Crime Fiction, 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity by
Stephen Knight
pbk out March 04
(Palgrave Macmillan)
at £14.99
Knight is an academic based in Australia who has earned a deserved reputation for
expertise in the genre. This is his attempt to provide a concise overview of crime
fiction over the past two centuries, avowedly following in the distinguished footsteps
of Julian Symons, author of that classic study 'Bloody Murder'. Symons had the
benefit not only of a lifetime's knowledge of the subject, but also of considerable
literary gifts. Knight cannot match Symons' prose style and almost inevitably there
are gaps in his reading. His discussions of, for instance, Henry Wade and C. Daly
King make no mention of the novels that I would regard as their finest achievements
('Lonely Magdalen' and 'Obelists Fly High') and as a result the analysis of these
authors seems inadequate. His coverage is very wide, though, and although he ignores
the contributions made by the likes of C.S. Forester and Margot Bennett, he is by no
means alone in that. Knight tackles the tricky task of categorising different types of
crime fiction with aplomb and his insights are often acute and almost always thought-
provoking. I felt that to compare Craig Rice with Margery Allingham and Cornell
Woolrich with E.C. Bentley was eccentric, and that the emphasis given to a number of
Australian crime novelists who are very far from being household names was a little
disproportionate. The lack of discussion of authors whose first language is not English
was disappointing, but in about 200 pages, Knight does provide a good deal of useful
information. Possibly more space might have been devoted to his survey of the genre
and less to the various appendices. Judged by the high standards set by Symons, this
is a flawed book, but it is nevertheless of considerable interest to those who wish to
learn more about the evolution of crime fiction over the past 200 years. I enjoyed
reading it and expect to refer to it regularly in the future.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
Crime Fiction, 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity by
Stephen Knight
