The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction by
Mike Ashley
pbk out June 02
(Robinson)
at £9.99
Let me say right away that this is an admirable volume, packed with
information and unbeatable at its price, which will provide not only
those new to the crime fiction scene, but most fans wishing to read more
widely, with an invaluable guide to 500 of the key names in "modern"
crime fiction. Not only that but there is also a pretty good list of
around 400 key crime movies and TV series, along with useful lists of
award winners, key characters, magazines and websites.
Each author entry includes a career summary, a list of publications,
personal details (including Web details, often from within the Tangled
Web database!) and details of awards won. Ashley is clearly widely read
and assisted here and there by the erudite duo of Mike Ripley and
Martin Edwards, can normally be relied on to highlight the key books and
provide key critical insights for most authors. Indeed one of the many
delights of the book are the guides to the many interesting and notable
mid-list writers of whom you may have heard but may not have read, and
who are usually ignored by the other reference books out there.
It’s with the "Similar Stuff" (if you like this, you’ll like that)
ratings that I have a problem. Ashley cops out here when, in his intro ,
he waves aside the question of style. You simply cannot recommend Ingrid
Noll, for instance, to readers of Jakob Arjouni, when the only thing
they have in common is that their books take place in Germany. Or that
readers of (black writer) Victor Headley will find something similar in
the books of (black writer) Mike Phillips. Possible, yes but unlikely.
The awards listings are the most comprehensive I’ve seen, though, for
space reasons I imagine, it omits nominations. It includes rarely
listed awards for Japan (the Maltese Falcon), Sweden (from the Swedish
Academy of Detection), Germany (the Marlowe - though not the more
well-known Krimi Preis and Glauser awards) and France (Grand Prix de la
Littérature Policière, Trophy 813) details of which I know can be
difficult to find. It is a pity though that Ashley lists only their
‘foreign’ winners ie mainly British or American titles, and omits the
domestic winners (often a useful guide to names to look out for in
translation).
Does the book have its drawbacks? Of course. Some might even query its
premise. "Modern", in Mike Ashley’s definition is key writers whose major
contributions to the field have occurred since 1960. Thus, it is an
encyclopedia that does not cover such as Christie, Sayers, Stout or
Chandler. No spy writers either, so goodbye to le Carré, Len Deighton and
Charles McCarry. No matter. Shelve a copy of Bruce F. Murphy’s 1999
Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery (recently republished in paperback in
the USA) alongside this one and you’ll have a pretty comprehensive view
of the whole field.
More annoying in the current volume is the omission of newish writers
with some track record in sales and/or critical opinion. People like
Craig Holden, Laura Wilson, David Armstrong, T.Jefferson Parker, Stephen
Booth, Mo Hayder, and Julia Wallis Martin, for example. And the
omissions from an eclectic list of foreign writers in translation
include important writers like Henning Mankell, Paco Ignacio Taibo II,
Didier Daeninckx and Kerstin Ekman.
Similarly, no movie list that ignores the crime films of Frenchmen
Jean-Pierre Melville and Claude Chabrol can be called representative.
Hopefully London’s National Film Theatre brief retrospective this July
of Chabrol’s film adaptations of Highsmith, Rendell, McBain, and Stanley
Ellin will restore Chabrol’s name to the roll of honour. I should also
mention his own original crime work and those adaptations based on work
by Ellery Queen, Nicholas Blake and Charlotte Armstrong, presumably
excluded because their source does not meet Ashley’s criteria for
"modern" crime fiction.
Melville’s films are more difficult to find (an NFT retrospective is
long overdue) but I’d rate Le Doulos (1962), Le Deuxième Souffle (1966),
Le Samourai (1967) _ a Tarantino favourite - and Un Flic (1972) above
most films in Ashley’s list. Sam Fuller’s Underworld USA (1960) ought to
be in there too. Especially when the TV lists include such an indecent
proportion of dross.
But these are on the whole minor points. This book remains a really
useful volume that is likely to be used rather than merely read _ and
well used at that. A pity then that Robinson could not have improved the
standard "Mammoth" format to include better paper and a more durable
binding. Maybe the update?
