http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
the mystery of the writers who invented the modern detective story
xxviii, 573 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Detective stories of the Twenties and Thirties have long been stereotyped as cozily conventional. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Golden Age of Murder tells for the first time the extraordinary story of British detective fiction between the two World Wars. A gripping real-life detective story, it investigates how Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, Agatha Christie and their colleagues in the mysterious Detection Club transformed crime fiction. Their work cast new light on unsolved murders while hiding clues to their authors’ darkest secrets and their complex and sometimes bizarre private lives. Crime novelist and current Detection Club President Martin Edwards rewrites the history of crime fiction with unique authority, transforming our understanding of detective stories, and the brilliant but tormented men and women who wrote them.
Part one : The unusual suspects. The ritual in the dark -- A bitter sin -- Conversations about a hanged woman -- The mystery of the silent pool -- A Bolshevik soul in a Fabian muzzle -- Wearing their criminological spurs -- The art of self-tormenting -- Part two : The rules of the game. Setting a good example to the Mafia -- The Fungus-story and the meaning of life -- Wistful plans for killing off wives -- The least likely person -- The best advertisement in the world -- Part three : Looking to escape. 'Human life's the cheapest thing there is' -- Echoes of war -- Murder, transvestism and suicide during a trapeze act -- A severed head in a fish-bag -- 'Have you heard of sexual perversions?' -- Clearing up the mess -- What it means to be stuck for money -- Neglecting Demosthenes in favour of Freud -- Part four : Taking on the police. Playing games with Scotland Yard -- Why was the shift put in the boiler-hole? -- Trent's very last case -- A coffin entombed in a crypt of granite -- Part five : Justifying murder. The heady liquor of ambition -- Knives engraved with 'blood and honour' -- Touching with a fingertip the fringe of great events -- Collecting murderers -- No judge or jury but my own conscience -- Every ridge and notch of the blue outlines -- Part six : The end game. Playing the grandest game in the world -- The work of a pestilential creature -- Frank to the point of indecency -- Shocked by the brethren -- The home of lost corpses -- Moments of violence -- Part seven : Unravelling the mysteries. Murder goes on forever -- Constitution and rules of the Detection Club.
Originally published: London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015.
"Fully revised and expanded"--Title page
Includes bibliographical references (pages [539]-548) and index.