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TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION
By: P.D. James
Knopf
December 2009
On Sale: December 1, 2009
208 pages
ISBN: 0307592820
EAN: 9780307592828
Hardcover
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In a perfect marriage of author and subject, P. D. Jamesโ one of the most widely admired writers of detective fiction at work todayโgives us a personal, lively, illuminating exploration of the human appetite for mystery and mayhem, and of those writers who have satisfied it. P. D. James examines the genre from top to bottom, beginning with the mysteries at the hearts of such novels as Charles Dickensโs Bleak House and Wilkie Collinsโs The Woman in White, and bringing us into the present with such writers as Colin Dexter and Henning Mankell. Along the way she writes about Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie (โarch-breaker of rulesโ), Josephine Tey, Dashiell Hammett, and Peter Lovesey, among many others. She traces their lives into and out of their fiction, clarifies their individual styles, and gives us indelible portraits of the characters theyโve created, from Sherlock Holmes to Sara Paretskyโs sexually liberated female investigator, V. I. Warshawski. She compares British and American Golden Age mystery writing. She discusses detective fiction as social history, the stylistic components of the genre, her own process of writing, how critics have reacted over the years, and what she sees as a renewal of detective fictionโ and of the detective heroโin recent years. There is perhaps no one who could write about this enduring genre of storytelling with equal authority and flair: it is essential reading for every lover of detective fiction.
 Media BuzzMorning Edition - December 22, 2009
Fresh Air - NPR - December 7, 2009
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