to enhance understanding of one of the most popular forms of genre fiction by examining a wide variety of the detective and crime fiction produced in Britain and America during the twentieth century. It will be of interest to anyone who enjoys reading crime fiction but is specifically designed with the needs of students in mind. It introduces different theoretical approaches to crime fiction (e.g., formalist, historicist, psychoanalytic, postcolonial, feminist) and will be a useful supplement to a range of crime fiction courses, whether they focus on historical contexts, ideological shifts, the emergence of sub-genres, or the application of critical theories."

Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers Interviewed

Stuart M. Kaminsky

HotHouse Press

2005

"The past president of the Mystery Writers of America shares the results of his nationwide interviews with eighteen of the top mystery writers in the country, including Tony Hillerman, Mickey Spillane, Sara Paretsky, Martin Cruz Smith, Sue Grafton, and others."

The Origins of the American Detective Story

Leroy Lad Panek

2006

"Focusing especially on turn-of-the-century publications, this volume covers the formative years of American detective fiction, enumerating the societal forces which changed the sensation-laden detective narrative of the mid - 19th century to the modern detective story which appeared in the years after World War I. It examines elements which influenced the writers of the time including the rise and decline of police as an institution; the parallel development of private detectives; and the birth of the crusading newspaper reporter. The work also looks at the beginnings of forensic science and criminology as well as the ways in which this new awareness changed the rules of evidence and judicial procedures - and consequently, the detective story."

Lesbian Detective Fiction: Woman As Author, Subject And Reader

Phyllis M. Betz

2006

"This work examines how lesbian detective and mystery fiction represents lesbian characters and experience within the confines of the genre. As this book points out, such fiction reveals the lesbian’s increasing visibility in the wider society. Nevertheless, it can still be difficult to find a complete representation of lesbian life in mainstream literature. Often the best place to find the lesbian represented in books is within the pages of genre fiction—especially the detective story."

Back to the Badlands: Crime Writing in the USA

John Williams

2006

"In the summer of 1989 John Williams donned a baseball cap and took off for the States to search out the mythical America of modern crime fiction—to find James Ellroy’s Los Angeles, Elmore Leonard’s sleazy South Beach of Miami, Sara Paretsky’s Chicago, and many others on a tour of the American underbelly. The result was Into the Badlands, a riveting collection of interviews. In 2005 Williams returned to discover that much had changed in the intervening years, both in crime writing and in America as a whole. As Williams crosses America in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he finds himself in a profoundly uneasy country. Whether their territory is inner-city DC, like George Pelecanos, or the rural white poverty of the Ozark Hills, like Daniel Woodrell, the best crime writers today are sending dispatches from the edge. John Williams brings their visions together to construct a powerful, personal portrait of America today."

Mystery Muses: 100 Classics That Inspire Today's Mystery Writers

Editor: Jim Huang & Austin Lugar

2006

"we asked 100 published mystery writers: 'Did a mystery set you on your path to being a writer? Is there a classic mystery that remains important to you today?' Find their answers in: Mystery Muses."

The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction

Barry Forshaw

Rough Guide

2007

"The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction takes the reader on a guided tour of the mean streets and blind corners that make up the world's most popular literary genre. The insider's book recommends over 200 classic crime novels from masterminds Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith to modern hotshots James Elroy and Patricia Cornwall. You'll investigate gumshoes, spies, spooks, serial killers, forensic females, prying priests and patsies from the past, present, and future."

The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction

Patrick Anderson

2007

"In his provocative, caustic, and often hilarious survey of today’s popular fiction, Anderson shows us who the best thriller writers are–and the worst. He shows how Michael Connelly was inspired by Raymond Chandler, how George Pelecanos toiled in obscurity while he mastered his craft, how Sue Grafton created the first great woman private eye, and how Thomas Harris transformed an insane cannibal into the charming man of the world who made FBI agent Clarice Starling his lover. Anderson shows Scott Turow inventing the modern legal thriller and John Grisham translating it into a stunning series of bestsellers. He casts a cold eye on Tom Clancy’s militaristic techno-thrillers, and praises Alan Furst and Robert Littell as world-class spy novelists. He examines the pioneering role of Lawrence Sanders, the offbeat appeal of Dean Koontz, the unprecedented success of The Da Vinci Code, and the emergence of the literary thriller. Most of all, Anderson demands that the best of these novelists be given their due–not as genre writers, but as some of the most talented men and women at work in American fiction."

A Shot Rang Out: Selected Mystery Criticism

Jon L Breen

2008

"A collection of essays and reviews by Edgar winner Jon L. Breen, who took over The Jury Box column in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine from John Dickson Carr in 1977. Since then he's written 8 novels and over 100 short stories, as well as contribute regularly to Mystery Scene magazine. This 300+ page book contains short biographies of hundreds of the best American and European writers of the past 60 years."

Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction

David Geherin

2008

"Offering analysis of the fiction of 15 authors, this book focuses on the many ways that setting and place figure in modern crime and mystery novels. After an introductory chapter dealing with a general consideration of place in fiction, subsequent chapters consider the works of recent mystery writers for whom setting greatly contributes to overall literary style.From best-selling U.S. authors Walter Mosley, Carl Hiaasen, and James Lee Burke to international favorites Georges Simenon and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, the author ranges widely among the most acclaimed writers of recent mystery fiction."

Talking About Detective Fiction

P.D. James

2009

"To judge by the worldwide success of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Poirot, it is not only the Anglo-Saxons who have an appetite for mystery and mayhem. Talking about the craft of detective writing and sharing her personal thoughts and observations on one of the most popular and enduring forms of literature, P.D. James examines the challenges, achievements and potential of a genre which has fascinated her for more than fifty years as a novelist. From the tenant of 221b Baker Street to the Village Priest from Cubhole in Essex, from the Golden Age of detective writing between the wars to the achievements of the present and a glimpse at the future, P.D. James explores the metamorphosis of a genre which has gripped and entertained the popular imagination like no other type of novel. Written by the author widely regarded as the queen of the detective novel, this book is sure to appeal to all aficionados of crime fiction."

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The Anthony Boucher Chronicles: Reviews and Commentary 1942-47

Anthony Boucher

Editor: Francis M. Nevins

2009

"This huge book (470 pages) contains all of the reviews that Anthony Boucher wrote when he was the popular fiction reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1942 to 1947. Previously published in three volumes, this one book has it all. It has a complete index to all of the hundreds of authors reviewed by Boucher for easy and quick reference. It was exhaustively compiled and edited by author Francis M. Nevins, who adds explanatory annotations to all of the obscure - and not so obscure - authors' names. Anyone interested in the Golden Age of mysteries must have this book."

A Companion to Crime Fiction

Editor: Charles Rzepka and Lee Horsley

Wiley & Son

2010

"A Companion to Crime Fiction presents the definitive guide to this popular genre from its origins in the eighteenth century to the present day, ..... A collection of forty–seven newly commissioned essays from a team of leading scholars across the globe make this Companion the definitive guide to crime fiction ..... Includes extensive references to the most up–to–date scholarship, and a comprehensive bibliography."

The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction

Editor: Catherine Ross Nickerson

2010

"From the execution sermons of the Colonial era to television programs like The Wire and The Sopranos, crime writing has played an important role in American culture. Its ability to register fear, desire and anxiety has made it a popular genre with a wide audience. These new essays, written for students as well as readers of crime fiction, demonstrate the very best in contemporary scholarship and challenge long-established notions of the development of the detective novel. Each chapter covers a sub-genre, from 'true crime' to hard-boiled novels, illustrating the ways in which 'popular' and 'high' literary genres influence and shape each other. With a chronology and guide to further reading, this Companion is a helpful guide for students of American literature and readers of crime fiction."

Crime Fiction since 1800: Detection, Death, Diversity

Stephen Knight

2010

"Stephen Knight's fascinating book is a comprehensive analytic survey of crime fiction from its origins in the nineteenth century to the present day. Knight explains how and why the various forms of the genre have evolved, explores a range of authors and movements, and argues that the genre as a whole has three parts – the early development of Detection, the growing emphasis on Death, and the modern celebration of Diversity."

Crime Culture: Figuring Criminality in Fiction and Film

Editor: Brian Nicol, Eugene McNulty & Patricia Pulham

2010

"By broadening the focus beyond classic English detective fiction, the American 'hard-boiled' crime novel and the gangster movie, Crime Cultures breathes new life into staple themes of crime fiction and cinema. Leading international scholars from the fields of literary and cultural studies analyze a range of literature and film, from neglected examples of film noir and 'true crime', crime fiction by female African American writers, to reality TV, recent films such as Elephant, Collateral and The Departed, and contemporary fiction by J. G. Ballard, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Margaret Atwood. They offer groundbreaking interpretations of new elements such as the mythology of the hitman, technology and the image, and the cultural impact of 'senseless' murders and reveal why crime is a powerful way of making sense of the broader concerns shaping modern culture and society."

Following the Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction

Editor: Maxim Jakubowski

2010

"Whether it be the London of Sherlock Holmes or the Ystad of the Swedish Wallander, Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco or Donna Leon's Venice, the settings chosen by crime fiction authors have helped those writers to bring their fictional investigators to life and to infuse their writing with a sense of danger and mystery. Following the Detectives follows the trail of over 20 of crime fiction's greatest investigators, discovering the cities and countries in which they live and work."

Key Concepts in Crime Fiction

Heather Worthington

2011

"An insight into a popular yet complex genre that has developed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The volume explores the contemporary anxieties to which crime fiction responds, along with society's changing conceptions of crime and criminality. The book covers texts, contexts and criticism in an accessible and user-friendly format."

Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction

Christopher Pittard

2011

"Concentrating on works by authors such as Fergus Hume, Arthur Conan Doyle, Grant Allen, L.T. Meade, and Marie Belloc Lowndes, Christopher Pittard explores the complex relation between the emergence of detective fictions in the 1880s and 1890s and the concept of purity. The centrality of material and moral purity as a theme of the genre, Pittard argues, both reflected and satirised a contemporary discourse of degeneration in which criminality was equated with dirt and disease and where national boundaries were guarded against the threat of the criminal foreigner. Situating his discussion within the ideologies underpinning George Newnes's Strand Magazine as well as a wide range of nonfiction texts, Pittard demonstrates that the genre was a response to the seductive and impure delights associated with sensation and gothic novels."

The Crime Fiction Handbook

Peter Messent

2012

"The Crime Fiction Handbook presents a comprehensive introduction to the origins, development, and cultural significance of the crime fiction genre, focusing mainly on American British, and Scandinavian texts. Provides an accessible and well–written introduction to the genre of crime fiction. Moves with ease between a general overview of the genre and useful theoretical approaches. Includes a close analysis of the key texts in the crime fiction tradition. Identifies what makes crime fiction of such cultural importance and illuminates the social and political anxieties at its heart. Shows the similarities and differences between British, American, and Scandinavian crime fiction traditions."

Crime Fiction: From Edgar Allan Poe to the Present Day

Martin Priestman

2012

"Since Edgar Allan Poe s The Murders in the Rue Morgue inaugurated the detective whodunnit in 1841, narratives following the same basic structure have continued to flood the fiction market. This book examines why this form has proved so tenacious, and plots a course through the thousands of crime novels and stories which have appeared since then. Noting differences of form between pure whodunnits concerned with a past crime, and thrillers where we focus on a present action, the book maps such variants onto a series of historical changes, chiefly in Britain and the USA but with some consideration of French and Scandinavian fiction. As well as such classic detective writers as Collins, Doyle, Christie and Chandler, the book explores the Newgate Novel, spy fiction, the noir thriller, postwar police fiction, black and female private eyes, and the serial-killer mode which has swept the field since the 1980s."

The Dragon Tattoo and Its Long Tail: The New Wave of European Crime Fiction in America

David Geherin

2012

"The enormous popularity of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy has raised awareness of other contemporary European authors of crime fiction. As a result, several of these novelists now reach a receptive American audience, eager for fresh perspectives in the genre. This critical text offers an introduction to current European crime writing by exploring ten of the best new crime and mystery authors from Sweden (Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell), Norway (Karin Fossum and Jo Nesbo), Iceland (Arnaldur Indridason), Italy (Andrea Camilleri), France (Fred Vargas), Scotland (Denise Mina and Philip Kerr), and Ireland (Ken Bruen) who are reshaping the landscape of the modern crime novel."

Books to Die For

Editor: John Connolly and Declan Burke

2012

"In a series of personal essays that often reveal as much about themselves and their work as they do about the books that they love, more than 120 authors from twenty countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Christie to Child and Poe to PD James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Peter Wimsey, Books To Die For brings together the cream of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover."

Pimping Fictions: African American Crime Literature and the Untold Story of Black Pulp Publishing

Justin Gifford

Temple University Press

2013

"In Pimping Fictions, Justin Gifford provides a hard-boiled investigation of hundreds of pulpy paperbacks written by Chester Himes, Donald Goines, and Iceberg Slim (a.k.a. Robert Beck), among many others. Gifford draws from an impressive array of archival materials to provide a first-of-its-kind literary and cultural history of this distinctive genre. He evaluates the artistic and symbolic representations of pimps, sex-workers, drug dealers, and political revolutionaries in African American crime literature - characters looking to escape the racial containment of prisons and the ghetto. Gifford also explores the struggles of these black writers in the literary marketplace, from the era of white-owned publishing houses like Holloway House - that fed books and magazines like Players to eager black readers - to the contemporary crop of African American women writers reclaiming the genre as their own."

Mysteries and Conspiracies: Detective Stories, Spy Novels and the Making of Modern Societies

Luc Boltanski

Polity Press / John Wiley and Sons

2014

"Crime fiction and spy fiction, paranoia and sociology – more or less concomitant inventions – had in common a new way of problematizing reality and of working through the contradictions inherit in it. The adventures of the conflict between these two realities – superficial versus real – provide the framework for this highly original book. Through an exploration of the work of the great masters of detective stories and spy novels – G.K. Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Le Carré and Graham Greene among others – Boltanski shows that these works of fiction and imagination tell us something fundamental about the nature of modern societies and the modern state."

Small Towns in American Crime Fiction, 1972-2013

David Geherin

2014

"Small-town settings have long been commonplace in crime and mystery fiction, but usually only in cozy mysteries. Typically, the crimes in these novels were solved by amateur sleuths like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, whose efforts restored peace and tranquilly to the quiet community. But in recent years, writers of realistic crime fiction about cops, private eyes, and county sheriffs who might ordinarily have set their novels in big cities have discovered fresh creative possibilities in small-town locations. This shift from the mean streets of the city to Main Street allows these authors to take advantage of many of the distinctive features of small-town life - a sense of community, a slower pace of life, proximity to nature - and yet still deal with meaningful social, economic, and environmental issues. Because crimes that occur in small communities also often have a greater personal impact on the local population, the human element that is often lost in novels set in urban settings where crime is a more common occurrence can be emphasized even more forcefully. This book introduces readers to ten notable contemporary authors who have placed small towns like Rocksburg, Pennsylvania (K. C. Constantine), West Table, Missouri (Daniel Woodrell), Niniltna, Alaska (Dana Stabenow), Aurora, Minnesota (William Kent Krueger), Paradise, Michigan (Steve Hamilton), Millersburg, Ohio (P. L. Gaus), Heartsdale, Georgia (Karin Slaughter), Millers Kill, New York (Julia Spencer-Fleming), Durant, Wyoming (Craig Johnson), and a variety of America's National Parks (Nevada Barr) on the map of the contemporary American crime novel."

The Golden Age of Murder

Martin Edwards

2015

"The Golden Age of Murder tells for the first time the extraordinary story of British detective fiction between the two World Wars. A gripping real-life detective story, it investigates how Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, Agatha Christie and their colleagues in the mysterious Detection Club transformed crime fiction. Their work cast new light on unsolved murders whilst hiding clues to their authors’ darkest secrets, and their complex and sometimes bizarre private lives. Crime novelist and current Detection Club President Martin Edwards rewrites the history of crime fiction with unique authority, transforming our understanding of detective stories, and the brilliant but tormented men and women who wrote them."

Crime Fiction: A Very Short Introduction

Richard Bradford

2015

"In this Very Short Introduction Richard Bradford explores the history of the genre, by considering the various definitions of 'crime fiction' and looking at how it has developed over time. Discussing the popularity of crime fiction worldwide and its various styles; the role that gender plays within the genre; spy fiction, and legal dramas and thrillers; he explores how the crime novel was shaped by the work of British and American authors in the 18th and 19th centuries. Highlighting the works of notorious authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Raymond Chandler - to name but a few - he considers the role of the crime novel in modern popular culture and asks whether we can, and whether we should, consider crime fiction serious literature."

American Crime Fiction : A Cultural History of Nobrow Literature as Art

Peter Swirski

2016

"Peter Swirski looks at American crime fiction as an artform that expresses and reflects the social and aesthetic values of its authors and readers. As such he documents the manifold ways in which such authorship and readership are a matter of informed literary choice and not of cultural brainwashing or declining literary standards. Asking, in effect, a series of questions about the nature of genre fiction as art, successive chapters look at American crime writers whose careers throw light on the hazards and rewards of nobrow traffic between popular forms and highbrow aesthetics."

Pistols and Petticoats: 175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fiction

Erika Janik

2016

"Pistols and Petticoats tells the story of women’s very early place in crime fiction and their public crusade to transform policing. Whether real or fictional, investigating women were nearly always at odds with society. Most women refused to let that stop them, paving the way to a modern professional life for women on the force and in popular culture."

The Centrality of Crime Fiction in American Literary Culture

Editor: Alfred Bendixen and Olivia Carr Edenfield

2017

"This collection of essays by leading scholars insists on a larger recognition of the importance and diversity of crime fiction in U.S. literary traditions. Instead of presenting the genre as the property of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, this book maps a larger territory which includes the domains of Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy and other masters of fiction.The essays in this collection pay detailed attention to both the genuine artistry and the cultural significance of crime fiction in the United States. It emphasizes American crime fiction’s inquiry into the nature of democratic society and its exploration of injustices based on race, class, and/or gender that are specifically located in the details of American experience.Each of these essays exists on its own terms as a significant contribution to scholarship, but when brought together, the collection becomes larger than the sum of its pieces in detailing the centrality of crime fiction to American literature."

Funny Thing About Murder: Modes of Humor in Crime Fiction and Films

David Geherin

2017

"Focusing on crime fiction and films that artfully combine comedy and misdeed, this book explores the reasons writers and filmmakers inject humor into their work and identifies the various comic techniques they use. The author covers both American and European books from the 1930s to the present, by such authors as Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker, Elmore Leonard, Donald E. Westlake, Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaasen and Janet Evanovich, along with films from The Thin Man to the BBC’s Sherlock series."