Kategoria BISAC: Literary Criticism >> Mystery & Detective Fiction

During a period of twenty years--from his start as a young writer for H. L. Mencken's classic pulp magazine The Black Mask in the early 1930s, through the publication of his novels The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely, to his career as a Hollywood screenwriter in the 1940s--Raymond Chandler kept a series of private notebooks.

Drawn from those journals, The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler offers an intimate view of the writer at work, revealing early ideas, descriptions, and anecdotes that would later be used in The Long Goodbye, The Blue...

From Tony Hillerman's Navajo Southwest to Martin Cruz Smith's Moscow, an exotic, vividly described locale is one of the great pleasures of many murder mysteries. Indeed, the sense of place, no less than the compelling character of the detective, is often what keeps authors writing and readers reading a particular series of mystery novels.

This book investigates how "police procedural" murder mysteries have been used to convey a sense of place. Gary Hausladen delves into the work of more than thirty authors, including Tony Hillerman, Martin Cruz Smith, James Lee Burke, David Lindsey,...

In the past decade, Raymond Chandler has come to be recognized as a major mid-century American novelist. Though an immensely popular writer of mysteries, Chandler is now receiving the serious attention of scholars. He is seen as a writer with a deliberate approach toward the creation of fictions that present a significant criticism of American life. The essays and reviews in this volume trace the response to Chandler's work from 1944 to the present.

This volume traces the changing reception of Chandler's works. It includes essays and reviews from 1944 to the present. These pieces treat...

Best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark, the Queen of Suspense, uses a popular literary genre, the novel of mystery and suspense, to explore contemporary social issues and the reality of evil in the lives of ordinary people. This first critical study of her work reveals the serious intent of a popular writer of popular fiction. It examines common themes--the consequences of crime on innocent victims, how crime forces its victims to confront their deepest psychological fears and the terror of the past--and explores Clark's treatment of current social issues from capital punishment to child...

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...

Combining theoretical and practical approaches, this collection of essays explores classic detective fiction from a variety of contemporary viewpoints. Among the diverse perspectives are those which interrogate the way the genre reflects important social and cultural attitudes, contributes to a reader's ability to adapt to the challenges of daily life, and provides alternate takes on the role of the detective as an investigator and arbiter of truth.

Part I looks at the nature of and the audience for detective fiction, as well as at the genre as a literary form. This section includes an...

Latin America has a rich literary tradition that is receiving growing amounts of attention. The body of Latin American mystery writing is especially vast and diverse. Because it is part of Latin American popular culture, it also reflects many of the social and cultural concerns of that region. This reference provides an overview of mystery fiction of Latin America. While many of the authors profiled have received critical attention, others have been relatively neglected.

Included are alphabetically arranged entries on 54 writers, most of whom are from Argentina, Mexico, and Cuba. Every...

The author of such works as "The Big Sleep" (1939), "Farewell, My Lovely" (1940), "The Lady in the Lake" (1943), and "The Long Goodbye" (1953), Raymond Chandler was one of the most popular mystery writers of his time. His works continue to be read today and have been adapted many times into films. Chandler's writings have also been receiving growing amounts of scholarly attention, and while most of this attention has focused on his use of language, critics are now studying the fictitious world he created and the milieu in which he wrote. This reference is a detailed guide to his writings....

Ross Macdonald is best known as the creator of private detective Lew Archer and as the author of such works as "The Drowning Pool" (1950) and "The Underground Man" (1971). One of the most popular American mystery writers of the 20th century, he is often compared to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler-authors from whom he borrowed literary techniques-but is generally considered more serious and complex, often writing about dysfunctional families in academic settings. This reference is a convenient guide to his life and works.

Included are numerous alphabetically arranged entries for...

Since the publication and cinematic success of 1992's "Along Came a Spider," James Patterson seems to have taken up permanent residence on the bestseller lists. In the ensuing decade, his hit detective novels, with memorable nursery rhyme titles like "Cat and Mouse," (1997) and "Pop Goes the Weasel "(1999), came in rapid-fire succession and generated similar popularity and praise. His "Alex Cross" series created one of the most recognizable detectives in literature, and one of the first urban African American detectives to appeal, on such a grand scale, to audiences of all demographics....

At one time, Mickey Spillane had authored seven of the top ten bestsellers in history, and may have been the most widely read author in the world. Spillane masterful storytelling grabs his readers with his first paragraph and leads them spellbound toward his climax. Along with Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald, he remains one of America's greatest mystery writers. This book is a convenient guide to his works.

An opening chronology lists the chief events in his life and career. The bulk of the volume presents several hundred alphabetically arranged entries...

Scott Turow is a novelist, lawyer, and humanist who has fused his two passions, writing and the law, to create challenging novels that raise significant legal issues and test the justice of present laws. In all of his books, Turow reveals the moral ambiguities that afflict both accuser and accused, and challenges his readers to reconsider their preconceived notions of justice. Beginning with One-L, his first published work about the first-year law school experience, Turow continues to capture his readers' imaginations with books such as Presumed Innocent and Burden of...

The enormous explosion of crime fiction over the last decade means that more people are looking for a good mystery than ever before. This dictionary of fictional detectives helps readers learn about the series in which their favorite detectives are featured. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on roughly 150 fictional detectives, which provide information about the works in which the detective appears, the locales in which the detective operates, the detective's investigative methods, and other important information. Helpful bibliographical citations direct the reader to other...

Mysteries are among the most popular books today, and women continue to be among the most creative and widely read mystery writers. This book includes alphabetically arranged entries on 90 women mystery writers. Many of the writers discussed were not even writing when the first edition of this book was published in 1994, while others have written numerous works since then. Writers were selected based on their status as award winners, their commercial success, and their critical acclaim. Each entry provides biographical information, a discussion of major works and themes, and primary and...

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...

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...