The Golden Age Of Detective Fiction Analysis

Presenting different perspectives that are against the norm is perilous. There's a lot of  stress in having people criticize your unpopular beliefs. In Alan Lightman’s “The Power of Mysteries” and Allan Barger’s “I Could Be Wrong” they tell two different stories that bond between one essential idea: challenging mainstream beliefs. Each writer uses different styles to convey their message that initially has the reader questioning the author's credibility, but in the end they both captivate the reader by teaching them to keeping an open mind to all perspectives.

Mark Haddon's prose fiction, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time brings forth the view of a different world and also expands our understanding of human experience. The novel is an autobiographical murder mystery narrated from the perspective of a teenager, Christopher Boone. This text allows the readers to see the life of a young man who is not comfortable with interacting with others in his society. Christopher's autism spectrum disorder (ASD) shapes our understanding of experience. Haddon is able to portray interesting ideas within the text through the narrator, thus inviting us into a different world and allowing us to see a new viewpoint.

Misinterpretation is a common mistake made among society today. The Australian novel, ‘The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender’, by Marele Day explores the power of deceit and how it affects modern society. Traditional male detectives are challenged in order to question the common perceptions of gender stereotypes. The impact of criminal activity throughout Sydney is conveyed through the personification of the city. The composer addresses these issues as well as the deceit throughout Sydney during the 1980s with the use of various techniques.

The red-bearded man’s love affair with crime, a main factor as to why he robbed the train that one night in May, can be seen by his sophistication in the crime scene. Pierce was “exuberant in [his] approach to crime,” (6) such as how “Pierce and his fellow conspirators” (97) easily found the first two keys. However, he was not only stealthy and quick, he also forgot nothing, like when he bought fifty pounds of lead shot to replace the gold’s weight. After many years of practice and excellent economical habits, moreover, Pierce’s knowledge and wit shows that he truly lives on robbery, which helped him pull off a crime that went down in history.

There is no question that women have struggled over many years to be seen as equals by their male counterparts. Years of struggle and oppression continued throughout time, but the oppression took different forms over the course of history. Susan Glaspell wrote, “Trifles” which explores a woman’s status in society during the 1920s and the political leanings that perverted society at the time. The play demonstrates how women were subjected to mental abuse and viewed as intellectually inferior as dictated by American society and politics. “Trifles” exposes how political leanings in the government favored and enabled a patriarchal society as well as displaying how the Women’s Rights movement was beginning to combat these prejudices.

With the police getting nowhere, Schulz knows it is up to her to venture into detective work to absolve herself from any blame. What follows is an enthralling narrative of the extraordinary skills of an amateur detective that went on to win the author an Agatha Award for Best First Novel in 1990.

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler exploits the corruption and the absence of justice that was present in the 1930s. The novel is set in Los Angeles, which at the time was full of scheming city workers. The combination of dynamic and static characters in the story leads the reader into a whirlwind of murders that are unavenged. “Good-guy” detective Phillip Marlowe, is seen as a modern-day knight, left to slay the dragon and rescue the damsel in distress. However, the inexplicable amount of “dragons” that Chandler presents in the novel hinder Marlowe from being able to accomplish his goals without obstacles. Chandler produces the classic detective novel through his use of conniving criminals, corrupt police, and characters that are slighted by the actions of those in their lives.

Upon reading the fiction book NYPD Red 3, authors James Paterson and Marshall Karp deliver an intense story where two of NYPD’s Red finest detectives, Zack Jordan and his newly assigned partner and ex-girlfriend, Kylie MacDonald investigate the murders of four bodies in four days, but only two heads (Patterson & Karp, 2015, p.339). What exactly was Project Gutenberg? Where was there money to be made? What did this mean when Irene said,” they made money in the wake of all that suffering (Patterson & Karp, p.274).” What was the top secret that no one should have been able to find out?

Looking at the 21st century, there are countless inventions and ideas that people from the olden days would never dream of. People from millions of different occupations used their minds to create products, businesses, and other things to improve the quality of life for themselves and for others. People from

Matt Kile is the lead character in the Matt Kile series of detective crime fiction by American novelist David Bishop. Bishop published the first novel in the Matt Kile series Who Murdered Garson Talmadge in 2011 to much commercial success. After the runaway success of the first novel in the series, Bishop would go on to publish several more titles in the still ongoing series. The lead character in the series is Matt Kile, an ex-police officer turned private investigator that works a variety of cases in his hometown. Kile is unlike your typical hardboiled detective as he is a happy man who loves his work and gives his all for his clients. Similar to the author, the lead is an author who writes mysteries and works as a private investigator in

The Long Goodbye, along with Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, is a hard-boiled detective novel that has a slower paced plot, which reveals Chandler’s own life as a material. He focuses on Marlowe’s voice, but also his views of the society, the flaws of the characters, and the corrupt world. Marlowe’s life is full of corruption, which also reflects the cruel world. Marlowe is contradictory to Doyle’s Holmes or Poe’s Dupin, because the crimes are not puzzles or conclusive. Holmes was great at scanning a room and figuring out the crime scene, but Marlowe faces crimes with violence and pain.

In P.D. James’ novel An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, the main character, Cordelia Gray is thrust into the world of private investigators when the suicide of her partner, Bernie Pryde, forces her to take over the business alone. In her first case, she is hired to investigate the motive

‘Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.’~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This quote rings true for the man who spoke it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes truly was a genius. He is most well known for his fictitious accounts about a detective named

Agatha Christie’s cherished novel Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a classic mystery which captures the hearts of readers. In this story, Dr. Sheppard assists detective Hercule Poirot as he deciphers clues in order to find out who killed Roger Ackroyd. Christie integrates plot, motifs, and tone into this story to

Picked off one by one, ten indians soon became none. Ten people traveled to a mysterious island. None of them thought much of the invite and didn't expect the trip to take a wicked turn. The number of characters left on the island decreased as they were murdered one by one. They soon would figure out the murders were based off of the poem, "Ten Little Indians." The characters started going mad as they realized none of them would leave the island and that their deaths were drawing near. They realized that the murderer was one of them. The mystery of what character was the murderer is not revealed until the very end of the story. In Agatha Christie's, And Then There Were None, Agatha steps out of normality and uses forms of modernism. Her new way of writing draws readers in and keeps them questioning every character. In Agatha's book ten very different characters are invited to Indian Island. Little do the readers know that these characters all have one thing in common. Agatha shows off her new way of writing through inner monologues, themes of inner animals, and unreliable narrators.