Murder Will Out: The Detective in Fiction

Since the nineteenth century the detective has reigned as one of the most popular figures in fiction. The search to discover "whodunit" has seduced millions of readers into devouring page after page, as they try to anticipate how Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe, Philip Marlowe, or one of fiction's many other renowned sleuths will crack the case. In "Murder Will Out," T.J. Binyon follows the trail of the detective in fiction from Edgar Allan Poe's Chevalier Dupin to the present day. He offers a history not of a type of fiction, but of a type of character, revealing the fictional detective in all of his guises, ranging from the brilliant, eccentric amateur to the plodding, imperceptive policeman. Readers will meet the likes of Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade, Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason, S.S. Van Dine's Philo Vance, Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer, K.C. Constantine's Mario Balzic, and countless others. This indispensable guide to who did what to whom, and how, will provide hours of pleasure for anyone who has ever been gripped by a good crime novel and wants to investigate further.