{"id":4637,"date":"2022-10-27T14:56:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T21:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2022-10-27T14:56:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T21:56:15","slug":"martin-edwards-the-life-of-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/martin-edwards-the-life-of-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Edwards: The Life of Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Lately I\u2019ve felt few hardcovers are actually worth owning, but there are always exceptions.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure many of us have our collections \u2013 all of Agatha Christie or Michael Connelly or Sue Grafton, for example \u2013 but Martin Edwards\u2019 new reference book, The Life of Crime, <\/em>is the exception to the rule.\u00a0 First of all, it\u2019s beautiful.\u00a0 The paper is smooth and creamy; the jacket is simple and elegant; and the endpapers \u2013 a collection of classic crime covers \u2013 are to die for. But while the cover draws you in, it\u2019s what\u2019s between them that\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n

Edwards, in an exhaustive, thorough fashion has documented the crime novel from its inception \u2013 he bookmarks William Godwin\u2019s 1795 tome, The Adventures of Caleb Williams <\/em>as the first. Who among us, other than the erudite Edwards, has read this novel?\u00a0 But he usefully traces it to contemporary and more familiar books, who can trace their origins back to 1795.\u00a0 His list includes John Buchan, Frederick Forsyth and Lee Child as children of this long ago adventure novel.<\/p>\n

He continues to trace the crime novel forward. In his chapter on Conan Doyle and Sherlock, he cites one of the most (to me) influential developments in mystery fiction: the creation of the series detective.\u00a0 The series detective is the reason the detective in these novels is often beloved.\u00a0 That long form relationship with the reader cannot be matched.<\/p>\n

In a chapter on transition from the golden age to the present (Private Wounds), Edwards says \u201cThe depressing truth is that it is exceptionally difficult to be entirely original.\u201d\u00a0 This instance was occasioned by the similarities between Nicholas Blake\u2019s A Penknife in my Heart <\/em>(1958), and Patricia Highsmith\u2019s Strangers on a Train <\/em>(1950).\u00a0 Blake had even cited Highsmith as an influence on his own work.\u00a0 The two books are very different, though with a similar premise. To me the joy and interest of the mystery novel is found right there.\u00a0 It\u2019s a form with certain parameters, but within that form and those parameters, there are endless variations. Martin Edwards is saying nothing radical here (to crime fiction fans, at least), he\u2019s making a case for the longevity, importance, and lasting nature of crime fiction.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason a book written by Doyle in 1887, A Study in Scarlet, <\/em>is still being read today.<\/p>\n

The careful Edwards follows the threads of mysterious history in many, many directions.\u00a0 Scandinavian crime, Simenon and European crime writing, American police novels, female private eyes, the \u201cHad I But Known\u201d school \u2013 he illuminates all of them in this 600 plus page book, heavily footnoted and indexed.\u00a0 You can dip in and out \u2013 enjoy a chapter, think about it, put it down, return.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it was in his purview to write about crime fiction that\u2019s being read and created at the moment, though he includes authors like Michael Connelly, Val McDermid, Charles Todd and Attica Locke.\u00a0 That will fall to another researcher in the future.\u00a0 He ends his book with a wonderful chapter on P.D. James, a favorite author of mine (and obviously, of Edwards\u2019), whose first Dalgleish novel, Cover Her Face<\/em> (1962), was a bridge from the golden age of the past to the darker, more psychologically minded present.<\/p>\n

And finally, this stuck with me: \u201cMore wisdom is contained in the best crime fiction than in philosophy\u201d (Ludwig Wittgenstein). Edwards\u2019 tome, and the wisdom within it, has a permanent place on my bookshelf where I can refer to it again and again, as with any great reference book.\u00a0 Kudos to Mr. Edwards for what I am sure was years of hard work on a genre that he loves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lately I\u2019ve felt few hardcovers are actually worth owning, but there are always exceptions.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure many of us have our collections \u2013 all of Agatha Christie or Michael Connelly or Sue Grafton, for example \u2013 but Martin Edwards\u2019 new reference book, The Life of Crime, is the exception to the rule.\u00a0 First of all, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[968,969,966,17,967],"class_list":["post-4637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-collins-crime-club","tag-crime-fiction","tag-martin-edwards","tag-reference","tag-the-life-of-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4639,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions\/4639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}