Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Kogoro Akechi, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.
Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was an English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a high reputation as a classicist, Knox was ordained as a priest of the Church of England in 1912. He was a fellow and chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford until he resigned from those positions following his conversion to Catholicism in 1917. Knox became a Catholic priest in 1918, continuing in that capacity his scholarly and literary work.
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The Golden Age proper is in practice usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was predominant in the 1920s and 1930s but had been written since at least 1911 and is still being written today.
The Hanging Captain is a 1932 mystery detective novel by the British writer Henry Wade. Wade was a writer of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, best known for his series featuring Chief Inspector Poole. This was one of a number of stand-alone novels he wrote.
The Verdict of You All is a 1926 mystery detective novel by the British writer Henry Wade, his debut novel. Both this and his following novel The Missing Partners revolve around potential miscarriages of justice. It was published in the United States by Payson and Clarke in 1927. A success it launched his career as one of the prominent writers during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The title refers to the traditional question asked in court by a judge of the jury to establish whether they have reached a unanimous verdict.
Gold Was Our Grave is a 1954 mystery detective novel by the British writer Henry Wade. It was the seventh and last in a series of novels featuring the character of Inspector Poole, published during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
Sorry You've Been Troubled is a 1942 thriller novel by the British writer Peter Cheyney. It was the fifth book in his series featuring the hardboiled London-based private detective Slim Callaghan. It was published in the United States under the alternative title of Farewell to the Admiral.
A Man Called Jones is a 1947 mystery detective novel by British writer Julian Symons. It is the second novel in his trilogy featuring the Scotland Yard detective Chief Inspector Bland. Symons was critical of the "Great Detective" that features in so many novels during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and demonstrates this in the climatic scene where Bland assembles all the suspects to explain his theory, only to first send them to sleep and then be confronted by the late arrival of a previously unknown character on which the whole puzzle hinges.
The 31st of February is a 1950 mystery crime novel by British writer Julian Symons. It was his fourth published novel following a trilogy featuring Chief Inspector Bland. It further continued the author's toying with the Great Detective type of the classic model during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The investigating officer in a potential murder case, Inspector Cresse, is far from flattering portrayed.
A Penknife in My Heart is a 1958 crime thriller novel by Cecil Day-Lewis, written under the pen name of Nicholas Blake. It was one of four stand-alone novels he wrote alongside the Nigel Strangeways detective novels.
The Murder on the Burrows is a 1931 detective story by E.C.R. Lorac, the pen name of the British writer Edith Caroline Rivett. Her debut novel, it introduced the character of Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard who went on to appear in a lengthy series of novels during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Although initially named James this is changed to Robert in later books. It takes place around Bideford Bay in North Devon where the author had spent several holidays.
Death in Harley Street is a 1946 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the forty third in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. Several sources consider it to be the author's masterpiece.
Murder in Crown Passage is a 1937 detective novel by the British writer Cecil Street, writing under the pen name of Miles Burton. It is the sixteenth in a series of books featuring the amateur detective Desmond Merrion and Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard. Street was one of the most prolific authors of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. It was published in the United States by Doubleday the same year under the alternative title The Man with the Tattooed Face. As often in the series, the setting is in rural England.
Buried for Pleasure is a 1948 detective novel by the British writer Edmund Crispin, the sixth in his series featuring the Oxford professor and amateur detective Gervase Fen. As with the rest of the Fen novels, a complex Golden Age-style mystery is combined with elements of farce. Fen contests a by-election in rural constituency, but events are rapidly overtaken by a murder case. It features Detective Inspector Humbleby who also appeared in the next novel Frequent Hearses as well as most of the short stories in the series.
The Glimpses of the Moon is a 1977 detective novel by the British writer Edmund Crispin. It was the ninth and last novel in his series featuring Gervase Fen, an Oxford professor and amateur detective. Written from the 1960s onwards on publication it was the first novel in the series to be released since The Long Divorce in 1951. The author died the following year and in 1979 a final work Fen Country, a collection of short stories featuring the detective, was publish posthumously.
The Long Divorce is a 1951 detective novel by the British writer Edmund Crispin, the eighth in his series featuring the Oxford professor and amateur detective Gervase Fen. It was the penultimate novel in the series, with a gap or more than twenty five years before the next entry The Glimpses of the Moon, although a collection of short stories Beware of the Trains was published in 1953. The novel features many traits of a Golden Age mystery, set in a small, wealthy English village. The title doesn't refer to a marriage but is a quote from Shakespeare's Henry VIII "the long divorce of steel". It was published in the United States by Dodd, Mead in 1951 under the same title, and a year later as A Noose for Her.
The Twenty-One Clues is a 1941 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the fourteenth in a series of seventeen novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Sir Clinton Driffield, the Chief Constable of a rural English county. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton in London and Little, Brown and Company in the United States.
The Footsteps at the Lock is a 1928 detective novel by the British author Ronald Knox. Written during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction it is one of five books featuring his insurance investigator Miles Bredon. The author was very familiar with the area of western Oxfordshire, where much of the novel takes place.
Still Dead is a 1934 mystery detective novel by the British author Ronald Knox. It is the fourth in a series of five novels featuring the insurance investigator Miles Bredon, one of the many detectives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. It was published in London by Hodder and Stoughton and in New York by Dutton.
The Body in the Silo is a 1933 detective novel by the British author Ronald Knox. It is the third in a series of five novels featuring the insurance investigator Miles Bredon, one of the many detectives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. It is a country house mystery taking place in Herefordshire close to the Welsh border. It was published in the United States by Dutton under the alternative title Settled Out of Court.
