Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction

2469 Pages·2008·26.52 MB·English

by  Carl E. Rollyson

Critical Survey of
Mystery
and
Detective Fiction

Critical Survey of
Mystery
and
Detective Fiction
Revised Edition
Volume 1
Anthony Abbott – L. P. Davies
Editor, Revised Edition
Carl Rollyson
Baruch College, City University of New York
Editor, First Edition
Frank N. Magill
SALEM PRESS, INC.
Pasadena, California Hackensack, New Jersey
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Copyright©1988,2001,2008,bySalemPress,Inc.
Allrightsinthisbookarereserved.Nopartofthisworkmaybeusedorreproducedinanymannerwhatsoever
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dena,California91115.
Someoftheessaysinthiswork,whichhavebeenupdated,originallyappearedinthefollowingSalemPress
sets:CriticalSurveyofMysteryandDetectiveFiction(1988,editedbyFrankN.Magill)andOneHundredMas-
tersofMysteryandDetectiveFiction(2001,editedbyFionaKelleghan).Newmaterialhasbeenadded.
∞ThepaperusedinthesevolumesconformstotheAmericanNationalStandardforPermanenceofPaperfor
PrintedLibraryMaterials,Z39.48-1992(R1997).
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Criticalsurveyofmysteryanddetectivefiction.—Rev.ed./editor,CarlRollyson.
p.cm.
ISBN978-1-58765-397-1 (set:alk.paper)—ISBN978-1-58765-398-8 (vol.1:alk.paper)—
ISBN978-1-58765-399-5 (vol.2:alk.paper)—ISBN978-1-58765-400-8 (vol.3:alk.paper)—
ISBN978-1-58765-401-5 (vol.4:alk.paper)—ISBN978-1-58765-402-2 (vol.5:alk.paper)
1. Detectiveandmysterystories—Historyandcriticism.2. Detectiveandmysterystories—Bio-bibliography.
3. Detectiveandmysterystories—Stories,plots,etc. I.Rollyson,CarlE.(CarlEdmund)
PN3448.D4C752008
809.3’872—dc22
2007040208
FirstPrinting
PRINTEDINTHEUNITEDSTATESOFAMERICA
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
ContinuingtheSalemPresstraditionoftheCritical addedauthorsaretheAfricanAmericanwritersElea-
Survey series, Critical Survey of Mystery and Detec- nor Taylor Bland, Walter Mosley, and Barbara Neely
tive Fiction, Revised Edition provides detailed analy- and the Chicano writer Rolando Hinojosa. Authors
ses of the lives and writings of major contributors to added from other Western Hemispheric countries in-
thefascinatingliterarysubgenreofmysteryanddetec- clude the Mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Bra-
tive fiction. This greatly expanded five-volume set is zilianLuizAlfredoGarcia-Roza,andthreeCanadians:
thefirstfullrevisionofaworkthatoriginallyappeared WilliamDeverell,DavidMorrell,andPeterRobinson.
in 1988. Published in four smaller, unillustrated vol- NewAsianauthorsincludeChina’sQiuXiaolongand
umes,theoriginalCriticalSurveyofMysteryandDe- five writers from Japan: Natsuo Kirino, Seichf Ma-
tectiveFictioncontained275articlesaboutindividual tsumoto, Shizuko Natsuki, Akimitsu Takagi, and
authorsofmysteryanddetectivefictionandaglossary Miyuki Miyabe. Africa is represented by the South
of terms. Thisnew edition updates or replacesallthe African author Gillian Slovo; Zimbabwe-born Alex-
originalarticlesandaddsentirelynewarticleson118 ander McCall Smith, who writes about a woman de-
more authors, raising the total to 393 articles, an in- tectiveinBotswana;andElspethHuxley,whosetsev-
crease of 43 percent. The original glossary has been eral traditional murder mysteries in fictional East
expanded and divided into two parts. Moreover, this Africancountries.
neweditionadds37entirelynewoverviewessaysand Geographically, the largest number of writers are
5 new appendixes, raising to 7 the total number of fromNorthAmerica,with204fromtheUnitedStates,
itemsintheResourcessectionofvolume5. 10fromCanada,and1fromMexico.Thenextlargest
To such well-known mystery writers as Raymond group of writers are associated with the British Isles:
Chandler, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 149fromEngland,12fromScotland,8fromIreland,
ErleStanleyGardner,DashiellHammett,EdgarAllan 5 from Wales, and 1 from Northern Ireland. The rest
Poe,andDorothyL.Sayers,thisrevisededitionadds of Europe is represented by 12 writers from France,
such venerable writers’names as Louisa May Alcott, 3 from Switzerland, 3 from the Netherlands, 3 from
Edward Stratemeyer, and Margaret Truman. Most of Russia, 2 from Spain, 2 from Sweden, 2 from Ger-
thenewauthor articles,however,areon popular con- many, and 1 each from Austria, Belgium, Italy, and
temporarywriters,suchasMaryHigginsClark,Patri- Georgia. One writer is from Israel. Africa is repre-
cia Cornwell, John Dunning, John Grisham, Thomas sentedby4writersfromSouthAfrica,1fromZimba-
Harris,CarolynHart,RolandoHinojosa,ScottTurow, bwe,and1fromZambia.Asianwritersinclude5from
andStuartWoods.Aparticularlynoteworthyaddition Japan,1fromChina,and1fromIndia.SouthAmerica
isJ.K.Rowling,theauthorofthesensationallypopu- isrepresentedby2writersfromArgentinaand1from
lar Harry Potter series, whose seventh and final Brazil. Three Australians are joined by 1 New Zea-
volumewaspublishedin2007. lander.
Mystery and detective fiction is essentially a Brit- With the addition of more than three dozen over-
ish and American creation that has long been domi- view essays and new appendixes, Critical Survey of
nated by British, American, and European writers. MysteryandDetectiveFictionnowjoinsSalem’sfam-
One of the most exciting developments in the field, ily of fully revised and expanded Critical Surveys of
therefore,hasbeenthegrowingnumberofnewwriters poetry,drama,shortfiction,andlongfiction.Someau-
ofvariousethnicitiesandnationalities.Inselectingau- thorscoveredherearealsocoveredinoneormoreof
thorstoaddtoCriticalSurveyofMysteryand Detec- theothersets,butitshouldbeunderstoodthatarticles
tive Fiction, a particular effort was made to achieve in each set are unique. For example, the article on
greater ethnic and international diversity. Among the MarkTwaininCriticalSurveyofLongFictionfocuses
v
CriticalSurveyofMysteryandDetectiveFiction
on his novels, that in CriticalSurvey of Short Fiction hard-boiledpolicedetectivesandprivateinvestigators,
focusesonhisshortstoriesandsketches,andtheone suchasDashiellHammett’sSamSpade,tobrilliantly
inthepresentsetfocusesonhismysteryanddetective intuitive amateurs, such as Agatha Christie’s Miss
writings—whichareconsiderablymoreextensivethan Jane Marple. Such stories are still written, but the
manypeoplemayrealize.Readerswillfindlittleover- modern mystery genre encompasses a vast variety of
lapinthetextofthesethreearticles. subgenres thatareknownbysuchtermsascomicca-
The need for a new edition of Critical Survey of pers, courtroom dramas, cozies, historical mysteries,
MysteryandDetectiveFictionisevidentinthegrow- invertedmysteries(whichrevealtheculpritsimmedi-
ing recognition of the genre’s importance in modern ately), police procedurals, psychological mysteries,
literatureandintheincreasedattentionthegenreisre- and thrillers of various stripes. These subgenres and
ceiving in classrooms. The gap between what is per- othersareallwellrepresented here,andCriticalSur-
ceivedasmainstreamfictionandmysterygenrefiction veyofMysteryandDetectiveFictioncastsitsneteven
has narrowed, and mystery fiction is now seen as wider to take in authors of espionage and horror
somethingfarmorethanmereentertainment,asitof- stories.
tenoffersspecialinsightsintohumannatureandinsti- Judgingbythedistributionofnamesinvolume5’s
tutions. Indeed, the syllabus of one college course Categorized Index of Authors, the most popular sub-
statesthatmysteryfiction“exploreshowhumancon- genre among writers in this set is that of the amateur
sciousness makes sense out of what might otherwise sleuth, represented by 139 writers. That category is
beviewedasrandomexperienceandmeaninglessvio- closelyfollowedbytherapidlyexpandingsubgenreof
lence.”This, incidentally,isathemethatisdiscussed policeprocedurals, with135 writers, and by thrillers,
atlengthinmanyoftheoverviewessaysinvolume5. with120writers.Theothersubgenresinorderofrep-
Another aspect of mystery fiction’s receiving in- resentationareprivateinvestigator,92;psychological,
creased recognition is what it reveals about different 86; hard-boiled, 67; cozies, 65; espionage, 54; in-
social classes, societies, cultures, and, indeed, entire verted, 53; historical, 51; master sleuth, 19; comedy
nations. Mystery fiction probes deeply into the inner caper,17;horror,14;courtroomdramas,9;andmeta-
workings of every level of society and exposes the physicalandmetafictionalparodies,7.
strengths and weaknesses of economic, political, and
legal institutions. During the days of South Africa’s Overviews
raciallyoppressiveapartheidsystem,itwasoftensaid Inadditiontothisedition’slargeexpansionofarti-
that one of the best ways to understand the complex cles on individual authors, the other major change in
problemsofthatcountrywastoreadthemysteriesof this revised edition is the inclusion of 37 completely
James McClure, a South African mystery writer originaloverviewessays,mostofwhichareaslongas
whosenovelsprobeddeeplyintobothblackandwhite 6,000words.Theseessaysexplorethehistoryandna-
communities and vividly revealed human dimensions ture of the mystery and detective genre and examine
oftheday-to-dayeffectsofracialsegregation.Similar the fiction of ethnic writers and writers from other
observationsmightbemadeaboutthemysteryandde- partsoftheworld.Theoverviewsbeginwith“Pastand
tectivefictionofothercountries,suchasJapan,which PresentMysteryandDetectiveFiction,”asectioncon-
isrichlyrepresentedinCriticalSurveyofMysteryand tainingessayson theroots of thegenre, theso-called
DetectiveFiction. Golden Age of mystery fiction, innovations in the
There was a timewhen mystery and detective fic- field, literary aspects of mystery fiction, connections
tion seemed virtually synonymous with the classic betweenso-calledmainstreamfictionandthemystery
“whodunits,” in which murders are committed, and genre,andpulpmagazinefiction.
thenbothdetectivesandreaderssettledowntosortout Anothergroupofessays,“MysteryFictionAround
cluesuntiltheguiltypartiesareidentifiedandorderis the World,” explores mystery fiction in Africa, Asia,
restored. The fictional investigators may range from Britain,France,LatinAmerica,andtheUnitedStates
vi
Publisher’sNote
aswellasmysteriessetinexoticlocations.Thesection typesofplots.Becauseofthelargenumbersofbooks
labeled“MysteryFictionSubgenres”explores14dif- thatmany mystery writers publish, CriticalSurvey of
ferentvarietiesofmysteryfiction,includingacademic Mystery and Detective Fiction differs slightly from
mysteries,cozies,ethnicAmericanmysteries,feminist otherCriticalSurveysetsinlistingeachauthor’sprin-
and lesbian mysteries, forensic mysteries, historical cipal works at the end of the article, instead of at the
mysteries, horror stories, juvenile and young-adult beginning.Articlesonauthorsofseriesfiction—such
mysteries, parodies, police procedurals, science fic- as Christie’s Hercule Poirot stories and John Ball’s
tion and mystery blends, spy novels, thrillers, and VirgilTibbsseries—completethetopmatterbylisting
true-crime stories. “The Detectives” section contains theauthors’principalseriesandofferingbriefdescrip-
essays on amateur sleuths, armchair detectives, hard- tionsoftheprincipalseriescharacters.
boiled detectives, and women detectives as well as The main text of all author articles begins with a
SherlockHolmespastiches.Afinalgroupofessays,in paragraphortwoheaded“Contribution”thatsumsup
“Other Media,” examine nonliterary adaptations and theauthor’splaceinthemysteryanddetectivefiction
other writing genres, such as films, drama, radio genre and discusses what sets the author apart from
dramas,televisionseries,andgraphicmysterynovels. others in the field. This section is followed by one
headed“Biography,”whichprovidesabriefsummary
ResourcesandIndexes of the author’s life, paying particular attention to
Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction, events relating to the author’s mystery and detective
Revised Edition adds 5 new appendixes and greatly fiction.
expands and divides the original edition’s glossary Theheartofeveryauthorarticleisthelong“Analy-
into “Genre Terms and Techniques” and “Crime Fic- sis”section.Itbeginswithanoverviewoftheauthor’s
tion Jargon.” Added appendixes in the “Resources” writing that discusses themes, motifs, and writing
section include an annotated bibliography of general style. This section is further broken down into sub-
works, a guide to Web and electronic resources, lists headed sections on individual works—usually nov-
ofmajorwritingawards,adetailedtimelineofhigh- els—orgroupsofworks.Withanaverageofthreesub-
lightsinthehistoryofcrimeanddetectivefiction,and sections per article, Critical Survey of Mystery and
a chronological listing of authors. Indexes in this set Detective Fiction contains focused discussions on
are geographical and categorized indexes of writers morethan1,300individualworks.
covered in author articles, an index of the principal Immediately following the byline of each article’s
seriescharacters,andageneralsubjectindex. contributorarelistsoftheauthor’sprincipalworks,ar-
ranged by genres, beginning with principal works of
OrganizationandFormat mystery and detective fiction. Individual titlesare ar-
AswithSalem’sotherCriticalSurveysets,Critical ranged chronologically and subdivided by series, as
SurveyofMysteryandDetectiveFictionisdesignedto appropriate. Finally, each article ends with an anno-
meettheneedsofsecondaryschoolandcollegeunder- tatedbibliographylistingworks on theauthor andon
graduatestudents.Articlesonauthorsarearrangedal- thesubgenresinwhichtheauthorwrites.
phabetically,bythenamesorpennamesunderwhich
the authors publish their mystery fiction. In some Acknowledgments
cases,thesenamesdifferfromthosebywhichtheau- SalemPresswouldliketothankthemanyacademi-
thorsarebestknown.Anexampleis“EdgarBox,”the cians and area experts who contributed to both the
pen name that Gore Vidal used to write several mys- original editions and this revised edition. The names
terynovels. andaffiliationsofallcontributorsarelistedinthefirst
Each author article is formatted identically, open- volumeofthisset.Thiseditionalsoowesmuchtoits
ing with ready-reference data on the author’s name, editor,CarlRollyson,BaruchCollege,CityUniversity
pseudonyms, birth and death dates and places, and ofNewYork.
vii

CONTRIBUTORS
RandyL.Abbott TarynBenbow-Pfalzgraf MarieJ.K.Brenner
UniversityofEvansville Wheaton,Illinois BethelCollege
MichaelAdams RichardP.Benton JeanR.Brink
GraduateCenter,CityUniversityof TrinityCollege,Connecticut HenryE.HuntingtonLibrary
NewYork
RobertL.Berner J.R.Broadus
PatrickAdcock UniversityofWisconsinatOshkosh UniversityofNorthCarolinaat
HendersonStateUniversity ChapelHill
CynthiaA.Bily
LindaK.Adkins AdrianCollege WilliamS.Brockington,Jr.
UniversityofNorthernIowa UniversityofSouthCarolinaat
BeatriceChristianaBirchak
Aiken
StanleyArcher UniversityofHoustonatDowntown
TexasA&MUniversity WilliamS.Brooks
MargaretBoeBirns
UniversityofBath
AmyJ.Arnold NewYorkUniversity
TexasA&MUniversity JamesS.Brown
NicholasBirns
BloomsburgUniversity
DorothyB.Aspinwall TheNewSchool
UniversityofHawaiiatManoa BillBrubaker
FranzG.Blaha
FloridaStateUniversity
BryanAubrey UniversityofNebraska,Lincoln
Fairfield,Iowa StefanBuchenberger
HarrietBlodgett
NaraWomen’sUniversity
MaxL.Autrey StanfordUniversity
DrakeUniversity RolandE.Bush
PeggeA.Bochynski
CaliforniaStateUniversity,Long
PhilipBader SalemStateCollege
Beach
ChiangMai,Thailand
RochelleBogartz
RebeccaR.Butler
EhrhardBahr IndependentScholar
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UniversityofCalifornia,LosAngeles
BernadetteLynnBosky
SusanButterworth
JamesBaird Yonkers,NewYork
SalemStateCollege
UniversityofNorthTexas
ZoharaBoyd
EdmundJ.Campion
DavidBarratt AppalachianStateUniversity
UniversityofTennessee,Knoxville
Farnsfield,England
WilliamBoyle
HalCharles
ThomasF.Barry Brooklyn,NewYork
EasternKentuckyUniversity
UniversityofSouthernCalifornia
H.EricBranscomb
JohnJ.Conlon
ThomasBeebee SalemStateCollege
UniversityofMassachusettsat
PennsylvaniaStateUniversityat
PhilipM.Brantingham Boston
UniversityPark
LoyolaUniversity,Chicago
DeborahCore
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FrancisJ.Bremer EasternKentuckyUniversity
CaliforniaStatePolytechnic
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Pennsylvania
SaintOlafCollege
ix