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