Notable Crime Fiction Writers

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A Booklist Top 10 Reference 2022

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Using the Critical Survey of Mystery & Detective Fiction as a foundation, this new edition features a combination of new and updated essays. In addition to essays on individual writers, Notable Crime Fiction Writers includes a number of essays that survey groups of writers who are not treated at length in their own essays. Survey essays cover crime writers whose detectives fall into various groups, including LGBTQ detectives, African American detectives, Asian detectives, Scandinavian detectives, and detectives with disabilities.

These volumes proudly explore famed and famous writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Shirley Jackson next to more modern authors like Stephen King, Attica Locke, and Gillian Flynn. Additionally, this volume highlights authors from previously “under-represented groups” who make note to include a diverse cast of characters. Important forerunners for LGBTQ+ representation in the crime fiction genre included range from Rudolfo Anaya and Rita Mae Brown to Katherine V. Forrest, Val McDermid, and Michael Nava. Prominent African American writers such as Rudolph Fisher, Chester Himes, and Walter Mosley are highlighted, as well as Thulani Davis, Grace F. Edwards, Gar Anthony Haywood, and more.

Each essay is 1,000 to 2,000 words in length and includes the top matter information such as Name, by which the subject is best known; a Description of each author’s contributions and the type of writing they are best known for; and Birth and death dates and locations.

The body of each article is organized as follows:

• Contribution: sums up the author’s place in the crime and mystery fiction genre and discusses what sets the author apart from others in the field.
• Biography: provides a brief summary of the author’s life, paying particular attention to events relating to the author’s crime and mystery fiction.
• Analysis: begins with an overview of the author’s writing that discusses themes, motifs, and writing style. This section is further broken down into sub-headed sections on individual works—usually novels—or groups of works, with an average of four sections per article.
• Principal Works: lists the author’s main works, arranged by genre.
• Lastly, each article ends with an annotated Further Reading, listing works on the author and the other subgenres in which the author writes.

Coverage includes the following classic and more recent crime writers:

Raymond Chandler Edgar Allen Poe Agatha Christie Dashiell Hammett Megan Abbott Mary Higgins Clark Sue Grafton

Gillian Flynn Shirley Jackson Asa Larsson Steig Larsson Anne Perry Attica Locke J. K. Rowling and more

Back matter includes supporting features of particular interest to those crime fiction writers:

• Appendix One: Past and Present Mystery and Detective Fiction
• Appendix Two: Crime Fiction Settings and Situations
• Appendix Three: Resources
• Appendix Four: Author Birth and Death Data
• Indexes

Designed to introduce readers at the high school and university level to the rich world of crime fiction authors, this two-volume collection will provide students with careful research and resources for further exploration into these accomplished and indispensable writers.