When thinking of American mystery writers so much influenced by the British school that they might be called honourary members, one name immediately comes to mind: John Dickson Carr. He was after all a notorious anglophile, set most of his books in Britain and even lived there for several years. Carr, however, always remained a … Lire la suite The American Claimant
So the Best Novel Edgar has gone - what a surprise - to Walter Mosley, the second year in a row that a person of colour wins the award. "Diversity at last" says Twitter. "Diversity my ass" says I. There is no denying that starting last year the MWA have begun opening their … Lire la suite Diversity in Sameness
Oh boy: I would say the crime novel is any that explores the eternal criminal element in human nature. It is, therefore, not a narrow genre of any kind. “The Brothers Karamazov” is a crime novel. So is “Brighton Rock.” (Lawrence Osborne) So from our perspective, crime fiction is any story that involves a crime or … Lire la suite Come Back Willard, All Is Forgiven
A most remarkable year in many respects, 1968 also saw the first book by an American writer to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel in nearly ten years. Donald Westlake's God Save the Mark prevailed over candidates as strong as Dick Francis's Flying Finish and - an unique occurrence in the award's history - two … Lire la suite The Lost Art of Entertaining Crime Fiction, Contn’d
Margery Allingham is a writer with whom I've had a complicated relationship over the years. My first encounter with her and Mr. Campion was the short story On Christmas Day in the Morning which I loved and still regard as one of the finest pieces of short mystery fiction ever written. It looked like I … Lire la suite Albert Returns
There was a time when crime fiction was easily recognizable to the average reader. It had lurid titles with "Crime", "Murder" or "Corpse" in them, even more lurid covers with scantily clad young women in jeopardy, and to make sure even the dumbest ones got the memo publishers added "A Mystery" under the title. Things … Lire la suite About an Oxymoron
Popular wisdom has Golden Age, the whodunit genre and Agatha Christie inextricably linked. The First Lady of Crime, as the nickname indicates, is often seen as the epitome of the period and the genre, and the go-to author if you want a taste of both. This opinion is shared by her fans as well as … Lire la suite A Marginal Writer Called Agatha
