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A review by robinwalter
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators by Martin Edwards
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
Martin Edwards' The Life of Crime is a great advertisement for that adage. VERY few people know crime fiction like Mr Edwards does, and the result is a book that is, quite literally, a must-have must-read for every fan of the genre.
It's a BIG book, and this is true even for those of us who read it in e-book format. For me, not only is the digital format a whole lot lighter physically, but it made accessing the astonishing end notes for each chapter much more convenient. Those notes add so much to the book and are fine examples of informative, concise and entertaining writing. Three of my favourite examples:
(1) Learning that Arthur Conan Doyle's only first-class wicket was that of the cricket legend and legendary (cricket rules) scofflaw W.G. Grace. That Holmes' creator caught a cricket crook seems wonderfully apt.
(2) discovering that Lamb to the Slaughter, a favourite Dahl story of mine since my dad introduced me to it when I was eight, was 'gifted' to him by Ian Fleming.
(3) Reading of Gertrude Stein's only detective novel that it was "written in 1933, but not inflicted on the public until 1948".
That last example also nicely illustrates how Mr Edwards personalises the book. He is not afraid to share his opinion while at the same time recognising that, although an exceptionally well-informed and expert opinion, it is his personal opinion not uncontestable fact. In the introduction, talking about the stresses that writers face he says "A better understanding of those stresses may encourage others to temper their judgements on writers, their books and their failings with a touch of compassion", and the book helps its readers to do that. Toward the end of the book he touches on the the difference between a writer's desires and readers expectations and says "The true artist yearns to grow and move forward. The general public has an insatiable appetite for more of the same" Guilty as charged!
Those quotes work because he writes what he knows. He is an accomplished and (justly) highly regarded crime writer himself, and a true devotee of the genre. This means that he can write from both perspectives, that of a writer and that of a reader and fan.
The scope of this book is astonishing given that it is in print only 726 pages. He provides a clear history of the development and evolution of crime writing with biographical backgrounds about the writers and the people in cases which inspired them. He also writes about pretty much every genre of crime writing, and covers every continent.
There really is something for everyone in this book. My personal preference is for books from the Golden Age or in the Golden Age style. Mr Edwards' own Rachel Savernake series is a favourite (do read it!). I read all of Allingham, Marsh and Christie in my teens, and enjoyed them in that order. I know that I will enjoy my current re-reading of them more thanks to the enhanced perspective gained from reading this book, and have been reminded that I need to try more Sayers. It was also nice to have some of my callow teen opinions vindicated. To read that Allingham is widely esteemed for the quality of her mid-later works made me quite chuffed. As did a comment that for Marsh her detective fiction was secondary to her theatre work. That was exactly my impression from reading her work as a teen, that she LOVED theatre. The lasting legacy I got from reading her books as a teen was the realisation that Shakespeare could (a) REALLY write, and (b) is way better seen than read. So for confirming that I read her 'right' way back then, thank you Mr Edwards!
More than simply providing delightful examples of confirmation bias though, this book made it interesting to read about and learn about authors and genres that I have not read and will not read, as well as many that I have tried and could not connect with.
This was the most expensive e-book I have ever bought. It was also worth every cent, even though it is going to cost me a lot more money now that I've finished it. I have noted around 20 individual books and 3 to 4 authors that I now feel compelled to try to find and read.
Thanks to the truly global scale of this book some of those "I'd love to read that" books may well be difficult and/or impossible to find in a language that I can read, unless I can somehow miraculously acquire Japanese, Bengali and Urdu. But I'm sure the quest for those books, like the experience of reading this truly remarkable book, will be fun and satisfying. There is no way that one reading of this book will be enough, it's a treasure to be re-examined often.
In summary, there is only one mystery about this book: Why would any crime fiction fan NOT buy it?