Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards
599 Pages
Publisher: Harper 360, Collins Crime Club
Release Date: August 16, 2022
Nonfiction, Biographies, Memoirs, Historical Events, Famous People, Authors
The book is divided into the following parts.
Revolution
Mystery and Imagination
Guilty Secrets
Detective Fever
Poacher Turned Gamekeeper
The Great Detective
Rogues’ Gallery
The Nature of Evil
Plot Minds
The Science of Detection
Had-I-But-Known
Ware and Peace
Treacherous Impulses
The Mistress of Deception
American Tragedy
Superfluous Women
Challenging the Reader
Locked Rooms
The Long Arm of the Law
Blood-Simple
Murder and its Motives
Twists of Fate
The Sound of Mystery
In Lonely Rooms
Brothers in Crime
Cracks in the Wall
Sensation in Court
California Dreaming
Carnival of Crime
Waking Nightmares
Dagger of the Mind
Whose Body?
Private Wounds
Out of this World
Perfect Murders
Mind Games
Deep Water
Forking Paths
Bloody Murder
People with Ghosts
Killing Jokes
Literary Agents
Nerve
Outsider in Amsterdam
Whodunwhat?
Black and Blue
Home Discomforts
Mystery Games
Early Graves
A Suitable Job for a Woman
A Feeling for Snow
Fatal Inversions
Dark Places
Long Shadows
A Taste for Death
What can I say about this book? It is immense, well researched, and thorough. I learned so much about my favorite authors and found new authors I want to read. There seemed to be a common thread through their lives, sadness, and misfortune caused by drugs, alcohol, suicide, mental illness, etc.
The author covers topics that I had not even considered as a crime or mystery novel. As always, I love anything about Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Maurice LeBlanc, George Simenon, and Patricia Highsmith. I thought it was interesting that several writers had similar ideas for books like Strangers on a Train. Also, the fact that Jim Thompson, an American writer, said he thought he would become famous ten years after his death. His prediction came true with his novel “The Grifters” which was made into a movie in 1990. If you are a mystery buff and/or enjoy biographies and memoirs, this is a definite must read for you.
