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60 LENGUA EXTRANJERA
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American Detective Fiction:
D. Hammett and R. Chandler.
English Detective Novel: P. D. James.
27-14205-13

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1. Detective fiction: Beginnings

2. Characteristics of the genre

2.1. Hero - Heroin

2.2. Detective Code

2.3. Common Plots

2.4. Villains

2.5. Female Fatale

3. The Golden Age of Detective Fiction

3.1. Queens of Crime

4. American Authors
4.1. Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)

4.2. Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)

4.3. Other American Authors

5. British Authors
5.1. Phyllis Dorothy James

5.2. Other British Authors

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INTRODUCTION

Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction in which the detective either

professional or amateur, investigate a crime, usually a murder. Detective fiction
flourished in the early twentieth century, although it is more often considered to
have begun in 1841 with the publication of «The Murders in the Rue Morgue», by
Edgar Allan Poe who is known as the Father of Detective Fiction. He has written
other short stories including «The Fall of the House of Usher», «The Tell-Tale Heart»,
in line with this new genre. In «Murders in the Rue Morgue», Poe introduced his
brilliant, eccentric detective, C. Auguste Dupin, whose solutions were chronicled
by an admiring, amiable narrator. Poe was also a literary critic, and he created a
rationale for the detective story. The unity of effect of impression is a point of
the greatest importance. Unity of tone and a length that permitted readings in a
single sitting led Poe to conclude that detection was essentially a tale, a species of
composition which admits of the highest development of artistic power in alliance
with the widest vigour of imagination. Poe suggested three corollaries:
a) Failure to preserve the mystery «until the proper moment of denouement,
throws all into confusion, so far as regards the effect intended»
b) Everything should converge on the denouement: «There should be no word
written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-
established design»
c) It is imperative that «no undue or inartistic means be employed to conceal the
secret of the plot»
The Detective novel has always been related to public interest in the problems
of modern, urban life, particularly in crime. But crime as a feature of Western social
life was not generally recognized until the rise of large cities in the early 1800s, a
period that corresponds to the creation of a mass reading public. City-dwellers,
fascinated by and afraid of crime, vilified and romanticized criminals, as well as
those who fought them.
For a better understanding of the unit we have displayed its contents in a way that
may differ from the orginal.

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1 Detective fiction: Beginnings

The first writing on urban crime pretended to be documentary, but it was filled with archetypes
and plots from preceding fiction, particularly the gothic novel. The idea of detection and the figure
of the detective that would eventually stand at the centre of the genre were introduced in the
early nineteenth century by a Frenchman, Francois-Eugene Vidocq in his Memoirs of Vidocq. Having
served as a soldier, privateer, smuggler, inmate, and secret police spy, Vidocq at age twenty-four
credited himself with a duel for every year of his life. He established his own department, the Surete,
which became the French equivalent of the American F.B.I. When Vidocq’s Memoirs were published
in France in 1828, they were immediately popular and translated into English.
Interest in England in «crime stories» blended with a strong, existing genre called the gothic novel.
Most scholars attribute this genre to Horace Walpole, whose Castle of Otranto, published in 1765,
established the horror story, to which Mary Shelley added scientific aspects with Frankenstein
in 1818. The gothic influence is said to account for the dark settings, unfathomable motivations,
and preoccupation with brilliant or unexpected solutions in the detective/mystery genre. Among
English writers, Vidocq most influenced Charles Dickens, who used detail and character from Vidocq’s
Memoirs for his Great Expectations in 1861.
In the United States, Edgar Allan Poe read Dickens, and he read and reread Vidocq. In five stories
between 1840 and 1845, Poe laid out the basics of the detective story, which underlie much hard-
boiled fiction. Later detectives, notably Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, became even more
eccentric, and Poe’s nameless narrator had his counterpart in the amiable Dr. Watson. In «Rue
Morgue», Poe introduced three common motifs of detective fiction: the wrongly suspected man,
the crime in the locked room, and the solution by unexpected means. Dupin solved the crime by
reading the evidence better than the police did and by noticing clues that they had neglected, thus
highlighting the importance of inference and observation. In a second story, «The Purloined Letter»,
Poe invented the plot of the stolen document, the recovery of which ensures the safety of some
important person. Dupin solved this crime by two more important formulae: deduction through
psychological insight into the protagonists, and a search for evidence in the most obvious place. In
the third Dupin story, «The Mystery of Marie Roget», Poe introduced and developed the crime by
recounting newspaper clippings, a technique that later attracted the literary realists and is still used.
Though this mystery contained no solution, leaving the reader to deduce a solution, marked the
beginning of the genre’s use of and competition with newspapers in presenting the «truth about
crime» to readers.
By 1870, detective fiction was finding a popular American audience. Allan Pinkerton published
The Expressman and the Detective in 1875, the earliest American non-fiction account of a private
detective. This popular book established the importance of both the hero, an extra-legal agent who
explores a lawless world, and of an understated style employing objective descriptions and short,
clear sentences. Still more popular was The Mobile Maguires and the Detectives in 1877, in which
Pinkerton detailed his company’s work fighting a semi-secret organization of Irish coal miners for the
Philadelphia Coal and Iron Company. Pinkerton understood that the public was interested in «the
immersion of the eye into an almost surreal underworld, an underworld to which he must adapt in
order to get his work done».

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In England, by contrast, the detective genre underwent a more analytic, stylized development,
exemplified in the work of Arthur Conan Doyle. His A Study in Scarlet in 1887 introduced the sturdy
Watson and the decayed aesthete Sherlock Holmes. Doyle adopted Poe’s formulae, cut his elaborate
introductions, restating them in conversational exchanges between his two chief characters, and
emphasized Poe’s least realistic feature: the «deduction» of astonishing conclusions from trifling
clues. The English School of detection soon produced other great masters as well, such as G. K.
Chesterton’s The Innocence of Father Brown, 1911 and Eric C. Bentley’s Trent’s Last Case, 1912.

For further information about E.A. Poe, refer to chapter 53: Novel, Tale and Poetry in
the United States Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman.
For further information about Charles Dickens, please refer to chapter 47: The Industrial
Revolution And Its Consequences: An Overview of the Political and Socioeconomic
Changes of the Time, Impacts on Literature, Charles Dickens

1. Who were the leading representatives of the detective story?

2. How did the Detective story begin?
3. Which ere Poe’s common motifs of detective fiction?

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2 Characteristics of the genre

Detective fiction include the police procedural, where the mystery is solved by detailed police
work, the inverted novel, where the identity of the criminal is known from the beginning and
only the method or the motive remains to be discovered, and the ‘hard-boiled school’ of private
investigators.

2.1. Hero - Heroin

The first protagonists were usually detectives. As the genre evolved, he or she became a policeman,
an insurance salesman, a politician, a reporter, a crook, unemployed, or a bystander sucked into
events. However, as the genre branched and crossed with other forms of popular fiction, most hard-
boiled heroes and heroines have retained identifiable characteristics.
The protagonist embarks on a journey of discovery in order to attain a goal or to recover something
lost. These figures faced dangers, challenges, and temptations that were physical, moral, material,
and sexual. Success depended on the acquisition of special knowledge or on an all-powerful
sponsor (a god, patron, and muse), fidelity to whom permitted success. There is a personal cost to the
protagonist. Classic detectives, from Poe’s Dupin to Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Chesterton’s Father
Brown clearly fit this definition. They answer to a higher authority, whether God or Reason; they have
special powers; and they undertake journeys that put right wrongs and restore the wholeness of
persons, families, or communities.

2.2. Detective Code

When the protagonist is a detective, she or he is presumed to have a set of ethics or moral values.
These are called «the detective code», or simply «the code» when discussing the genre. The basics
of the code are best summarized by Richard Layman in his discussion of what James Wright of the
Pinkerton Detective Agency taught Dashiell Hammett. The detective should be anonymous, avoid
publicity, be close-mouthed, and secretive. He or she protects good people from bad people, who
do not live by the rules; thus, one may break the rules in dealing with them. The detective ignores
rules and conventions of behaviour, because the client pays for this. Loyalty to the client is very
important, but may be superseded by a personal sense of justice or the rule of law. The detective
must keep an emotional distance from the people in the case, retain an objective point of view, and
consider all pertinent clues.

2.3. Common Plots

Some of the more common apparent plots involve:

„„ The search for a reputedly valuable object that turns out to be worthless
„„ An apparent crime that the revealed plot shows to be a repetition of an earlier crime
„„ The wealthy family with a problem or secret
„„ The antagonist who is a double of the detective or the author
„„ Cleaning up a corrupt town

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2.4. Villains

If a narrative has a private eye, there will either be a specific, individualized, bad guy or a culpable
class, diffusing blame over social strata.

2.5. Female Fatale

The femme fatale, defined simply, is an irresistibly attractive woman, especially one who leads men
into danger. She is usually the protagonist’s romantic interest. The protagonist’s involvement with
her may range from mild flirtation to passionate sex, but in the denouement he must reject or leave
her, for the revealed plot shows her to be one of the causes of the crime.

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3 The Golden Age of Detective Fiction

The «Golden Age» of Detective Fiction refers to the years between the two World Wars (1920-
1939), and Golden Age detective fiction writers are those who were working in England at that
time, including among others, Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) and Agatha Christie (1890-1957).
Both authors wrote beyond those years, of course, as did many other writers of the period; and
numerous later writers adopted Golden Age conventions. In fact, Golden Age mysteries are still
written today. The list of those who have adopted Golden Age conventions is long, as could be seen
below. Everyone who likes mysteries has read books by one or more writers who write in the Golden
Age tradition. For many mystery readers, those conventions define what makes a mystery good.
The list of conventions for the Golden Age mysteries has been expanded and updated from time to
time. Some of the common «rules» for Golden Age mystery fiction, or, put another way, the rules that
make a book a good mystery are:
„„ The reader must have equal opportunity with the hero/heroine for solving the mystery. There
must be clues, and all clues must be available to the reader.
„„ There must be a corpse, the earlier, the better, and the reader should care about the victim, unless
the hero/heroine is the prime suspect for the murder, so that the death puts the hero/heroine in
jeopardy. Or, perhaps the dead person is important to the hero/heroine in some other way; or
the hero/heroine has important reasons for investigating the death of the victim. In this case the
reader will care about the victim for the hero/heroine’s sake, rather than for the victim’s sake.
„„ The guilty person must have a prominent part in the story.
„„ The criminal must be caught through the deductions/actions of the hero/heroine, not by accident
or coincidence; and those deductions must be logical and sensible, not absurd, or magical/
supernatural.
„„ There should be multiple possible suspects, and clues that can have more than one interpretation.
Ideally, there is an obvious suspect to whom circumstantial evidence points, but who is not
guilty.
„„ Accuracy is essential, especially in details.

3.1. Queens of Crime

The four original Queens of Crime were:

„„ Agatha Christie (1890-1976). Ms. Christie is one of the best known mystery writers in the world.
She was born in Devon, England, and educated at home. She was married to Colonel Archibald
Christie just after the start of World War I. She worked in the dispensary of a hospital during the
war which contributed to her knowledge of poisons. She wrote her first book, The Mysterious Affair
at Styles during time off from work. The book was rejected by several publishers before being
accepted. She was divorced from Christie in 1928. In 1930 she met and married the archaeologist
Max Mallowan. She was prolific writer, and several of her books are classics of the mystery genre.
Christie wrote over seventy more novels, much of what she wrote was adapted for stage and
screen.
„„ Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957). Sayers had learned Latin by the age of seven and graduated from
Somerville College, Oxford with top honors in medieval literature. Since she needed money to
live on, she became a copywriter in an advertising agency. She ceased writing detective novels in
1947 because she said that she had written these stories only to make money, and she would now

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do what she enjoyed. She spent the rest of her life translating Dante, and lecturing on religion
and philosophy.
„„ Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982) Ngaio Marsh was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and attended
college there. She worked as a writer, actress, producer and director for amateur theatricals until
1928, when she went to England, where she founded an interior decorating shop. She wrote her
first mystery in 1932. She divided her time between England and New Zealand working with
various theatrical groups. Her series detective is police detective Roderick Alleyn who is quite
urbane and sophisticated.
„„ Margery Allingham (1904-1968). Creator of the aristocratic detective, Albert Campion. Allingham
was born in London and grew up in Essex. Her first mystery novel The Crime at Black Dudley was
published in 1929. The first Campion novels were fast moving adventure novels, but later the
characterization improved and the books contained more social commentary. Ms. Allingham
ceased writing during WWII and devoted herself to war efforts. The Tiger in the Smoke published in
1952 is considered by some to be her best work.

1. How is the Detective genre characterized?

2. What are the general rules for a mystery book?
3. What does «The Golden Age» of Detective Fiction refer to?
4. Who were the «Queens of Crime»?

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4 American Authors
Two outstanding and prolific American authors are representative of this genre: Dashiell Hammett
and Raymond Chandler.

4.1. Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)

Dashiell Hammett wrote his first fiction under the pseudonym Peter Collinson. This American novelist
also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Hammett was born in Maryland, the son of Richard
Hammett, a farmer and politician. Hammett studied at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute but left
school at the age of 14 to help support the family. He worked as a newsboy, freight clerk, labourer,
messenger, stevedore, and advertising manager before joining the Baltimore office of the Pinkerton
Detective Agency as an operator. During World War I Hammett served a sergeant in an ambulance
corps. At that time the worldwide Spanish influenza epidemic spread fast, and especially in military
installations. Hammett contracted tuberculosis. He spent the rest of the war in hospital, and for
much of his life suffered from ill health. He rejoined the agency and worked then intermittently to
earn extra money. Most of Hammett’s income during 1922-1926 came from writing advertising copy
for a San Francisco jewellery store.
Hammett’s best known books include The Maltese Falcon (1930), filmed three times. It introduced
detective Sam Spade who is investigating the murder of his colleague, detective Archer. Spade finds
himself involved with an odd assortment of characters, all searching for a black statue of a bird.
Hammett’s first short story appeared in the magazine Black Mask on 1st October 1923, and his fiction
writing career as novelist ended in 1934. In Black Mask Hammett became one of its most popular
writers. Under the pseudonym Peter Collinson, Hammett introduced a short, overweight, unnamed
detective employed by the San Francisco branch of the Continental Detective Agency, who became
known as The Continental Op. In the three dozen stories between 1929 and 1930, featuring the
tough and dedicated Op, Hammett gave shape to the first believable detective hero in American
fiction. Drawing on his Pinkerton experiences, Hammett created a private eye, whose methods of
detection are completely convincing, and whose personality has more than one dimension. Op
stories also appeared in hardcover form.
Hammett’s language was unsentimental, journalistic; moral judgments were left to the reader. The
first-person narration of the Op stories is left behind and Hammett views the detective protagonist
in the book from the outside. This philosophy also marked Hammett’s attitudes when he was
questioned about his Communist contacts which he did not reveal them. The Glass Key (1930)
was apparently Hammett’s favourite among his novels. The central character, Ned Beaumont, was
partly a self-portrait: a tall, thin, tuberculosis-ridden gambler and heavy drinker. The Thin Man (1934),
Hammett’s last novel, presented Nick Charles, a former detective who had married a rich woman,
Nora Charles. The book gained a commercial success and inspired a series of adaptations for film,
radio, and TV. In 1934 Hammett began working as a scriptwriter for the comic strip Secret Agent
X-9. Hammett’s earnings from his books and their spin-offs allowed him to continue drinking and
womanizing.
In the 1930s Hammett became politically active. He joined the Communist Party and was a fierce
opponent of Nazism. However, when Hemingway and a number of other writers went to Spain to help
the Republicans in the Civil War (1936-39), Hammett remained in the U.S., but helped veterans after
their return from the war. Hammett himself was drinking heavily and had problems with his writing.
During World War II tubercular Hammett served three years in the U.S. Army, editing a newspaper
for the troops in the Aleutian Islands. This was perhaps the last, relatively happy period in his life. In
1948 he was vice-chairman of the Civil Rights Congress, an organization that the Attorney General

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and F.B.I. deemed subversive. He tried to start writing again, hired a secretary, but managed only to
produce some notes. For his communist beliefs Hammett became a target during McCarthy’s anti-
Communist crusade. In 1951 he went to prison for five months rather than testify at the trial of four
communists accused of conspiracy. He was blacklisted and when Internal Revenue Service claimed
that he owed a huge amount in tax deficiencies, the federal government attacked his income. For a
while the State Department kept his books away from the shelves of American libraries overseas. The
rest of his life Hammett lived in and around New York, teaching creative writing in Jefferson School of
Social Science from 1946 to 1956. Hammett died penniless of lung cancer on January 10, 1961.
Together with Chandler, Hammett represented the early realistic vein in detective stories. His tough
heroes confront violence with full knowledge of its corrupting potential. In his novels Hammett
painted a mean picture of the American society, where greed, brutality, and treachery are the major
driving forces behind human actions.

4.2. Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)

Raymond Thornton Chandler was born in Chicago on July 23, 1888, to an Irish mother and a
Pennsylvanian father of English descent. His father was a railroad engineer, an alcoholic, and an
unfaithful husband who abandoned his family after he divorced Raymond’s mother in 1895. Though
Chandler resented his father greatly, in later years, it would become evident, in marriage to a much
older woman that Chandler came to take on many of the characteristics he had so disliked in his
father. When Chandler was seven, his mother took him to England to be was raised by his mother and
his mother’s family. After receiving a strong, classical education, Chandler tried his hand in freelance
work. By 1908, he was writing for such London periodicals as the Academy and the Westminster
Gazette. In 1912, Chandler decided to move back to the United States. When World War I came, he
served in the Canadian Expedition Force. In America, Chandler settled in Los Angeles, a city whose
people he did not like and never grew to like. At first, he had great difficulty finding work, and found
himself picking apricots for twenty cents an hour and stringing tennis rackets for a tennis racket
company. Chandler’s hardship did not last long, however, as he soon fell right into the hands of
California’s oil boom of the 1920s. At the age of thirty-two, he was given a job in the oil business,
and before he knew it he had risen to the top of the industry. It is this experience in the oil industry
that led Chandler to criticize the corruption of such industries, as he does in The Big Sleep through
the character of General Sternwood. It was at this point, during his involvement in the oil business,
that Chandler fell to the vice of his father: drinking. Chandler was fired from his job, and, as the
Great Depression of the 1930s had set in, he set his mind against the corporate world and began to
once again dedicate his time to writing. He began to read pulp novels, especially those of Dashiell
Hammett, his predecessor in the modern detective genre and in what would later become known,
in film, as film noir. Chandler began to write for the Black Mask, a magazine that published detective
fiction and mysteries. He wrote his first novel, The Big Sleep, in 1939, in a time frame of only three
months. In creating the novel, Chandler cannibalized two of his earlier short stories, «Killer in the
Rain» and «The Curtain».
The publication of The Big Sleep, then, came during the heart of the Great Depression and just before
the start of World War II. Therefore, the novel, not surprisingly, carries with it much of the cynicism of
1930s America. The catchy dialogue of the main character, Philip Marlowe, is the epitome of what
came to be known as «hard-boiled» style, the racy, clever, tough street talk of the detective narrative.
The Big Sleep broke away from the previous style of detective fiction, which includes narratives such
as the Sherlock Holmes tales and the novels of Agatha Christie. Chandler not only broke away from
the language of previous detective fiction, but was also unconventional in plotting, in his play with

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order, and in the addition of more than one plotline. Chandler’s innovations led to the film style of
the 1940s and 1950s called film noir.
Chandler’s novel launched an American trend. The Big Sleep was well received, achieved early
recognition within its genre, and slowly made its way into the realm of «great literature».

4.3. Other American Authors

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958). A prolific American writer of mystery stories. She is also credited
with originating the «Had I But Known» form of mystery novels in which the heroine is always getting
into dangerous situations. Ms. Rinehart was born in Pittsburgh, PA and attended nursing school. Her
husband’s investments in the stock market did poorly and she turned to writing to aid with the
family finances. Her stories and novels were extremely successful and enabled her to live in luxury.
Elizabeth Daly (1878 - 1967). Ms. Daly is the creator of Henry Gamage, a highly literate and sophisticated
sleuth whose adventures are described in 16 novels. Ms. Daly was an American author who did not
publish her first novel until she was 62.
Earl Derr Biggers (1884 - 1933). Biggers created Charlie Chan, one of the most popular of detectives.
Although there were only 6 novels, there were at least 30 films and a television series based upon
them. Biggers was born in Warren, Ohio, and earned a BA from Harvard in 1907. He worked for a
short time as theatre critic, and then turned to writing plays, novels, and short stories. The first Charlie
Chan novel The House Without a Key was published in 1925. Biggers wrote 5 more Chan novels before
he died of a heart attack in 1935.
Vincent Starrett (1886 - 1974). Though Starrett was born in Toronto, Canada, he lived most of his
life in the United States. He was a reporter for several Chicago newspapers, and wrote the Books
Alive column for the Chicago Tribune for many years. He wrote many essays, biographical works, and
critical studies of authors. He is best know for The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes which was published
in 1933. He wrote several detective novels and was a founder of the Baker Street Irregulars. He was
named a Grand Master of Mystery by the Mystery Writers of America in 1958.
Rex Stout (1886-1975). Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana. As a child, he was a prolific reader and
won the state spelling championship at age 13. Stout worked at a variety of jobs before he began
writing seriously. His first Nero Wolfe novel Fer-de-Lance was published in 1934, and Stout finished
his last Wolfe book at the age of 89.
S. S. Van Dine (1888 - 1939). Pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright. Van Dine was born in
Charlottesville, VA. He worked as a literary and art critic for newspapers and magazines. He suffered
from poor health, had a severe breakdown in 1923 and was confined to bed for two years. During
these years, he read detective stories and amassed a large collection. He then decided that he could
write a better story than he was reading. His first Philo Vance book, The Benson Murder Case, was
published in 1926. His books were exceptionally popular, and Van Dine became quite wealthy.
Helen McCloy (1904 - 1994). Ms. McCloy wrote a series featuring Dr. Basil Willing, a psychiatrist and
consultant to law enforcement agencies. Helen McCloy studied at the Sorbonne and served as
a foreign art critic for several US magazines. She returned to the US in 1932. She was one of the
founders of the Mystery Writers of America, and was named a Grandmaster by the MWA in 1990. She
was married to author Brett Halliday.
Stuart Palmer (1905 -1968). Palmer was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He was educated at The Chicago
Art Institute and the University of Wisconsin. He held a variety of jobs such as iceman, sailor, taxi
driver, and ghost writer. In 1931, his novel The Penguin Pool Murder which featured spinster sleuth
Hildegard Withers was published. In 1932, Palmer began his career as a scriptwriter for mystery films

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about Hildegard Withers, and the Falcon, the Lone Wolf, and Bulldog Drummond. Palmer served in
the Army during World War II as a training-film instructor and as a liason officer for the Army and
Hollywood’s war effort.
John Dickson Carr (1906-1977). The master of the locked room mystery. Carr was born in Uniontown,
PA., attended the Hill School, and then Haverford College. He wrote his first detective novel, It Walks
by Night in 1930. Carr decided that England was a much better place to write detective fiction than
the U.S. and moved there. Carr wrote a number of novels under his own name and also under the
name of Carter Dickson. As Carr, he wrote a series featuring Dr. Gideon Fell, and another with Henri
Bencolin; and under the Dickson name, his sleuth was Henry Merrivale. Carr also wrote the official
biography of Arthur Conan Doyle with the assistance of Doyle’s son, Adrian.
Phobe Atwood Taylor (1909 - 1976). Ms. Taylor was born in Boston, MA. She graduated from Barnard
College. Her mysteries featured sleuth Asey Mayo and take place in communities on Cape Cod. Mayo
is a former sailor who works as a handyman-chauffeur. Ms. Taylor under the name Alice Tilton also
wrote a series about Leonidas Witherall who is a New England prep school headmaster and amateur
detective.
Anthony Boucher (1911 - 1968). Pseudonym of William Anthony Parker White. Boucher was an
American critic, detective and science fiction writer, editor and anthologist.

1. Explain why Hammett created a private eye, using methods of detection which
were completely convincing, and the created personality had more than one
dimension.
2. Why were Hammett and Chandler referred to as the early realistic veins in detective
stories?
3. Explain Chandler’s «hard-boiled» style in his detective narrative.
4. Name other American representatives of the genre.

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5 British Authors

5.1. Phyllis Dorothy James

P. D. James (born in 1920) who started writing in the 1960s, is generally regarded as one of the most
interesting of contemporary British crime writers, and are often located «in the line of their Golden
Age predecessors»: the New Wave Queens of Crime.
The eldest daughter of an Inland Revenue Official, P.D James moved with her family to Cambridge
when she was 11, where she attended the Cambridge High School for Girls. She worked for the
National Health Service (1949-68) and the Civil Service until 1979 when she began to work as a full-
time writer. She was a Governor for the BBC (1988-93), and Chairman of the Literature Advisory Panel
at both the Arts Council of England (1988-92) and the British Council (1988-93). She was awarded
the OBE in 1983 and created a Life Peer (Baroness James of Holland Park) in 1991. Baroness James is
also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and chaired
the Booker Prize Panel of Judges in 1987. She has been President of the Society of Authors since
1997. She has received the following honorary degrees: Doctor of Letters from the Universities of
Buckingham 1992; Hertfordshire 1994; Glasgow 1995; Durham 1998, Portsmouth 1999, Doctor of
Literature from the University of London 1993; Doctor of the University, Essex 1996. She was made an
Associate Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge (1986) and an Honorary Fellow (2000). She is also
an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford (1996) and of Girton College, Cambridge (2000). Her
novels include a series of books featuring the Scotland Yard policeman Commander Adam Dalgliesh.
Her latest Commander Dalgliesh mystery is The Private Patient (2008).
James’ works date back to Agatha Christie’s ingenious plotting and evocative settings. A James plot is
a well-oiled machine, efficient and balanced in a style many modern detective-fiction writers hardly
aspire to attain. Her settings reflect an impressive variety of interests, often esoteric and sometimes
obscure. She speaks for a certain social class and way of life. She wrote Cover Her Face was followed
during this period by A Mind to Murder and Unnatural Causes. She co-authored with Thomas A.
Critchley The Maul and the Pear Tree, a recounting of a real life murder from the annals of 19th-century
London. The settings of four of her mysteries are in medicine-related facilities: a psychiatric clinic in A
Mind to Murder (1962), a nurses’ training school in Shroud for a Nightingale (1971), a private home for
the disabled in The Black Tower (1975), and a forensic science laboratory in Death of an Expert Witness
(1977).
P. D. James has been awarded major prizes for her crime writing in Great Britain, America, Italy and
Scandinavia. In 1999 she received the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award for long term
achievement. She is published widely overseas including the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Spain, Japan, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and
Argentina.

5.2. Other British Authors

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) the creator of Father Brown. Chesterton was an artist, poet, journalist,
critic, essayist, novelist, and short story writer. Chesterton was born in London, and wrote for various
newspapers and magazine. Chesterton’s other detective stories included The Club of Queer Trades
and The Man Who Knew Too Much.
E. C. Bentley (1875 - 1956) Author of Trent’s Last Case (1913). Bentley meant the book to be a parody
of the exploits of detectives like Holmes. Instead, he introduced a more human detective who was
capable of making mistakes. He also added genuine characterization and a little humor to the novel.

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Bentley was born in London and educated at St. Paul’s School where he met G.K. Chesterton who
became his closest friend. Bentley attended Oxford, and then studied law. He was admitted to the
bar in London in 1902. Bentley changed his career from law to journalism, and was a journalist for
30 years.
H.C Bailey (1878 - 1961), creator of Reggie Fortune who was a popular sleuth in England in the period
between WWI and WWII. Bailey was born in London, and educated at University College, Oxford. He
worked for the London Daily Telegraph from 1901 to 1946 as a drama critic and war correspondent.
Patricia Wentworth (1878-1961). Ms. Wentworth is best known for her novels which feature spinster
sleuth Maud Silver. Miss Silver is a retired governess, professional private detective, and is rarely seen
without her knitting. Ms. Wentworth was born in Mussoorie, India, and was educated in London. She
married George Oliver Turnbull in 1920, and lived in Surrey, England. Her first Miss Silver novel, Grey
Mask was published in 1928.
Freeman Wills Crofts (1879 - 1957). Crofts was born in Dublin, and spent his early years as a
construction engineer for British Railways. During his recuperation from a severe illness, he wrote
the novel The Cask in 1920. This book was such a success that he turned to writing mystery novels
as a career. His series detective was Inspector French who is noted for his step-by-step use of police
routine methods in the solution of crimes.
Sax Rohmer (1883- 1959). The pseudonym of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward, the creator of Chinese
master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu. Rohmer was born in Birmingham, England. He read widely, but was
not very interested in school. He also had a great deal of difficulty keeping a job which required
regular hours, and so determined to become a writer. He was very interested in the Occult, and,
as a newspaper reporter, spent a great deal of time in Limehouse, London’s Chinatown where he
conceived the idea for his criminal. The first Fu Manchu novel The Mystery of Fu Manchu was written
in 1913. It was followed by 12 others, and several movies were based on Rohmer’s books.
Arthur Upfield (1888 - 1964). Born in Gosport, England. After he failed his advancement tests as a
professional surveyor three times, his father shipped him off to Australia at the age of nineteen. He
worked as a cowhand and a cook and when WWI started, he joined the army and fought at Gallipoli.
His first successful novel The House of Cain was published in 1926. His series detective is Inspector
Napoleon Bonaparte, a half-cast Aborigine Australian who is a member of the Queensland Police
Department.
Monsignor Ronald A. Knox (1888 - 1957). Translator of the Bible, and writer of detective stories.
Knox was educated at Balliol, and became an Anglican priest. In 1917, he converted to Roman
Catholicism, became a priest, and prelate to the Pope. His translation of the New Testament was
published in 1944, and his translation of the Old Testament was published in 1950. He wrote several
detective novels such as The Viaduct Murders and The Footsteps at the Lock. He was one of the founding
members of the Detection Club.
Anthony Berkeley (1893 - 1970). Berkeley wrote under three names. As A. B. Cox he was a journalist.
As Anthony Berkeley and Francis Iles, he was the author of classic mystery novels and critic of
mystery novels. In 1925, he published The Layton Court Mystery which he had written for his own
amusement and which introduced his detective Roger Sheringham. He was a founding member of
the Detection Club.
Anthony Gilbert (1899-1973). Pseudonym of Lucy Beatrice Malleson. She was born in London. Her
mother planned for her to become a school teacher, but it was Ms. Malleson’s dream to become a
novelist. Prolific author of mystery novels featuring lawyer-detective Arthur G. Crook.
Gladys Mitchell (1901 - 1983). Ms. Mitchell was born in Cowley, England. She worked for 40 years
as a teacher in elementary schools. After her retirement, she turned to writing and wrote a novel a

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year. She is best know as the author of the Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley mysteries. Ms. Bradley is
a rather eccentric psychiatric consultant working for the British Home Office.
Nicholas Blake (1904 - 1972). Nicholas Blake is the pen name of Cecil Day Lewis, British poet who
was the poet laureate of England from 1968 - 1972. Day Lewis was born in Ballintubber, Ireland.
He received an MA from Wadham College of Oxford University. He taught at various schools from
1927 - 1935 but ran into trouble with school authorities over his leftist political views. He wrote his
first detective novel A Question of Proof in 1935 because he needed money. His series detective is the
erudite Nigel Strangeways. Blake wrote 20 detective novels. He was a member of the Communist
party although his interest in Communism seemed to decline after the Spanish Civil War. He was a
professor of poetry at Oxford from 1951 - 1956, and professor of Poetry at Harvard from 1964 - 65. He
is the father of actor Daniel Day Lewis.
Michael Innes (J.I.M. Stewart) (1906 - 1994). Innes was born near Edinburgh, and was an Oxford
graduate. He was a professor in Australia, Ireland, and then at Oxford. Under the name Stewart, he
published books of literary history and biographies. His first mystery, Death at the President’s Lodging,
was published in 1936 and featured his series sleuth John Appleby.
Leslie Charteris (1907 - 1993). The author of the series about the suave, sophisticated Simon Templer,
the Saint. Charteris was born in Singapore. His mother was English, his father Chinese. Charteris was
mainly educated at home though he did have one year at Cambridge. He decided that the study of
crime was more interesting than a regular job, and he published his first Saint novel, Meet the Tiger
in 1929. The Saint is a kind of Robin Hood, and the novels, movies and television shows based on his
exploits have been quite popular.

1. Who is the British writer, well-known worldwide, who forms part of the New Wave
Queens of Crime?
2. What kind of plots and settings did she choose for her works?
3. Can you identify some of her works?
4. Name other British writers of the genre.

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CONCLUSION

This chapter has attempted to bring insights as to what detective fiction is together
with its main representatives. Flourished in the early twentieth century, detective
fiction is often considered to have begun in 1841 with the publication of «The
Murders in the Rue Morgue», by Edgar Allan Poe. Stories full of suspense, heroes
and heroines, villains and secret codes boomed in hands of Dashiell Hammett,
the first successful author of novels of the tough private detective, and Raymond
Chandler, Hammett’s follower. Detective fiction include the police procedural,
where the mystery is solved by detailed police work, the inverted novel, where
the identity of the criminal is known from the beginning and only the method
or the motive remains to be discovered, and the ‘hard-boiled school’ of private
investigators by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, which became known
for its social realism and explicit violence. Many works of this genre have been
adapted to cinema and television with great success.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

REFERED BIBLIOGRAPHY

BAYM, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 5th ed. Vol. I-II. New York: Norton & Company,
1998
These volumes have proved to be very helpful and concise at the same time. They provide the works of the
most representative writers conveying the diversity of American literature from its origins to the present.
CRAIG, P. The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories. USA: Oxford University Press, 1990
Beginning with the Conan Doyle era, this collection moves chronologically past Christie and Sayers to P. D. James
and the present moment. The book could be read for pleasure, and it will complement classes in comparative
literature, English, and creative writing.
HILLERMAN, T. The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories. USA: Oxford University Press, 1997
This volume brings together thirty-three tales that illuminate both the evolution of crime fiction in the United
States and its progress from elegant mysteries to the hard-boiled realism of the thirties and forties. It describes
how Raymond Chandler used crime, not as a puzzle to be solved, but as a spotlight with which he could
illuminate the human condition.
IÁÑEZ, E. Historia de la Literatura, el Siglo XIX: La Nueva Literatura, Vol. VII. España: Tesys- Bosch, 1993
This book provides readers with a complete description of literary circles, writers and works of the 19th
century.
MANSFIELD-KELLY, D. The Longman anthology of Detective Fiction. U.K.: Longman, 2004
A detective fiction anthology filled with information on the authors who wrote them, discussion about the
history and evolution of the genre, and important literary criticism. Highly recommended for those interested
in the genre.

webliography

In case of difficulty in finding the above books for reference, there are useful WebPages dealing with the
detective genre:
Encyclopaedia Britannica
http://www.britannica.com
Poe’s life and works
http://www.bartleby.com/226/index.html#5
Portrait of D. Hammett
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/
The Raymond Chandler website
http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/
P.D. James: The Official Website
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/

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SUMMARY/OUTLINE

American Detective Fiction: D. Hammett and R. Chandler. English Detective Novel:

P. D. James.

1. Detective fiction: Beginnings 2.3. Common Plots

„„ Filled with archetypes and plots from the gothic novel. „„ The search for a reputedly valuable object that turns out
to be worthless.
„„ The idea of detection and the figure of the detective
introduced in the early nineteenth century by a Frenchman, „„ An apparent crime that the revealed plot shows to be a
Francois-Eugene Vidocq in his Memoirs of Vidocq repetition of an earlier crime.
„„ Most scholars attribute this genre to Horace Walpole, „„ The wealthy family with a problem or secret.
whose Castle of Otranto, published in 1765. „„ The antagonist who is a double of the detective or the
„„ The gothic: the dark settings, unfathomable motivations, author.
and preoccupation with brilliant or unexpected solutions „„ Cleaning up a corrupt town.
in the detective/mystery genre.
„„ In the United States: Edgar Allan Poe laid out the basics 2.4. Villains
of the detective story. Poe’s three common motifs of
detective fiction: the wrongly suspected man, the crime in „„ An individualized, bad guy.
the locked room, and the solution by unexpected means. „„ A guilty class.
Allan Pinkerton’s The Expressman and the Detective in 1875,
The Mobile Maguires and the Detectives in 1877.
„„ In England: a more analytic, stylized development of the
2.5. Female Fatale
detective genre- Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet in „„ An irresistibly attractive woman.
1887; G. K. Chesterton’s The Innocence of Father Brown, 1911
„„ Leads men into danger.
and Eric C. Bentley’s Trent’s Last Case, 1912.
„„ Protagonist’s romantic interest.
„„ Plot shows her to be one of the causes of the crime.

2. Characteristics of the genre

3. The Golden Age of Detective
2.1. Hero - Heroin
Fiction
„„ Protagonists: usually detectives who embarks on a
Years between the two World Wars (1920-1939)
journey of discovery in order to attain a goal or to recover
something lost. Common «rules» for Golden Age mystery fiction:
„„ Most hard-boiled heroes and heroines have retained „„ Clues available to the reader to solve the mystery.
identifiable characteristics. „„ A corpse.
„„ Dangers, challenges, and temptations. „„ The guilty person must have a prominent part in the story.
„„ Personal cost to the protagonist. „„ Crime solved through deductions/actions of the hero/
„„ Goals: putting right wrongs and restore the wholeness of heroine, not by accident or coincidence.
persons, families, or communities. „„ Logical and sensible deductions, not absurd, or magical,
supernatural.
2.2. Detective Code „„ Multiple possible suspects.
„„ Accuracy is essential, especially in details.
„„ A set of ethics or moral values called «the detective code»,
or simply «the code».
„„ The detective should be anonymous, eschew publicity, be 3.1. Queens of Crime
close-mouthed, and secretive the detective ignores rules Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
and conventions of behaviour, because the client pays for
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
this.
Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982)
„„ Loyalty to the client is very important.
Margery Allingham (1904-1968)
„„ The detective must keep an emotional distance from the
people in the case.
„„ An objective point of view, and consider all pertinent
clues.

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4. American Authors 5. British Authors

4.1. Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) 5.1. P. D. James (born in 1920)

„„ A screenwriter in Hollywood. „„ The New Wave Queens of Crime.
„„ Born in Maryland. „„ A Governor for the BBC and Chairman of the Literature
„„ During World War I Hammett served a sergeant in an Advisory Panel at both the Arts Council of England and the
ambulance corps. British Council.
„„ The Maltese Falcon (1930), filmed three times. „„ President of the Society of Authors.

„„ Hammett’s first short story appeared in the magazine Black „„ Honorary degrees.
Mask. „„ Ingenious plotting and evocative settings.
„„ Unnamed detective: The Continental Op, the first believable „„ Efficient and balanced style.
detective hero in American fiction. „„ Cover Her Face.
„„ Hammett’s language: unsentimental, journalistic; moral „„ Medicine-related facilities: a psychiatric clinic in A Mind
judgments left to the reader. to Murder (1962), a nurses’ training school in Shroud for a
„„ Politically active, fierce opponent of Nazism. Nightingale (1971), a private home for the disabled in The
„„ Vice-chairman of the Civil Rights Congress. Black Tower (1975), and a forensic science laboratory in
Death of an Expert Witness (1977).
„„ Teacher of creative writing in Jefferson School of Social
Science from 1946 to 1956. „„ Co-authored with Thomas A. Critchley The Maul and the
Pear Tree.
„„ Represented the early realistic vein in detective stories.
„„ Painted a mean picture of the American society, where
greed, brutality, and treachery were the major driving 5.2. Other British Authors
forces behind human actions.
„„ G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)
„„ E. C. Bentley (1875 - 1956)
4.2. Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)
„„ H.C Bailey (1878 - 1961)
„„ Born in Chicago „„ Patricia Wentworth (1878-1961)
„„ Taken to England when seven years old „„ Freeman Wills Crofts (1879 - 1957)
„„ Strong, classical education „„ Sax Rohmer(1883- 1959)
„„ Periodicals: Academy and the Westminster Gazette „„ Arthur Upfield (1888-1964)
„„ Read pulp novels, especially those of Dashiell Hammett, „„ Monsignor Ronald A. Knox (1888 - 1957)
his predecessor in the modern detective genre and in what „„ Anthony Berkeley (1893 - 1970)
would later become known, in film, as film noir
„„ Anthony Gilbert (1899-1973)
„„ Began to write for the Black Mask, a magazine that
„„ Gladys Mitchell (1901 -1983)
published detective fiction and mysteries
„„ Nicholas Blake (1904-1972)
„„ First novel, The Big Sleep, in 1939,
„„ Michael Innes (J.I.M. Stewart) (1906 - 1994)
„„ The Big Sleep, came to be known as «hard-boiled» style, the
racy, clever, tough street talk of the detective narrative „„ Leslie Charteris (1907 - 1993)

„„ Unconventional in plotting and plotline

4.3. Other American Authors

„„ Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958)
„„ Elizabeth Daly (1878 - 1967)
„„ Earl Derr Biggers (1884 - 1933)
„„ Vincent Starrett (1886 - 1974)
„„ Rex Stout (1886-1975)
„„ S. S. Van Dine (1888 - 1939)
„„ Helen McCloy (1904 - 1994)
„„ Stuart Palmer (1905 -1968)
„„ John Dickson Carr (1906-1977)
„„ Phobe Atwood Taylor (1909 - 1976)
„„ Anthony Boucher (1911 - 1968)

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EVALUATION

1. The beginnings of urban crime pretended to be documentary, although it contained elements from
….
a. the gothic novel
b. commercial fiction
c. romantic novel
d. none of the above

2. After reading Dickens and Vidocq, Poe laid out the basics of the detective story, which underlie …..
a. linear story-telling
b. police procedural
c. inverted novel
d. hard-boiled fiction

3. Poe’s Dupin solved the crime by……

a. obvious clues the police could also see
b. reading the evidence and noticing clues
c. talking to neighbours
d. dreaming

4. The detective’s characteristics are:

a. close-mouthed and secretive
b. well-known in his/ her field
c. communicative and incisive
d. none of the above

5. In detective fiction there are several common plots:

a. solving crimes in civilized societies
b. poor families facing common problems
c. crimes in a corrupt town
d. none of the above

6. The «Golden Age» of Detective Fiction refers to the years

a. 1920-1993
b. after WWII
c. between WWI and WWII
d. before WWI

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7. Hammett’s best known stories introduced detectives

a. Sam Spade and The Continental Op
b. Sam Sullivan and The Continental Op
c. The Continental Op and Sammy Tomlinson
d. Only the Continental Op

8. Hammett’s the American society was: where greed, brutality, and treachery are the major driving
forces behind human actions
a. loyal and fair
b. greedy and disloyal
c. ignorant and straightforward
d. greedy and fair

9. Chandler innovated in detective fiction language. He was also unconventional in plotting, in his play
with order, and in the addition of more than one plotline. His innovations led to the film style called
…..
a. mystery film
b. black film
c. film noir
d. film nuisance

10. James’ works reflect an impressive variety of interests…

a. often mysterious and sometimes obvious
b. often esoteric and sometimes clear
c. often esoteric and sometimes obscure
d. none of the above

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