Mysteries Unlocked : Essays in Honor of Douglas G. Greene

In honor of the 70th birthday of Professor Douglas G. Greene, mystery genre scholar and publisher, this book offers 24 new essays and two reprinted classics on detective fiction by contributors around the world, including ten Edgar (Mystery Writers of America) winners and nominees. The essays cover a myriad of authors and books from more than a century, from J.S. Fletcher's __The Investigators__, originally serialized in 1901, to P.D. James' __Death Comes to Pemberley__, published at the end of 2011. Subjects covered include detective fiction in the Edwardian era and the "Golden Age" between the two world wars; hard-boiled detective fiction; mysteries and intellectuals; and pastiches, short stories and radio plays. Table of Contents Prologue: Meeting Doug Greene • Steven Steinbock Introduction: Douglas G. Greene: The Man Who Explained Detective Fiction • Curtis Evans SECTION ONE: DETECTION BY GASLIGHT The Incandescent Claptrap of Hamilton Cleek • William Ruehlmann The Strange Case of Max Rittenberg • Mike Ashley J. S. Fletcher: Man of Many Mysteries • Roger Ellis From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: The Fleming Stone Detective Novels of Carolyn Wells • Curtis Evans SECTION TWO: CLASSIC ENGLISH CRIME The Reader Is Warned: Discovering John Dickson Carr and the Works of Douglas G. Greene • Michael Dirda Agatha Christie and the Impossible Crime • John Curran Anthony Berkeley’s Golden Age Gothic Follies • Martin Edwards The Left Hand of Margery Allingham • B. A. Pike “Intuition’s Reckless Compass”: Margery Allingham’s The China Governess and a Problem of Literary Biography • Julia Jones And Carr Begat Crispin: A Meeting of Criminal Minds • David Whittle SECTION THREE: CLASSIC AMERICAN CRIME AND INTELLECTUALS Patrick Quentin/Q. Patrick/Jonathan Stagge: A Phantasmagoria of Crime Writers • Mauro Boncompagni Now You See It: Hake Talbot, Magic and Miracles • Steven Steinbock Murder in The Criterion: T. S. Eliot on Detective Fiction • Curtis Evans An Intellectual and the Detective Story: The Problems of Fernando Pessoa • Henrique Valle SECTION FOUR: TOUGH STUFF “The Amateur Detective Just Won’t Do”: Raymond Chandler and British Detective Fiction • Curtis Evans Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard: Craig Rice, Mistress of Madcap Mystery • Jeffrey Marks A Deluge of Drunken Detectives: A (Strictly Sober) Look at Four Fredric Brown Novels • Jack Seabrook “Stella Maris”: Poetry in Ross Macdonald’s The Galton Case • Tom Nolan SECTION FIVE: MURDER IN MINIATURE, DEATH ON THE AIR, MURDER IN PASTICHE Douglas G. Greene: Savior of the Short Form Mystery • Marvin Lachman Experimenters, Pioneers, Prodigies and Passers-By: Ten Detective Story Writers in Search of an Anthology • Jon L. Breen Knife Chords: The Radio Mysteries of John Dickson Carr • Sergio Angelini Adventures in Radioland: Ellery Queen On (and Off) the Air • Joseph Goodrich Parody, Pastiche and Presentism in Mystery Fiction: Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey and the Immortal Jane • Helen Szamuely “Parlez-Vous Français?” The Riddles of René Reouven • Patrick Ohl A FINAL TOAST: CLUBLAND The Secret Life of Eric the Skull: Dorothy L. Sayers and the Detection Club • Peter Lovesey Afterword: Prayers to Kuan Yin • Boonchai Panjarattanakorn Appendix One: Works on Mystery Fiction by Douglas G. Greene Appendix Two: Short Crime Fiction Collections Published by Crippen & Landru About the Contributors Index