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    The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books
    The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books
    The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books
    Ebook424 pages5 hours

    The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books

    By Martin Edwards

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    About this ebook

    2018 Macavity Award winner for Best Nonfiction

    2018 Anthony Award nominee for Best Critical/Nonfiction Book

    This book tells the story of crime fiction published during the first half of the twentieth century. The diversity of this much-loved genre is breathtaking, and so much greater than many critics have suggested. To illustrate this, the leading expert on classic crime discusses one hundred books ranging from The Hound of the Baskervilles to Strangers on a Train which highlight the entertaining plots, the literary achievements, and the social significance of vintage crime fiction. This book serves as a companion to the acclaimed British Library Crime Classics series but it tells a very diverse story. It presents the development of crime fiction—from Sherlock Holmes to the end of the golden age—in an accessible, informative and engaging style.

    Readers who enjoy classic crime will make fascinating discoveries and learn about forgotten gems as well as bestselling authors. Even the most widely read connoisseurs will find books (and trivia) with which they are unfamiliar—as well as unexpected choices to debate. Classic crime is a richly varied and deeply pleasurable genre that is enjoying a world-wide renaissance as dozens of neglected novels and stories are resurrected for modern readers to enjoy. The overriding aim of this book is to provide a launch point that enables readers to embark on their own voyages of discovery.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateAug 1, 2017
    ISBN9781464207242
    Author

    Martin Edwards

    Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime novelist whose Lake District Mysteries have been optioned by ITV. Elected to the Detection Club in 2008, he became the first Archivist of the Club, and is also Archivist of the Crime Writers’ Association. Renowned as the leading expert on the history of Golden Age detective fiction, he won the Crimefest Mastermind Quiz three times, and possesses one of Britain’s finest collections of Golden Age novels.

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    Reviews for The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books

    4/5

    35 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I learned some interesting information about British Crime fiction and got lots of good recommendations, but reading this book from cover to cover was very dry. Better to think of it as a reference book for spot reading.
    • 4/5
      This is what I imagine a bibliography in narrative form would look like. I don't know how else to describe it. I'd go so far as to say that there's no actual 'story', as the title implies, because there doesn't seem to be a cohesive ... point (message/timeline/etc.) between chapters. Each chapter represents some facet that Golden Age Crime books took on: locked-room mystery, country-house mystery, political mystery, etc. and begins with the narrative bibliography of notable works. This is followed up with 2-4 longer essays, each giving closer attention to books that the author believes best represents that facet. None of that is to say that it wasn't excellent - it was. But this is a book for the serious mystery lover, not a reader with a casual curiosity about the evolution of crime writing. Or anyone trying to curb their TBR piles. I have so many new (old) books and authors to start hunting down it's overwhelming. I might actually have to resort to a spreadsheet; I hate spreadsheets, but there's just too many appealing treasures here and Edwards sells them up, even when he's trying not to. I deducted a star because I found some of the writing sort of clunky (this is a cultural thing, I'm sure) but mostly because the chapter openings were just too crammed full of goodness; at times there could be as many as three titles and authors mentioned in a single sentence, with more immediately following. It got to be too much at times and I'd catch myself just glazing over, without really taking in what I was reading. This is definitely going to be a life-long source of reference for me, as well as a source of income for the used book sellers.
    • 3/5
      As a work of literature review, Martin Edwards has spared no effort and produced an excellent volume of work, and I look forward to consulting the book in future to read up on some of the works mentioned. Some of them.Overall tho, it is not a book that lends itself to reading to reading cover to cover: Edwards' descriptions do include spoilers of different books, which put me off reading certain entries, and some entries I felt could have done with a bit more depth to the discussion of themes and characters or to the comparison of titles.But then, it is an extended literature review...
    • 4/5
      Don't let the title mislead you. The book discusses far more than 100 mysteries. It does, however, provide a little more depth of coverage on about 100 titles. The book is intended as a companion volume to the British Library Crime Classics series. It arranges the mysteries into categories by the types of mysteries they are. (For example, locked room, vacation spots, manor houses, etc.) Mystery lovers are certain to find a few books they missed through the years to add to their to-be-read lists. Fortunately the British Library Crime Classics series is making many of these readily available for a new generation of readers to discover. I received an advance electronic galley of the title from the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.
    • 5/5
      This book was sent to me by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you.The subjects of this British Library Crime Classic book are the 100 novels Martin Edwards considers benchmarks in crime writing from the late 19th century to 1950. He divides his choices into categories:Chapter One A New Era DawnsChapter Two The Birth of the Golden AgeChapter Three The Great DetectivesChapter Four ‘Play Up! Play Up and Play the Game!’ (not about sports, but about playing by the rules of detective fiction)Chapter Five Miraculous Murders (locked room mysteries and impossible crimes)Chapter Six Serpents in Eden (the idyllic village)Chapter Seven Murder at the ManorChapter Eight Capitol Crimes (London)Chapter Nine Resorting to Murder (holiday crimes)Chapter Ten Making Fun of MurderAnd thirteen more chapters with equally delightful topics.At the beginning of each chapter Martin examines the subject and shows how it has been handled by various authors, both famous and little known. Here he is like the owner of the best candy shop in town, displaying his titles like so many treats. Before he discusses in depth six or seven novels, he mentions at least fifteen or twenty novels that are significant but did not make the cut. I kept making lists to check authors on Project Gutenberg, hoping that these often rare titles would be available in the public domain. And some were!This is a must have reference book for mystery lovers, if for nothing more than the 20+ page bibliography with the list of every book mentioned. I had so much fun reading this and I am pleased that a hardback, as well as the paperback, will be issued since the book is definitely a keeper.
    • 4/5
      This is an enjoyable introduction to 100 mystery/crime novels or story collections, almost all British and almost all published between 1900 and 1950. Edwards does a great job of showing why the book is significant and why we might enjoy it. He does not provide spoilers, which I appreciate very much. You'll find yourself Googling lots of authors you didn't know or who you have heard of--such as seeing their titles at the used book store--but have never read. The book is divided into sections, such as locked room mysteries, country house mysteries, and so on, and Edwards does a good job of showing the history and evolution of each type of story. If you have an interest in mysteries, you should find this as enjoyable as I did.

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    The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books - Martin Edwards

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