Download or read book Talking About Detective Fiction written by P. D. James and published by Knopf Canada. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: P. D. James examines the genre of detective fiction from top to bottom, beginning with the mystery plots at the hearts of such novels as Great Expectations and Jane Eyre, and bringing us firmly into the present with such writers as Amanda Cross and Henning Mankell. Along the way she writes about Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Josephine Tey, among many others. She traces the facts of their lives into and out of their work; clarifies their individual styles; and gives us indelible portraits of the characters they've created: from Sherlock Holmes, "the unchallenged Great Detective," to Sara Paretsky's spunky, sexually liberated female investigator, V. I. Warshawski. She compares British and American "Golden Age" mystery writing, including the groundbreaking work of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. She discusses detective fiction as social history; the stylistic components of the genre; her own process of writing; how critics have reacted over the years (Edmund Wilson hated it, W.H. Auden was "addicted"); and what she sees as a renewal of detective stories—and of the detective hero—in recent years. Here is the perfect marriage of writer and subject—essential reading for every lover of detective fiction.

Download or read book The Given Day written by Dennis Lehane and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Gut-wrenching force...A majestic, fiery epic. The Given Day is a huge, impassioned, intensively researched book that brings history alive." - The New York Times Dennis Lehane, the New York Times bestselling author of Live by Night—now a Warner Bros. movie starring Ben Affleck—offers an unflinching family epic that captures the political unrest of a nation caught between a well-patterned past and an unpredictable future. This beautifully written novel of American history tells the story of two families—one black, one white—swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power at the end of World War I.

Download or read book Murder for Pleasure written by Howard Haycraft and published by Dover Publications. This book was released on 2019-02-13 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Genuinely fascinating reading."—The New York Times Book Review "Diverting and patently authoritative."—The New Yorker "Grand and fascinating … a history, a compendium and a critical study all in one, and all first rate."—Rex Stout "A landmark … a brilliant study written with charm and authority."—Ellery Queen "This book is of permanent value. It should be on the shelf of every reader of detective stories."—Erle Stanley Gardner Author Howard Haycraft, an expert in detective fiction, traces the genre's development from the 1840s through the 1940s. Along the way, he charts the innovations of Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as the modern influence of George Simenon, Josephine Tey, and others. Additional topics include a survey of the critical literature, a detective story quiz, and a Who's Who in Detection.

Download or read book Contemporary French and Scandinavian Crime Fiction written by Anne Grydehøj and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a study of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and French crime fictions covering a fifty-year period. From 1965 to the present, both Scandinavian and French societies have undergone significant transformations. Twelve literary case studies examine how crime fictions in the respective contexts have responded to shifting social realities, which have in turn played a part in transforming the generic codes and conventions of the crime novel. At the centre of the book’s analysis is crime fiction’s negotiation of the French model of Republican universalism and the Scandinavian welfare state, both of which were routinely characterised as being in a state of crisis at the end of the twentieth century. Adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the book investigates the interplay between contemporary Scandinavian and French crime narratives, considering their engagement with the relationship of the state and the citizen, and notably with identity issues (class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity in particular).

Download or read book Invisible City written by Julia Dahl and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A finalist for the Edgar and Mary Higgins Clark Awards, in her riveting debut Invisible City, journalist Julia Dahl introduces a compelling new character in search of the truth about a murder and an understanding of her own heritage. Just months after Rebekah Roberts was born, her mother, an Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn, abandoned her Christian boyfriend and newborn baby to return to her religion. Neither Rebekah nor her father have heard from her since. Now a recent college graduate, Rebekah has moved to New York City to follow her dream of becoming a big-city reporter. But she's also drawn to the idea of being closer to her mother, who might still be living in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn. Then Rebekah is called to cover the story of a murdered Hasidic woman. Rebekah's shocked to learn that, because of the NYPD's habit of kowtowing to the powerful ultra-Orthodox community, not only will the woman be buried without an autopsy, her killer may get away with murder. Rebekah can't let the story end there. But getting to the truth won't be easy—even as she immerses herself in the cloistered world where her mother grew up, it's clear that she's not welcome, and everyone she meets has a secret to keep from an outsider.

Download or read book Her Here written by Amanda Dennis and published by Bellevue Literary Press. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An atmospheric debut novel about one lost young woman’s search for another “Spellbinding. . . . Wholly engrossing.” —Washington Post Elena, struggling with memory loss due to a trauma that has unmoored her sense of self, deserts graduate school and a long-term relationship to accept a bizarre proposition from an estranged family friend in Paris: she will search for a young woman, Ella, who went missing six years earlier in Thailand, by rewriting her journals. As she delves deeper into Ella’s story, Elena begins to lose sight of her own identity and drift dangerously toward self-annihilation. Her Here is an existential detective story with a shocking denouement that plumbs the creative and destructive powers of narrative itself. An Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate and Cambridge Gates Scholar, Amanda Dennis teaches at the American University of Paris. Her Here is her first novel.

Download or read book The Sinister written by David Putnam and published by Oceanview Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publishers Weekly Starred Review Bruno Johnson, shaken to his core, but still a formidable force—unrelenting when it comes to saving a child Ex-cop, ex-con Bruno Johnson and his wife Marie hide in plain sight from the law in an upscale L.A. hotel as Bruno heals from a run-in with a brutal outlaw motorcycle gang—and the loss of his son—a son he didn't know he had until it was too late. Marie, now pregnant with her first child, fears Bruno may never fully recover. She knows that soon they must return to Costa Rica to rejoin their large family of rescued children—kids who owe their lives to Bruno and Marie's intervention. But when Bruno's friend, FBI Deputy Director, Dan Chulack, pleads with Bruno to help rescue his kidnapped granddaughter, escape plans are put on hold. After exhausting all legitimate investigative avenues, Chulack seeks Bruno's brand of justice. With Marie's reluctant consent and her own special expertise, they plunge into the evil world of those who prey on children. Meanwhile, Bruno's mother, a woman he has never known, appears asking for forgiveness—and Bruno's assistance—while bringing her own set of complications. Bruno finds his professional and his personal lives colliding in a pursuit that is excruciating and brutal. The Sinister is perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and James Lee Burke While all of the novels in the Bruno Johnson Crime Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is: The Disposables The Replacements The Squandered The Vanquished The Innocents The Reckless The Heartless The Ruthless The Sinister The Scorned (coming 2023) The Diabolical (coming 2024)

Download or read book Upgrade written by Blake Crouch and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “If Michael Crichton had written a superhero novel, it would look a lot like Upgrade.”—The New York Times Book Review “You don’t so much sympathize with the main character as live inside his skin.”—DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series “Mysterious, fascinating, and deeply moving—exploring the very nature of what it means to be human.”—ALEX MICHAELIDES, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient and The Maiden ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, She Reads The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion—currently in development as a motion picture at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners “You are the next step in human evolution.” At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep. But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways. The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy. Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost. Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human. And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution? Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.

Download or read book Suspicion written by Joseph Finder and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lie to your daughter. Betray your friend. Trust no-one. His nightmare began with a quick handshake and a friendly smile... Danny Goodman would do anything for his teenage daughter Abby. So when his wife dies, and he can no longer afford the school she adores, he borrows money from Thomas Galvin, a well-known millionaire, and the father of Abby's best friend. But on the day he takes the loan, the authorities turn up at his door. Thomas Galvin is a wanted criminal – and they need Danny's help to bring him down. Now Danny is in an impossible dilemma. He can either go to prison for accepting dirty money, or he can go undercover in a dangerous sting operation to betray his new best friend... Recent reviews for Joseph Finder: 'Stunning... I can't remember when I last read a book so gripping and so satisfying' PETER JAMES. 'Smart, swift and well-informed' SCOTT TUROW. 'Terrific' IAN RANKIN. 'A writer at the top of his game' MARK BILLINGHAM. 'Fantastic... Kept me absolutely on the edge of my seat' MARTINA COLE. 'Timely, twisty and impossible to put down' KARIN SLAUGHTER. 'A masterclass in ratcheting up the tension... A classy, sophisticated thriller' J.P. DELANEY.

Download or read book A Companion to Crime Fiction written by Charles J. Rzepka and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-07-13 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Crime Fiction presents the definitive guide to this popular genre from its origins in the eighteenth century to the present day A collection of forty-seven newly commissioned essays from a team of leading scholars across the globe make this Companion the definitive guide to crime fiction Follows the development of the genre from its origins in the eighteenth century through to its phenomenal present day popularity Features full-length critical essays on the most significant authors and film-makers, from Arthur Conan Doyle and Dashiell Hammett to Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese exploring the ways in which they have shaped and influenced the field Includes extensive references to the most up-to-date scholarship, and a comprehensive bibliography

Download or read book Teaching Crime Fiction written by Charlotte Beyer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-18 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than perhaps any other genre, crime fiction invites debate over the role of popular fiction in English studies. This book offers lively original essays on teaching crime fiction written by experienced British and international scholar teachers, providing vital insight into this diverse genre through a series of compelling subjects. Taking its starting-point in pedagogical reflections and classroom experiences, the book explores methods for teaching students to develop their own critical perspectives as crime fiction critics, the impact of feminism, postcolonialism, and ecocriticism on crime fiction, crime fiction and film, the crime short story, postgraduate perspectives, and more.

Download or read book Winterkill written by Ragnar Jonasson and published by Orenda Books. This book was released on 2020-12-10 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIV THE STUNNING FINAL INSTALMENT OF THE MULTI-MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING DARK ICELAND SERIES **Sunday Times BOOK OF THE MONTH** 'JÓnasson is an automatic must-read for me ... possibly the best Scandi writer working today' Lee Child 'Is this the best crime writer in the world today? ... Truly a master of his genre' The Times 'The engaging Ari Thor returns in this darkly claustrophobic tale. Perfect mid-winter reading' Ann Cleeves 'A stunningly atmospheric story. Ari ThÓr Arason returns in this pitch-perfect, beautifully paced crime novel ... Ragnar JÓnasson is at the top of his game, and a master of the genre' Will Dean ______________ A blizzard is approaching SiglufjÖrður, and that can only mean one thing... When the body of a nineteen-year-old girl is found on the main street of SiglufjÖrður, Police Inspector Ari ThÓr battles a violent Icelandic storm in an increasingly dangerous hunt for her killer ... The chilling, claustrophobic finale to the international bestselling Dark Iceland series. Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in SiglufjÖrður, the northernmost town in Iceland, as crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes. Ari ThÓr Arason is now a police inspector, but he's separated from his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. A family reunion is planned for the holiday, but a violent blizzard is threatening and there is an unsettling chill in the air. Three days before Easter, a nineteen-year-old local girl falls to her death from the balcony of a house on the main street. A perplexing entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident, and when an old man in a local nursing home writes 'She was murdered' again and again on the wall of his room, there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death... As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to SiglufjÖrður, Ari ThÓr must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth ... one that will leave no one unscathed. Chilling, claustrophobic and disturbing, Winterkill is a startling addition to the multi-million-copy bestselling Dark Iceland series and cements Ragnar JÓnasson as one of the most exciting and acclaimed authors in crime fiction. _______________ Praise for Ragnar JÓnasson'A sinister twisted tragedy' The Times 'If Iceland missed out on the Golden Age of crime writing, the country – and Jonasson – is certainly making up for it now' Sunday Times 'Outstanding ... Series fans will be sorry to see the last of Ari ThÓr' Publishers Weekly 'Jonasson's Dark Iceland novels are instant classics' William Ryan 'JÓnasson's punchy, straightforward prose is engrossing ... A diverting mystery' Foreword Reviews 'Consummate crime writing ... poignant and disturbing' New Books Magazine 'Chilling, creepy, perceptive, almost unbearably tense' Ian Rankin 'A tense, gripping read' Anthony Horowitz 'Icelandic noir of the highest order, with JÓnasson's atmospheric sense of place, and his heroine's unerring humanity shining from every page' Daily Mail 'Ragnar JÓna

Download or read book The Tribute written by John Byron and published by Affirm Press. This book was released on 2021-06-29 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A serial killer is stalking through Sydney, hell-bent on recreating scenes from the Fabrica, the 16th-century foundation text of modern anatomy. The spate of cold, methodical attacks has the city on edge, but the serial killer may not even be the darkest player in this story. Desperate for a breakthrough, decorated homicide detective David Murphy draws into the case his art historian sister, Joanna, and Sylvia, his wife. Unravelling the mystery of who is behind the killings pushes each beyond the limits of what they thought possible. The Tribute is a subversive take on modern masculinity and misogyny told through an irresistible crime narrative. Dark and unpredictable, chilling but sympathetic, it weaves a tapestry of narrative threads towards a mesmerising climax that will challenge the way you think about everyone you meet. Meticulously researched, hugely ambitious and superbly crafted, The Tribute is the most outstanding thriller of 2021.

Download or read book The Reacher Guy written by Heather Martin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exquisitely written and nuanced biography of an exceptional individual and writer who has created the # 1 international bestselling hero Jack Reacher, revered by dedicated and loyal readers worldwide. Lee Child has a great public persona: he is gracious and generous with readers and fans. But Jim Grant is a reticent and very private man. This rags-to-riches literary and social biography is based principally on disarmingly frank personal conversations and correspondence with the author since 2016 and privileged access to archival materials. It consists almost entirely of original material, and is the nearest thing the world is likely to get to the autobiography he does not intend to write. There are a handful of great Lee Child/Reacher stories that have been recycled over and over again. They are so good that no one has bothered to look beyond them. This book revisits (and sometimes revises) those irresistible stories, but goes back further and digs deeper. The emphasis on chronology, accuracy and specificity is unprecedented. The Lee Child origin myth is much loved. But mostly it sees him springing fully formed from the brow of Granada Television. There are glancing references to Aston Villa and the schoolyard, but no one has examined the social and historical detail or looked closely at where Lee really came from: the people, places and period. This is the first time someone has described the Lee Child arc: from peaceful obscurity in the Yorkshire Dales and Upstate New York to cult figure, no. 1 in America, rock star, celebrity and publishing institution through to backlash, the changing zeitgeist, and intimations of retirement. The analysis of the emotional power and significance of Lee’s work in the final chapters—the themes of happiness, addiction, dependency, loneliness, and existential absurdity—and the first-hand retrospective accounts of his life and second-act career are all exclusive to this definitive biography.

Download or read book A Counter History of Crime Fiction written by Maurizio Ascari and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-09-05 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes a look at the evolution of crime fiction. Considering 'criminography' as a system of inter-related sub-genres, it explores the connections between modes of literature such as revenge tragedies, the gothic and anarchist fiction, while taking into account the influence of pseudo-sciences such as mesmerism and criminal anthropology.

Download or read book The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction written by Barry Forshaw and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-07-16 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction takes the reader on a guided tour of the mean streets and blind corners that make up the world’s most popular literary genre. The insider’s book recommends over 200 classic crime novels from masterminds Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith to modern hotshots James Elroy and Patricia Cornwall. You’ll investigate gumshoes, spies, spooks, serial killers, forensic females, prying priests and patsies from the past, present, and future. Complete with extra information on what to read next, all movie adaptions, and illustrated throughout with photos and diagrams ...all the evidence that counts

Download or read book Darker Angels written by Larry Darter and published by Fedora Press. This book was released on 2022-03-22 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Howard Drew, an unrelenting LAPD homicide detective assigned to the Open-Unsolved Unit, investigates the murders of victims long dead. He prowls moral fault lines and assumes the perspectives of his victims and their killers. Drew waits, poised to listen when guilty people divulge information and tired people fold and betray their secrets. Drew also listens to the chorus of forgotten voices and speaks for them because the collective dead demand it. In 2000, a friend discovered Anastasia Stepanchikov, a pretty 29-year-old prostitute from the Ukraine, beaten and shot to death inside her luxury Studio City apartment. Police speculated at the time that Russian organized crime may have been involved. Despite an exhaustive investigation by detectives of the LAPD Homicide Special Section, they never identified the killer or brought them to justice. The leads dried up, and the case went cold. Twenty-one years later, Detective Howard Drew and his partner in the Robbery-Homicide Division’s Open-Unsolved Unit reopen the investigation when they receive a DNA cold hit. Unsolved homicides tend to remain unsolved—twenty-one-year-old riddles deepen with the passage of time, the death and disappearance of witnesses, and the blurring of consciousness. To find the killer, Drew and his partner must dust off the murder book and absorb every detail of the original investigation with an eye towards solving the cold case and assessing the original investigator’s failure to do so. The detectives who worked the case all those years ago seem to have done a decent job, but something doesn’t fit. Circumstances raise the stakes when Drew comes to realize he has taken on a politically charged case when the DNA match points to a powerful figure in Los Angeles. The original investigators may have missed a clue, or worse yet, turned a blind eye back in 2000 that could have led them to the killer and cleared the case twenty-one years earlier.