AZ Murder GoesClassic Author:Barbara G. Peters Papers of the 1996 mystery symposium on classic crime with authors Catherine Aird (mystery scholarship), Michael Connelly (Chandler), Joe Gores (Hammett), H.R.F. Keating (Sayers), Laurie R. King (Doyle), Janet Laurence (The Golden Age of Publishing), Margaret Lewis (Ellis Peters), Peter Lewis (Ambler), Edward Marston (Carr), Val McDermid (Hardbo... more »iled Detectives), Miriam Grace Monfredo (Daphne du Maurier), Susan Moody (Oxford Detectives), Steven Saylor (Palmer), Robin Smiley (E.S. Gardner), and Justin Scott (R.L. Stevenson).
Classic was a 1998 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominee for Best Critical/Biographical work.
If a dozen or so masters of crime get together, what do they plot? Sometimes mischief, sometimes murder, but sometimes they scheme to share their killer expertise and love of mystery.
Do you know: What career choice shaped the work of Joe Gores and Dashiell Hammett? How did Holmes feel about marriage? What blueprint did Raymond Chandler leave other writers? Was Agatha Christie treated shabbily by her first publisher? What past master of the Golden Age is now virtually forgotten? Which Poet Laureate wrote successful crime novels? How much is a first edition of the first Perry Mason case worth? Is Sara Paretsky really the heir to Hammett and Chandler? How did Eric Ambler revolutionize the spy novel? Why did Brother Cadfael sleuth in Shrewsbury? Who made "impossible crimes" possible? How does Treasure Island still cast a spell? Who dared to write a bestseller with a main character dead before the opening chapter? Is the Detective Story dead?
What makes a mystery a classic? Here are Justin Scott (Stevenson), Laurie King (Conan Doyle), Joe Gores (Hammett), Michael Connelly (Chandler), Val McDermid (Hard-Boiled Detectives), Edward Marston (Carr), H.R.F. Keating (Sayers), Miriam Grace Monfredo (Du Maurier), Steven Saylor (Palmer), Robin Smiley (Gardner), Peter Lewis (Ambler), Susan Moody (Crispin, Innes, and Blake), Margaret Lewis (Ellis Peters), Janet Laurence (Publishing in the Golden Age), and Catherine Aird playing devil's advocate to tell you.« less