Purchase
TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION
By: P.D. James
Knopf
December 2009
On Sale: December 1, 2009
208 pages
ISBN: 0307592820
EAN: 9780307592828
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Thriller
In a perfect marriage of author and subject, P. D. Jamesβ one of the most widely admired writers of detective fiction at work todayβgives 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 Dickensβs Bleak House and Wilkie Collinsβs 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 (βarch-breaker of rulesβ), 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 theyβve created, from Sherlock Holmes to Sara Paretskyβs 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 fictionβ and of the detective heroβin 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
| 
© 2003-2026