Review: Talking Detective Fiction by P.D. James

If you are a a fan of mysteries, whether the classic English manor mysteries written by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Salyers, or the American hard-boiled detectives created by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, or the modern works of Michael Connelley and Hank Phillippi Ryan, you owe it to yourself to read Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James.

If you do not know, P.D. James is one of those classic English mystery writers. Born in 1920, she did not begin her writing career until she was in her 40s, and only then to support her family after her husband's death. 

In this book, drawn from a series of university lectures she did, she traces the development of the modern detective story from Sherlock Holmes to the 21st Century.  With a simply delightful style, James gives her insight into the history of the genre, her evaluation of some of the leading mystery authors of the past 100 years, and how each contributed (or didn't contribute) to the genre. She details the elements of the classic mysteries and gives her astute observations on the authors that have expanded the genre by bending these classic elements to fit their own style. She concludes with her thoughts on the future of the genre, which she believes will always find a place in popular literature. 

This is an entertaining and enlightening book that is a MUST for any mystery fan.

-- Stephen M. Terrell