The detective novel is both a product of the twentieth century and
a response to the needs of readers forced to deal with social and
political insecurities of the time. Thus codes of modernity are the
essence of the genre, and its plausibility relies upon the degree
of the readers' expectations, demands, and vicarious experiences.
Even one of mystery fiction's hallmarks, the seemingly improbable
but consequential encounter with strangers, is assimilated in the
modern sensibility, which has been shaped by concepts of trust and
confidence, of rationalism and emotion, of expertise and
amateurism, and of ideology and morality. This intelligent and
probing analysis of the detective novel shows how the fictional
world portrayed by the mystery writer is perceived as parallel with
the actual world. This apparent unity of the fictional thriller and
veritable circumstance would make it possible for some high-ranking
diplomat to outwit his adversaries by emulating the exploits of
Sherlock Holmes. Similarly, a professor of medicine might assign
students the study of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories as exercises in
detection or in drawing inferences, for like the work of Holmes the
practice of medicine connects visible symptoms to their invisible
causes. In the light of this concept of modernity Mystery Fiction
and Modern Life examines works by Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, John
Buchan, Eric Ambler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald, Tony
Hillerman, Agatha Christie, Helen MacInnes, Patricia Cornwell,
Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, Anthony Price, and others.
General
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