Table Of Content
Masters of
100
Mystery and
Detective Fiction
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
MAGILL’S C H O I C E
Masters of
100
Mystery and
Detective Fiction
Volume 1
Margery Allingham — Harry Kemelman
1 – 374
edited by
Fiona Kelleghan
University of Miami
SALEM PRESS, INC.
Pasadena, California Hackensack, New Jersey
Salem Press, Inc
Copyright © 2001, by .
Allrightsinthisbookarereserved.Nopartofthisworkmay
beusedorreproducedinanymannerwhatsoeverortransmit-
tedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronicormechanical,in-
cludingphotocopy,recording,oranyinformationstorageand
retrieval system, without written permission from the copy-
rightownerexceptinthecaseofbriefquotationsembodiedin
criticalarticlesandreviews.Forinformationaddressthepub-
lisher,SalemPress,Inc.,P.O.Box50062,Pasadena,California
91115.
EssaysoriginallyappearedinCriticalSurveyofMysteryandDetec-
tive Fiction, 1988; new material has been added
¥
ThepaperusedinthesevolumesconformstotheAmerican
National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Li-
brary Materials, Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
100mastersofmysteryanddetectivefiction/editedbyFiona
Kelleghan.
p. cm. — (Magill’s choice)
Essays taken from Salem Press’s Critical survey of mystery
and detective fiction, published in 1988.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: v. 1. Margery Allingham—Harry Kemelman —
v. 2. Baynard H. Kendrick—Israel Zangwill.
ISBN0-89356-958-5(set:alk.paper)—ISBN0-89356-973-9
(v. 1 : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-89356-977-1 (v. 2 : alk. paper)
1. Detective and mystery stories—History and criticism.
2. Detective and mystery stories—Bio-bibliography. 3. Detec-
tiveandmysterystories—Stories,plots,etc.I.Title:Onehun-
dred masters of mystery and detective fiction. II. Kelleghan,
Fiona,1965- .III.Criticalsurveyofmysteryanddetective
fiction. IV. Series.
PN3448.D4 A16 2001
¢
809.3872—dc21
2001032834
First Printing
printed in the united states of america
Contents — Volume 1
Publisher’s Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Margery Allingham. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Eric Ambler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Honoré de Balzac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
E. C. Bentley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Anthony Berkeley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Earl Derr Biggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Robert Bloch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Lawrence Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Anthony Boucher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Christianna Brand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
John Buchan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
W. R. Burnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
James M. Cain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
John Dickson Carr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Nick Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Vera Caspary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Raymond Chandler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Leslie Charteris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
James Hadley Chase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
G. K. Chesterton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Erskine Childers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Agatha Christie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Wilkie Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
John Creasey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Amanda Cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Len Deighton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Fyodor Dostoevski. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Arthur Conan Doyle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Daphne du Maurier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Mignon G. Eberhart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Stanley Ellin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
v
100Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction
Robert L. Fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Ian Fleming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Frederick Forsyth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Dick Francis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Nicolas Freeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
R. Austin Freeman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Erle Stanley Gardner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Michael Gilbert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Graham Greene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Martha Grimes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Dashiell Hammett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
O. Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Patricia Highsmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Tony Hillerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Chester Himes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Edward D. Hoch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
E. W. Hornung. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Michael Innes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
P. D. James. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Harry Kemelman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
vi
Publisher’s Note
100MastersofMysteryandDetectiveFictionisaresponsetothegrowingattentionpaid
togenrefictioninschoolsanduniversities.SinceEdgarAllanPoeinventedthemod-
ernmysterygenreinthemid-nineteenthcentury,thenumberofauthorswritinginthis
fieldhassteadilygrown,ashavetheappetitesofgrowingnumbersofreaders.Asthe
set’s Editor, Fiona Kelleghan, explains in her introduction, the mystery/detective
genresawagellingofformsandconventionsduringthe1930’sand1940’s.Duringthis
so-called Golden Age, writers examined and refined the genre’s conception, con-
sciouslysettingthelimitsandcreatingaphilosophybywhichtodefinethegenre.The
latter half of the twentieth century saw an explosion in the number of books in the
genre,anditwasaccompaniedbyaproliferationofsubgenresandstyles.Atthebegin-
ningofthetwenty-firstcentury,mysteryanddetectivefictionarguablyrankedasthe
mostpopulargenreoffictionintheUnitedStates.
Theessaysin100MastersofMysteryandDetectiveFictionaretakenfromSalemPress’s
Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction, which was published in 1988. That
four-volumereferenceworkcoveredmorethan270noteworthyauthorsfromaround
theworld.WiththehelpoftheFionaKelleghan,theeditorsofSalemPresshavese-
lectedtheonehundredwriterswhohavehadthegreatestongoingimpactonthefield.
Allthesewritersareknownprimarilyfortheirworkinthegenre,andmostofthem
have made signal contributions to the field. Articles on living authors have been
broughtuptodate,ashavethesecondarybibliographiesforalltheessays.
Articlesinthissetrangeinlengthfrom2,500to6,000words,withthelongestar-
ticles on such major figures as Raymond Chandler, Ellery Queen, and Georges
Simenon. Like the origial Critical Survey volumes, this set is organized in a format
designed to provide quick access to information. Handy ready-reference listings
are designed to accommodate the unique characteristics of the mystery/detective
genre.Ready-referencedataatthetopofeacharticleincludetheauthor’sname,birth
anddeathinformation,pseudonyms,andtypesofplot.Theauthor’sprincipalseries
arelisted,anddescriptionsoftheprincipalseriescharactersareprovided,whererele-
vant.
The section headed “Contribution” evaluates each author’s impact on the genre.
The“Biography”sectionoffersaconciseoverviewoftheauthor’slife,andthe“Analy-
sis”section,thecoreofeacharticle,examinestheauthor’smostrepresentativeworks
and principal concerns in the genre and studies the author’s unique contribution.
A comprehensive primary bibliography at the end of the article lists the author’s
mystery/detectiveworkschronologicallybyseriesandlistsnonmysteryworksbythe
authorchronologicallybygenre.Titlesaregiveninthelanguagesinwhichtheworks
originallyappeared.TitlesofEnglish-languageversionsfollowfortheworksthathave
beentranslated.
A select secondary bibliography provides essential and accessible references for
additionalstudy.Eacharticleissignedbyitsoriginalcontributorand,inmanycases,
thecontributorwhoupdatedit.
Appendices at the end of the second volume include a time line of authors, ar-
ranged by their dates of birth; a list of plot types; and an index of series characters.
vii
100Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction
Thereisalsoacomprehensiveglossary,whichdefinesmorethanfourhundredterms
thatfrequentlyappearinmystery/detectivefiction.
Asalways,wewouldliketoexpressourthankstothemanycontributorswhosefine
essays make this reference set possible. We would particularly like to thank Fiona
Kelleghanforoverseeingthecomplexworkofupdatingthearticles.Thenamesofall
contributors,alongwiththeiraffiliations,arelistedatthebeginningofthefirstvolume.
viii
List of Contributors
MichaelAdams LauraDabundo
GraduateCenter,CityUniversityof KennesawCollege
NewYork
DaleDavis
PatrickAdcock NorthwestMississippiCommunityCollege
HendersonStateUniversity
BillDelaney
DorothyB.Aspinwall IndependentScholar
UniversityofHawaiiatManoa
JillDolan
BryanAubrey UniversityofWisconsinatMadison
IndependentScholar
MichaelDunne
JamesBaird MiddleTennesseeStateUniversity
UniversityofNorthTexas
PaulF.Erwin
TarynBenbow-Pfalzgraf UniversityofCincinnati
IndependentScholar
AnnD.Garbett
RichardP.Benton AverettCollege
TrinityCollege,Connecticut
C.A.Gardner
RobertL.Berner IndependentScholar
UniversityofWisconsinatOshkosh
JillB.Gidmark
CynthiaA.Bily UniversityofMinnesota,TwinCities
AdrianCollege Campus
ZoharaBoyd DavidGordon
AppalachianStateUniversity BowlingGreenStateUniversity
J.R.Broadus DouglasG.Greene
UniversityofNorthCarolinaat OldDominionUniversity
ChapelHill
TerryHeller
WilliamS.Brockington,Jr. CoeCollege
UniversityofSouthCarolinaatAiken
PierreL.Horn
RolandE.Bush WrightStateUniversity
CaliforniaStateUniversity,LongBeach
BarbaraHorwitz
RebeccaR.Butler C.W.PostCampus,LongIsland
DaltonJuniorCollege University
JohnJ.Conlon E.D.Huntley
UniversityofMassachusetts,Boston AppalachianStateUniversity
DeborahCore ShakuntalaJayaswal
EasternKentuckyUniversity UniversityofNewHaven
ix
