Varieties of Crime Fiction

Leading critic S.T. Joshi reviews surveys the work of 13 mystery and crime writers, ranging from the Golden Age, Hardboiled school, the Psychological Mystery, and Contemporary Writers.

The Golden Age

Dorothy L. Sayers: Lords and Servants

John Dickson Carr: Puzzlemeister

Margery Allingham: Murder, Gangs, and Spies

Philip MacDonald: Expanding the “Cosy” Mystery

II. The Hard-Boiled School

Dashiell Hammett: Sam Spade and Others

Raymond Chandler: Mean Streets

Ross Macdonald: Family Affairs

III. The Psychological Mystery

Margaret Millar: Scars of the Psyche

Patricia Highsmith: Guilt and Innocence

L. P. Davies: The Workings of the Mind

Some Contemporaries

P. D. James: The Empress’s New Clothes

Ruth Rendell: The Psychology of Murder

Sue Grafton: Hard-Boiled Female