The Life of Crime

Starred review from April 25, 2022
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.

June 1, 2022
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.

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Starred review from July 1, 2022

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

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