Author : Maxim Jakubowski
Publisher :
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 41,46 MB
Release : 1991
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN :
One hundred essays celebrate fiction's greatest detectives.
Author : David W. McCullough
Publisher :
Page : 748 pages
File Size : 26,91 MB
Release : 1998
Category : Detective and mystery stories, American
ISBN : 9780965766791
Author : Eric Sandberg
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 36,94 MB
Release : 2018-04-12
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 1442278234
Crime fiction is one of the most popular literary genres and has been for more than a century. At the heart of almost all forms of mysteries—from the Golden Age puzzler to the contemporary police procedural, from American hardboiled fiction to the Japanese timetable mystery—is the investigator. He—or, increasingly, she—can be a private eye, a police officer, or a general busybody. But whatever forms these investigators take, they are the key element of crime fiction. Criminals and their crimes come and go, while our attention is captured by these fascinating characters who exist at the intersection of so many different literary and social roles. 100 Greatest Literary Detectives offers a selection of the most influential, important, and intriguing fictional sleuths—amateur or professional—from around the world. From Sherlock Holmes to Harry Hole, Kinsey Millhone to Kiyoshi Mitarai, the detectives profiled here give readers a broader picture of one of fiction’s most popular genres. Each entry summarizes the distinctive features of notable investigators and their approaches to crime, provides a brief outline of major features of their fictional careers, and makes a case for their importance based on literary-historical impact, novelty, uniqueness, aesthetic quality, or cultural resonance. The characters profiled here include Lew Archer, Martin Beck, Father Brown, Brother Cadfael, Adam Dalgliesh, Mike Hammer, Miss Jane Marple, Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, Kay Scarpetta, Sam Spade, Phillip Trent, V. I. Warshawski, Lord Peter Wimsey, Nero Wolfe, and many others. Readers will find some of their favorite detectives here, learn more about their literary and cultural significance, and discover other great sleuths—old and new, local and international—in this engaging volume. 100 Greatest Literary Detectives provides a fascinating look into some of the most intriguing fictional characters of all time.
Author : Roger M Sobin
Publisher : Poisoned Pen Press Inc
Page : 591 pages
File Size : 14,69 MB
Release : 2011-09-30
Category : Reference
ISBN : 1615952039
For the first time in one place, Roger M. Sobin has compiled a list of nominees and award winners of virtually every mystery award ever presented. He has also included many of the “best of” lists by more than fifty of the most important contributors to the genre.; Mr. Sobin spent more than two decades gathering the data and lists in this volume, much of that time he used to recheck the accuracy of the material he had collected. Several of the “best of” lists appear here for the first time in book form. Several others have been unavailable for a number of years.; Of special note, are Anthony Boucher’s “Best Picks for the Year.” Boucher, one of the major mystery reviewers of all time, reviewed for The San Francisco Chronicle, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and The New York Times. From these resources Mr. Sobin created “Boucher’s Best” and “Important Lists to Consider,” lists that provide insight into important writing in the field from 1942 through Boucher’s death in 1968.? This is a great resource for all mystery readers and collectors.; ; Winner of the 2008 Macavity Awards for Best Mystery Nonfiction.
Author : Neil McCaw
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 451 pages
File Size : 19,80 MB
Release : 2019-11-05
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 1538123169
Historical Dictionary of Sherlock Holmes contains a variety of information about Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, as both narratives and also cultural phenomena. The volume will help readers look deeper into those stories and the meanings of the various reference points within them, as well as achieving a deeper understanding of the range of contexts of Holmes, Conan Doyle, and detective fiction as a genre. This book examines the broad global Sherlock Holmes phenomenon related to the ways in which the stories have been adapted into a range of other media, as well as the cultural status of Holmes all over the world. Historical Dictionary of Sherlock Holmes contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,000 cross-referenced entries that contain detailed examinations of the themes and features of the 60 stories that make up the Sherlock Holmes canon. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.
Author : Larry Landrum
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 24,9 MB
Release : 1999-05-30
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0313003270
Mystery and detective novels are popular fictional genres within Western literature. As such, they provide a wealth of information about popular art and culture. When the genre develops within various cultures, it adopts, and proceeds to dominate, native expressions and imagery. American mystery and detective novels appeared in the late nineteenth century. This reference provides a selective guide to the important criticism of American mystery and detective novels and presents general features of the genre and its historical development over the past two centuries. Critical approaches covered in the volume include story as game, images, myth criticism, formalism and structuralism, psychonalysis, Marxism and more. Comparisons with related genres, such as gothic, suspense, gangster, and postmodern novels, illustrate similarities and differences important to the understanding of the unique components of mystery and detective fiction. The guide is divided into five major sections: a brief history, related genres, criticism, authors, and reference. This organization accounts for the literary history and types of novels stemming from the mystery and detective genre. A chronology provides a helpful overview of the development and transformation of the genre.
Author : Ralph Spurrier
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 40,70 MB
Release : 2016-04-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1682994341
Booksellers never know what they might find in an estate sale. When our man finds the tools of one of England’s last hangmen, along with the diary of a condemned man he executed – a diary that points the finger in a disturbing direction - he knows he has a mystery to solve. Was there a miscarriage of British justice? Did the wrong man die at the noose?
Author : Zach Dundas
Publisher : HMH
Page : 341 pages
File Size : 22,40 MB
Release : 2015-06-02
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 054422020X
A rollicking look at popular culture’s most beloved sleuth: “For even the casual fan, the history of this deathless character is fascinating” (The Boston Globe). Today he is the inspiration for fiction adaptations, blockbuster movies, hit television shows, raucous Twitter banter, and thriving subcultures. More than a century after Sherlock Holmes first capered into our world, what is it about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s peculiar creation that continues to fascinate us? Journalist and lifelong Sherlock fan Zach Dundas set out to find the answer. The result is The Great Detective: a history of an idea, a biography of someone who never lived, a tour of the borderland between reality and fiction, and a joyful romp through the world Conan Doyle bequeathed us. In this “wonderful book” (Booklist, starred review), Dundas unearths the inspirations behind Holmes and his indispensable companion, Dr. John Watson; explores how they have been kept alive over the decades by writers, actors, and readers; and visits locales—from the boozy annual New York City gathering of one of the world’s oldest and most exclusive Sherlock Holmes fan societies; to a freezing Devon heath out of The Hound of the Baskervilles; to sunny Pasadena, where Dundas chats with the creators of the smash BBC series Sherlock. Along the way, he discovers the ingredients that have made Holmes go viral—then, now, and as long as the game’s afoot.
Author : Elizabeth Haynes
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 12,19 MB
Release : 2011-01-19
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 1591589193
This invaluable resource provides information about and sources for researching 50 of the top crime genre writers, including websites and other online resources. Crime Writers: A Research Guide is an easy-to-use launch pad for learning more about crime fiction authors, including those who write traditional mystery novels, suspense novels, and thrillers with crime elements. Emphasizing the best and most popular writers, the book covers approximately 50 contemporary authors, plus a few classics like Agatha Christie. Each entry provides a brief quotation that gives some indication of writing style; a biographical sketch; lists of major works and awards; and research sources, including websites, biographies, criticism, and research guides. There are also read-alikes for selected authors. Of special note is the inclusion of websites and other online resources, such as blogs and social networking sites, which are often overlooked in author-reference sources. The book also provides an overview of the genre and subgenres, a timeline, and a comprehensive bibliography. An ideal resource for genre studies and literature classes, this guide will also be invaluable to readers' advisors, book club leaders, students, and genre fans.
Author : Terry White
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 588 pages
File Size : 15,94 MB
Release : 2003-09-30
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0313052573
White provides the most comprehensive scholarly compilation of fictional work of legal suspense in existence. Primarily a bibliography of novels, it also annotates plays, scripts for film and television, novelizations, and short-story collections about lawyers and the law. The idea behind the principal of selection is to disdain labels that reduce the variety of the legal thriller to a subgenre of mystery fiction. Novels that range from suspense thrillers through science fiction to the philosophical novel are included if justice is thematically important. It is therefore an eclectic reference source beyond a compilation of books about lawyers as protagonists. Its biographical and scholarly information about authors, major and minor, and their novels or works is traditionally encyclopedic and objective regardless of whether the work has been genre-defined, or worse—deified as a classic or denigrated as a bestseller. Many novels included are long out of print, but historically interesting for their contribution to the lineage of the courtroom drama, showing that the history of the legal thriller is one of the major branches of modern literature since the Age of Reason. The criterion of justice denoted moves beyond the fact of lawyers and courtrooms to select seminal novels like Robert Travers' Anatomy of a Murder as well as the romantic potboiler. Among the more than 2,000 works are the Perry Mason novels of Erle Stanley Gardner, John Mortimer's Rumpole series, along with a staple of fiction by major authors of the genre like John Lescroart, Lisa Scottoline, Margaret Maron, Scott Turow, and John Grisham. There are also individual works by Shakespeare, Goethe, Kafka, Camus, and Twain delineating humanity's obsession with the law as its shining prop of civilization and, alternative, béte-noire of the common individual caught up in its maw. The appendices include comments by lawyer-novelist Michael A. Kahn, a historical introduction to the legal thriller, craft notes by writers and prominent trial lawyers responding to author and lawyer questionnaires, bibliography of critical sources and articles, series characters, and the legal terminology found in courtroom dramas and novels. An essential reference tool for scholars, researchers as well as the occasional reader of legal thrillers.
