Guilty parties : a mystery lover's companion

Includes bibliographical references and index. Guilty Parties tells the whole story, accompanied by dozens of special features packed with information to surprise even the most avid fan. Classic puzzles like the locked-room mystery are analyzed and the Ten Commandments for the detective novel 1930s-style defined. Want to know what bean-shooters, roscoes, Chicago overcoat, nippers and buttons are? Look them up in the hard-boiled dictionary. Discover the stories of pulp fiction and film noir, or read about today's feisty female private eyes. Complete with a world round-up of current crime novels, full lists of Edgars, Daggers and other prizes, a detailed chronology and ideas for further reading, here is the perfect guide to crime and mystery writing, with 195 illustrations, 31 in color. The naming of parts. 1. Origins. "I am Vidocq, and I arrest you!" -- Hawkshaw and The ticket-of-leave man -- The mystery of The mystery of Edwin Drood -- Yellowbacks -- A surprise bestseller: The mystery of a hansom cab. 2. The great detective. Napoleons of crime -- "He takes my mind from better things." -- Science and Sherlock Holmes -- The Sherlock Holmes bookshelf -- The afterlife of Sherlock Holmes: pastiche, parody, pseudo-scholarship and (inevitably) deconstruction. 3. The golden age. The ten commandments according to Ronald Knox -- The scene of the crime: the locked room; Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard has homicides, too; the English country house -- Parodying the golden age -- The golden age bookshelf -- Careers and day jobs: golden age detectives and what they do (or don't do) for a living -- 4. The hard-boiled school. Pulp fiction -- Private eyes in fact and fiction -- A hard-boiled dictionary -- Hammett and Chandler in Hollywood -- The hard-boiled bookshelf -- Exporting the hard-boiled: Léo Malet and the roman noir américain. 5. Cops and killers. Manhunting -- The Simenon bookshelf -- Maigret goes to the movies -- Just the facts, ma'am -- Psychos and serial killers -- Film noir: a brief filmography. 6. The state of the art. Around the world today -- Having the last laugh -- Where the private eyes are -- You're a damned good man, sister: new women private eyes -- The feminist bookshelf -- A slight case of historicism -- Euro-mysteries. 7. Now read on. Edgars, Daggers, and other prizes -- The crime and mystery bookshelf -- Chronology. This is a history of the development of detective fiction with illustrations of favourite scenes, characters and international editions of the books. Throughout, special features add enlightenment, classic puzzles are analyzed and women private eyes are celebrated. The afterlife of popular characters is revealed and the Ten Commandments for the detective story 1920s-style are defined. Bean-shooters, gats, heats, heaters, rods and roscoes are all explained in the dictionary. A world round-up of current crime novels testifies to the continuing appeal of the genre in its many forms.

224 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm Detective and mystery stories--History and criticism. Noir fiction--History and criticism. Includes bibliographical references and index.