Bayard,
Pierre, trans. Carol Cosman, Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?: The Mystery
Behind the Agatha Christie Mystery (New Press, 2000). Synopsis:
'Bayard, a psychoanalyst-cum-professor of literature, examines Christie’s
novel in a fresh way and, as the cover blurb says, offers an ingenious
rereading of one of the most popular mysteries of all time. Wondering
why Hercule Poirot’s conclusion about the identity of the murderer
has never been questioned, Bayard uses a creative mix of literary
theory and psychoanalysis to propose a startling new solution.’
Bloom,
Clive, Cult Fiction: Popular Reading and Pulp Theory (Palgrave,
1998). Synopsis: ‘What fiction have British people
been reading in the last hundred years? Who are the most popular authors,
the most popular books and the most important genres? Such straightforward
questions raise intriguing literary, cultural, social and intellectual
responses which often require much detective work in the annals of
lost literature. This essential guide and reference work is the only
available study of all of the bestselling books, authors and genres
since the beginning of the twentieth-century, providing an unique
insight into over one hundred years of publishing and reading as well
as taking us on a journey into the heart of the British imagination.’
Crimeculture.com: very readable as well as well-researched,
this is a book that appeals both to scholars in the field and general
readers.
Bloom, Harold (ed), Classic Crime and Suspense Writers (Chelsea
House Publishing; 1994, Writers of English). Editorial review
from Book News, Inc. (quoted amazon.com): ‘Provides
information on 13 classic crime and suspense writers, featuring biographies,
a wide selection of critical extracts, and comprehensive bibliographies.
Writers profiled include John Buchan, Raymond Chandler, and Ian Fleming.’
Bruccoli, Matthew J., Richard Layman and Matthew L. Bruccoli (eds),
Hardboiled Mystery Writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett,
Ross Macdonald: A Literary Reference (Carroll & Graf, 2002).
Synopsis: ‘Amply illustrated with personal photographs
and with reproductions of manuscript pages, letters, print ads, movie
promotions, dust jackets, and paperback covers, this volume provides
a documentary chronicle of the life beyond and the work behind the
creation of some of the most masterly detective novels in popular
American literature. Correspondence and interviews record the literary
tastes and intents of Chandler, Hammett, and Macdonald as well as
their responses to judgments of their work in reviews of their books
and the movies based on them.’
Chandler,
Raymond, Dorothy Gardiner (Editor), Katherine Sorley Walker (Editor),
Paul Skenazy (Introduction), Raymond Chandler Speaking (University
of California Press, 1977 – paperback reissue). Synopsis:
‘This collection of the letters and unpublished writings of
detective writer Raymond Chandler includes views by the author on
his writing, Hollywood, publishers, television, cats, the craft of
writing, famous crimes, the mystery novel; and the first chapters
of his last, unfinished novel.’
Christopher, Nicholas, Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the
American City (Henry Holt, 1998). Editorial review from amazon.com:
‘In Somewhere in the Night, novelist and poet Nicholas
Christopher uses the city as a vehicle for exploring the world of
film noir, treating the urban setting more like a universal character
than a mere backdrop for human action. Alluding to pop culture, literature,
bits of history, sociology, and, of course, countless films from the
past 50 years, Christopher examines the genre and its history in an
entertaining and imaginative style that flows like a seamlessly edited
film.’
Coale,
Samuel Chase, The Mystery of Mysteries: Cultural Differences and
Designs (Popular Press, 2000). Editorial review from amazon.com:
‘Four American mystery writers have contributed new dimensions
to the mystery form. Tony Hillerman’s Navajos and their customs,
Amanda Cross’ (Carolyn Heilbrun’s) academics and their
feminist credentials (or lack thereof), James Lee Burke’s Southern
Louisiana Cajuns and his own fiercely moral “take” on
Southern gothic fiction, and Walter Mosley’s urban blacks and
their close-knit culture have challenged the conventional mystery’s
focus. Using feminist and black critical theory, mythic and historical
patterns, and literary genre theory, Samuel Coale examines their works
and investigates the compromises that each is forced to make when
working within a recognizably popular literary form. Coale has also
included interviews with these writers who respond to these issues
and reveal how they create their plots, characters, and cultural and
social conflicts. In doing so, they also reveal how they have re-energized
the mystery form and brought new and controversial ideas and topics
into popular literature.’
Forter, Greg, Murdering Masculinities: Fantasies
of Gender and Violence in the American Crime Novel (New York
University Press, 2000, Sexual Cultures). Editorial review from
amazon.com: 'Murdering Masculinities offers a provocative
new reading of crime fiction that changes the way we think about masculinity,
psychoanalytic theory, and the potentials of popular fiction. Greg
Forter contends that the American crime novel is a more aesthetically
complex and politically progressive form than has generally been assumed.
While there are many crime novels that celebrate male power and a
psychically invulnerable male self, he focuses instead on a sub-tradition
that seeks instead to murder masculinity--to encourage male readers
and characters alike to embrace desires for self-dissolution that
conventional masculinity disavows as feminine.’
Hausladen, Gary J., Places for Dead Bodies
(Univ of Texas Pr, 2000). Review from amazon.com (Christopher
L. Salter, Director, Geographic Resources Center, University of Missouri,
Columbia): ‘I have never read such a comprehensive, well-documented,
focused look at the geography of a genre of literature. It is absolutely
arresting (no pun really intended) to see what Hausladen has done
in his search for place, for ethnic identity, for locale, for regional
characteristics. You stop again and again in the flow of the text,
captured by the detail of his analysis.’
Haut,
Woody, Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction (Serpents
Tail, 1999). Editorial review from amazon.com: ‘Neon
Noir, the follow-up to Woody Haut's highly regarded Pulp
Culture, brings the story of American crime fiction and the related
films up to date. From the Kennedy assassination to the Vietnam War
and Watergate, through Reaganomics to Irangate and Whitewater, Neon
Noir is a roller-coaster ride through the American nightmare.
Haut investigates the dark side of America through the work of writers
such as James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, James Lee Burke,
Lawrence Block, James Sallis, George P. Pelecanos, Charles Willeford,
Jerome Charyn, Sara Paretsky, Vicki Hendricks, KC Constantine, George
V Higgins and James Crumley.’
Haut,
Woody, Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War
(Serpents Tail, 1996). Editorial review from Kirkus Reviews
(quoted amazon.com): ‘Haut focuses on the paperback originals
that took the place of pulp magazines in the period from 1945 to 1963…[He]
wants to establish the newly fashionable political credentials of
hardboiled writers who, considering American society to be inherently
criminal, focus on ‘capitalism's relationship to crime, corruption,
desire and power'… Surprisingly, Haut makes a sounder case for
pulp fiction's political analysis of American culture than for its
central importance to that culture.’ Amongst the writers included
in Haut’s study are Chandler, Himes, Ross Macdonald, Jim Thompson,
Mickey Spillane, Leigh Brackett, Dolores Hitchens, Dorothy B. Hughes,
William McGivern, Gil Brewer, Lionel White Charles Williams and Charles
Willeford.
Haut,
Woody, Heartbreak and Vine: The Fate of Hardboiled Writers in
Hollywood (Serpent's Tail, 2002). Amazon synopsis: ‘Behind
some of the silver screen's greatest films - from classics such as
"Double Indemnity", "The Big Sleep", "The
Maltese Falcon", and "The Postman Always Rings Twice"
to contemporary films such as "L.A. Confidential" and "Jackie
Brown" - are great writers and crime novelists. How did these
writers come to write for the Hollywood dream machine? What effect
did this have on their work? were they happy with the results? These
are just some of the questions which the author addresses. This text
looks at the fate of crime writers in the Hollywood dream machine.
It includes interviews with James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard and Edward
Bunker, amongst others, and uncovers the increasing influence that
film is having on writers and writing and blends anecdote, analysis
along and original interviews.’
Hiney,
Tom, Raymond Chandler (Grove Press, 1999). Synopsis:
'London-based journalist Tom Hiney bases his unique biography, Raymond
Chandler, on personal papers never before available, as well
as previously unrecorded accounts from those who knew Chandler. Raymond
Chandler takes a long, uncensored look at every aspect of the
writer's turbulent life, from his marriage to his drinking habits
to the people he called friends.' Crimeculture.com: An excellent
and entertaining biography of Chandler, illuminating about both Chandler's
life and work.
Irons,
Glenwood (ed), Feminism in Women's Detective Fiction (Univ
of Toronto Pr, 1995). Editorial review from Book News, Inc. (quoted
amazon.com): ‘Contributors look at women's detective fiction
from a feminist perspective, touching on aspects of the genre such
as the earliest female detectives in fiction, the stereotype of spinster
sleuths, the Nancy Drew series, Sue Grafton's hard-boiled feminism,
female friendship and the specter of lesbianism in the work of Sara
Paretsky, and the female dick and the crisis of heterosexuality. And
you thought it was just a murder mystery.’
Irwin, John T., The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the
Analytic Detective Story (Johns Hopkins Univ Pr, 1996). Editorial
review from Book News Inc (quoted amazon.com): ‘Traces
Borges' development and interpretation of the analytic detective genre
begun by Poe. Combines history, literary history, and practical and
speculative criticism to examine the issues underlying the detective
genre and their sources in mathematics, classical mythology, Jungian
psychology, religion, alchemy and other areas. Includes b&w diagrams
and illustrations.’
Jackson,
Christine A., Myth and Ritual in Women's Detective Fiction
(McFarland & Company; 2002). Editorial review from amazon.com:
'The relationship between traditional myths and fairytales and current
fiction novels featuring women as crime-solvers is examined in this
work. Using theories from Joseph Campbell, C.G. Jung and others, the
author asserts that plots and imagery in these novels conform to quest
narratives outlined in classical myths and traditional fairytales.
Narcissus, Medusa, Orpheus and Orestes are a few of the figures emerging
in today’s mystery fiction. Among the mystery authors discussed
are Patricia Cornwell, Amanda Cross, Sue Grafton, P.D. James, Sara
Paretsky and Julie Smith. After establishing the anatomy of a mystery
in Chapter One, the work covers many myths, rituals and rites associated
with mysteries, including myths of identity, and religion, and rites
of initiation.’
Klein,
Kathleen Gregory (ed), Diversity and Detective Fiction (Bowling
Green State University, 1999). Editorial review from amazon.com:
‘Diversity and Detective Fiction is the first collection
to articulate the pedagogical strategies of using detective fiction
texts to investigate the politics of difference. The volume examines
the many ways in which diversity is posited by contemporary writers
exploring distinctive American subcultures. The distinguishing characteristic
of this book is its mix of essays focusing on teaching cultural diversity
in the classroom and illustrating diversity through fiction to the
general readers…Among the issues addressed are definitions of
diversity; what constitutes ethnicity or race, especially in terms
of multiple subjectivities; how race, gender, and ethnicity are culturally
constructed; and what part identity politics play. Pedagogical issues
are considered both explicitly and by implication. Every essay invokes
theorists and researchers in the field, providing readers with the
background and data on the social construction of difference. As experienced
classroom teachers, the authors offer specific suggestions about how
to position the novels being discussed in relation to various aspects
of diversity.’
Klein,
Kathleen Gregory, The Woman Detective: Gender and Genre (University
of Illinois Press, 1988; rev. ed., 1995; Tokyo: 1995). Synopsis:
‘Klein traces female paid, professional investigators…revealing
that the detactive novel is both a reflection and potential barrier
to social change for women.’ The Woman Detective won
the Toth Award for excellence in feminism and popular culture.
Marling, William, The American Roman Nair: Hammett, Cain, and
Chandler (University of Georgia Press, 1998). Editorial review
from Book News, Inc. (quoted amazon.com): ‘Marling reads
classic hard-boiled fiction and film in the contexts of narrative
theories and American social and cultural history, searching for the
origins of the dark narratives that emerged during the 1920s and 1930s.
He establishes a theoretical and historical context for his notion
of prodigality, and considers six classics, including Dashiell Hammett's
Red Harvest and Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.
Includes b&w photos.’
Martin,
Richard, Mean Streets and Raging Bulls (Scarecrow Press,
1999). Synopsis: 'Mean Streets and Raging Bulls
explores how, since its apparent demise in the late fifties, the "noir"
genre has been revitalized during the post-studio era. The book is
divided into two sections. In the first, the evolution of "film
noir" is contextualized in relation to both American cinema's
industrial transformation and the post-Depression history of the United
States. In the second, the evolution of neo-noir and its relation
to classic "film noir" is illustrated by detailed reference
to representative texts [including Chinatown, Night Moves,
Taxi Driver, Blood Simple, After Hours
and Reservoir Dogs].’
McCann,
Sean, Gumshoe America: Hard Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise
& Fall of New Deal Liberalism (Duke Univ Pr, 2000, New Americanists).
Editorial review from amazon.com: ‘In Gumshoe America
Sean McCann offers a bold new account of the hard-boiled crime story
and its literary and political significance. Illuminating a previously
unnoticed set of concerns at the heart of the fiction, he contends
that mid-twentieth-century American crime writers used the genre to
confront and wrestle with many of the paradoxes and disappointments
of New Deal liberalism. For these authors, the same contradictions
inherent in liberal democracy were present within the changing literary
marketplace of the mid-twentieth-century United States: the competing
claims of the elite versus the popular, the demands of market capitalism
versus conceptions of quality, and the individual versus a homogenized
society. Gumshoe America traces the way those problems surfaced
in hard-boiled crime fiction from the 1920s through the 1960s…’
Amongst the writers discussed are Hammett, Chandler, Jim Thompson,
Charles Willeford, Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald and Chester Himes.
Merivale, Patricia and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney (eds), Detecting
Texts: The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism
(University of Pennsylvania Pr, 1999). Review from University
of Toronto Quarterly (http://www.utpjournals.com/product/utq/701/texts168.html):
'Detecting Texts is a collection of essays focusing on what
the editors define as `metaphysical detective' fiction, which they
describe as any `text that parodies or subverts traditional detective-story
conventions - such as narrative closure and the detective's role as
surrogate reader - with the intention, or at least the effect, of
asking questions about mysteries of being and knowing which transcend
the mere machinations of the mystery plot.' The collection includes
essays on such authors as Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, Edgar Allan
Poe, Paul Auster, and Alain Robbe-Grillet, among others, and features
writings by such scholars as Joel Black, Jeanne Ewart, John Irwin,
Jeffrey Nealon, and Raylene Ramsay.’
Messent,
Peter (ed), Criminal Proceedings: The Contemporary American Crime
Novel (Pluto Press, 1997). Crimeculture.com: This is
a lively collection of essays, the aim of which is ‘to explore
the significant new directions which the genre has recently taken
and examine their importance in terms of American cultural self-definition
as they tap into contemporary concerns about place, identity, gender,
race, oppression and justice.’ A major thread running through
these essays is the ‘multicultural’ revisioning of a genre
that has often been seen as the preserve of white male writers; there
are useful contributions on, for example, Walter Mosley, Patricia
Cornwell, Barbara Wilson and James Ellroy.
O'Brien,
Geoffrey, Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters
of Noir (Da Capo Press, 1997, reissue). Crimeculture.com:
O’Brien’s book is a lavishly illustrated introduction
to hard-boiled pulp fiction. It is clear from the reviews reprinted
by Amazon that it appeals both to paperback collectors and to students
of crime literature. When it was first published (over twenty years
ago) Hardboiled America helped to stimulate the revival of
interest in the work of writers like Jim Thompson, David Goodis and
Charles Williams.
Panek,
Leroy L., Probable Cause: Crime Fiction in America (Popular
Press, 1990). Editorial review from amazon.com: ‘With
an eye toward the origins and development of the hard-boiled story,
LeRoy Lad Panek comments on the way it has changed over the past three
decades and examines the work of ten significant contemporary hard-boiled
writers. Chapters on Robert B. Parker, James Crumley, Loren Estleman,
Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaasen, Earl Emerson, Robert Crais,
James Lee Burke, and Walter Mosley show how the new writers have used
the hard-boiled story and the hard-boiled hero to make powerful statements
about reality in the last quarter of the twentieth century.’
Phillips, Gene D., Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective
Fiction, and Film Noir (University Press of Kentucky, 2000).
Editorial review from Kirkus Review (quoted amazon.com):
‘…Phillips proves his encyclopedic knowledge of noir as
he analyzes, among many others, the three film versions of Farewell,
My Lovely and the two film versions of The Big Sleep
through extensive comparisons to Chandler's novels…[He] is at
his best as he describes how Chandler's screenplays, including Double
Indemnity (directed by Billy Wilder) and Strangers on a Train
(directed by Alfred Hitchcock), implicated him in torturous collaborations
with the Hollywood elite.' The Kirkus Review does add,
though, that the book is burdened by rather too many plot synopses.
Plain,
Gill, Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction: Gender, Sexuality and the
Body (Edinburgh University Press, 2001). Synopsis: ‘This
text uses contemporary theories of gender and sexuality to challenge
the dominant perception of crime fiction as a conservative gender.
The rise of lesbian detection and the impact of serial killing are
considered alongside detailed analyses of works by popular writers
such as Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Dick Francis and Sara Paretsky.
Beginning with a reconceptualization of genre categories, the book
goes on to consider recent revisions and reappropriations of the form.
The final section focuses on textual pleasure and the destabilizing
of genre boundaries, raising the timely question of whether the queering
of crime fiction represents a revitalizing paradigm shift or the conceptual
collapse of the genre.’
Polito,
Robert, Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson (Random House,
1996). Editorial review from amazon.com: ‘Jim Thompson
was one of the greatest crime novelists ever, leaving behind a legacy
of hard-boiled classics like The Grifters and The Getaway. Robert
Polito has written the definitive biography of this brilliant American
original. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography.’
Seltzer,
Mark, Serial Killers: Death and Life in America's Wound Culture
(Routledge, 1998). Editorial review from amazon.com: ‘Mark
Seltzer... who has previously explored, in his book Bodies and
Machines, the notion of a technological society as one in which
processes of "registration, recording, and reproduction"
break down distinctions between individual and mass, private and public.
In Serial Killers, he argues that this "machine culture"
constitutes a "pathological public sphere" that sets up
the serial killer as an icon of our "wound culture"--a public
not only enthralled by, but addicted to, murder and mayhem. The
Washington Post writes of this book: "Drawing with equal
dexterity on sources ranging from gay pulp novelist Dennis Cooper
to French philosopher Jacques Lacan, Seltzer sees the serial killer
as a sort of performance artist around whom we gather in an unhealthy
attempt to exorcise our own demons."’
Simpson, Philip L., Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer Through
Contemporary American Film and Fiction (Southern Illinois Univ
Pr, 2000). Editorial review from amazon.com: ‘Simpson
provides an original and broad overview of the evolving serial killer
genre in the two media most responsible for its popularity: literature
and cinema of the 1980s and 1990s…Simpson theorizes that the
serial killer genre results from a combination of earlier genre depictions
of multiple murderers, inherited Gothic storytelling conventions,
and threatening folkloric figures reworked over the years into a contemporary
mythology of violence…Citing numerous sources, Simpson argues
that serial killers' recent popularity as genre monsters owes much
to their pliability to any number of authorial ideological agendas
from both the left and the right ends of the political spectrum. Serial
killers in fiction are a kind of debased and traumatized visionary,
whose murders privately and publicly re-empower them with a pseudo-divine
aura in the contemporary political moment…Simpson has chosen
novels and films that have at least some degree of public name-recognition
or notoriety, including Red Dragon and The Silence of
the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Manhunter directed by Michael
Mann, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer directed by John
McNaughton, Seven directed by David Fincher, Natural
Born Killers directed by Oliver Stone, Zombie by Joyce
Carol Oates, and American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.’
Smith, Erin A., Hard-Boiled: Working-Class Readers and Pulp Magazines
(Temple Univ Press, 2000). Extract from review quoted on amazon.com
(by James C. Hewitt): ‘What began life as a doctoral dissertation
about the so-called hard-boiled detective novels of the first half
of this century (Hammett, Chandler, et. al.) has been turned into
an entertaining, thoughtful look at who read potboilers and what they
learned from them. Smith argues persuasively that hard-boiled readers,
most of them male and blue collar, unwittingly picked up lessons about
culture, masculinity, even how to dress and talk to women, from the
books they bought at the drug store because they cost a dime and had
pictures of loose women on the cover.’
Soitos,
Stephen F., The Blues Detective: A Study of African American Detective
Fiction (Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1996). Editorial review
from Midwest Book Review (quoted amazon.com): ‘Afro-American
detective fiction's history is traced in a study which examines the
works of four black contributors to the genre. Little scholarship
has been devoted to Afro-American detective fiction, making this an
outstanding contribution to the field and also making for an important
black studies addition recommended for college-level literary classes.’
Symons,
Julian, Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel
(Mysterious Press, 1993, reissued). Editorial review from amazon.com
(Ingram): ‘A look at the genre of detective fiction features
reviews of every sort of book within the genre--from detective work
to thriller to psychological crime novel--letting readers know what
is good, commonplace, and poor.’ Crimeculture.com:
perhaps now slightly old-fashioned (and no sophisticated critical
theorising here), but one of the standard overviews of crime fiction.
Thompson, Jon, Fiction, Crime, and Empire: Clues
to Modernity and Postmodernism (Univ of Illinois Pr, 1993). Synopsis
(cover): ‘In this entertaining and provocative work of cultural
criticism, Jon Thompson moves back and forth across traditional divisions
between highbrow and lowbrow writing – from Edgar Allan Poe
to Arthur Conan Doyle, from Conrad’s Secret Agent to
Kipling’s Kim...and from John Le Carré’s
cold war thrillers to Thomas Pynchon’s postmodern novel, The
Crying of Lot 49.’
Walton,
Priscilla L. and Manina Jones, Detective Agency: Women Re-Writing
the Hard-Boiled Tradition (University of California Press, 1999).
Editorial review on amazon.com: Walton and Jones focus on
the ‘recent proliferation of women writers of detective fiction,
providing the first book- length study of the historical and societal
changes that fueled this popularity, along with insightful and entertaining
readings of the texts themselves. Walton and Jones place the genre
within its aesthetic, social, and economic contexts, reading it as
an index of cultural beliefs. Addressing the ways that Sara Paretsky,
Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, and others work through the conventions
of the "hard-boiled" genre made popular by writers such
as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane, the authors
show how the male hard-boiled tradition has been challenged and transformed…Detective
Agency also integrates interviews with authors and publishers, reader
surveys, publication data, and analysis of internet discussion groups
to present a fascinating picture of the "industry" of women's
detective fiction.’
Ward, Elizabeth and Alain Silver (contributor), Raymond Chandler's
Los Angeles (Overlook Press, 1997 – reissue). Synopsis:
Reissued for the 50th anniversary of the film of Chandler's novel,
The Big Sleep, this publishes a hundred black-and-white photos
of Los Angeles to accompany Chandler’s prose.
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