The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction covers British and American crime fiction from the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth. As well as discussing the detective fiction of writers like Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, it considers other kinds of fiction where crime plays a substantial part, such as the thriller and spy fiction. It also includes chapters on the treatment of crime in eighteenth-century literature, French and Victorian fiction, women and black detectives, crime on film and TV, police fiction and postmodernist uses of the detective form. The collection, by an international team of established specialists, offers students invaluable reference material including a chronology and guides to further reading. The volume aims to ensure that its readers will be grounded in the history of crime fiction and its critical reception.
Chronology; Introduction: crime fiction and detective fiction; 1. Eighteenth-century crime writing Ian A. Bell; 2. The Newgate novel and sensation fiction, 1830-68 Lynn Pykett; 3. The short story from Poe to Chesterton Martin Kayman; 4. French crime fiction Sita Schütt; 5. The golden age Stephen Knight; 6. The private eye Dennis Porter; 7. Spy fiction Davis Seed; 8. The thriller David Glover; 9. Postwar American police fiction LeRoy Lad Panek; 10. Postwar British crime fiction Martin Priestman; 11. Women detectives Maureen T. Reddy; 12. Black crime fiction Andrew Pepper; 13. Crime on film and TV Nickianne Moody; 14. Detection and literary fiction Laura Marcus; Guide to further reading.
