Mystery Authors - Edgar Allan Poe to Hypermodern Authors
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Even though many mystery authors have contributed to the mystery genre ... Edgar Allan Poe is called "the father of the detective story". His first story was Murders of the Rue Morgue (1841). The detective in this story set in France is Auguste Dupin who has an American friend and the narrator. Dupin is interested in crime and is very analytical. The story involves two women killed in a locked room. Dupin's mystery method involves gathering facts and rationally examining each one. Poe's first five tales including The Purloined Letter, The Gold Bug and others had nearly all the elements now used in nearly every modern detective story. He wrote these tales in the space of only three years. This is according to Peter Haining (The Classic Era of Crime Fiction, Prion Books Limited, London, 2002). Poe died at the age of only 40. But he had an enormous impact on mystery authors from then until now. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Edgar Allan Poe's stories were very popular and led to the creation of many other detective stories. One of the most famous authors of murder mysteries, Arthur Conan Doyle, developed a detective named Sherlock Holmes ... based on Poe's Dupin character. A Study in Scarlet (1887) was Sherlock Holmes first case. The Sign of Four came out in 1889. The mystery stories of serious, analytical Sherlock Holmes, along with John Watson, his assistant and the story narrator were extremely popular ... and widely imitated. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) is perhaps Doyle's most famous book and required reading for students. I still remember the story and ending.
Agatha Christie was a prolific British mystery writer. Her first mystery book was The Mysterious Affair at Styles ... written in 1920. Hercule Poirot, a Belgian private detective was the protagonist. He appeared in 42 of her 78 books. Her most famous books were the classic mysteries: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Murder on the Orient Express. The latter mystery bestseller was made into the 1974 movie of that title. A number of her later books involved an amateur detective, Miss Jane Marple. I read several of these mysteries in the sixties. Another mystery great was And Then There Were None that takes place on an island off the English coast. This was required reading for my daughter in school. Agatha Christie's books are still in print. She is likely the best-selling mystery author in the world. These three mystery authors was well as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and many others have developed the mystery novel into extremely popular books. Their popularity continues today as can be seen by the numerous novels offered in book stores ... and the many detective shows on TV. While Jim has quite a few modern mysteries from the earlier part of the 20th century, we both tend to focus on the hypermodern books of the last 20 years or so. Here are some of the mystery authors and their books that we are currently collecting:
C J Box
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