Women of Mystery: The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime Novelists

Description

Disappointingly, this uneven collection focuses on relatively marginal writers (e.g, Minette Walters instead of Elizabeth Peters), and has odd emphases. Does the reader really care in each essay about the religious convictions, real or speculated upon, of every single author? Charlotte Macleod is noted only as a biographer, and other ignored authors are Sharyn McCrumb, Mary Stewart, Jane Haddam, Dell Shannon...oh, the list is endless! Cover
......Page 1 Copyright page
......Page 8 Contents
......Page 11 Foreword: Guilty Pleasures
......Page 13 Part One—In the Beginning: The Mothers of Detection
......Page 17 Anna Katharine Green: The Lady and the Inspector
......Page 21 "[Holmes] used to make merry over the cleverness of women. . . ."
......Page 26 Anna Katharine Green (1846–1935)
......Page 29 Emmuska, Baroness Orczy (1865–1947)
......Page 30 Quick, Call a Bobby!
......Page 31 A Strange Encounter: The Genesis of the Female Detective
......Page 32 Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Buried Story
......Page 34 "I guess there are some curious stories hidden in these old houses."
......Page 35 "I had no mad itch to express myself, but I liked words. . . ."
......Page 40 "The hospital lured me . . . as an adventure, an experience, and as the solution of a practical difficulty."
......Page 42 "A cloud seemed to have settled down on us. . . . "
......Page 44 "I was enormously proud of my status as a wife. "
......Page 46 "I did not want a career. The word has never been used in the family and never will be."
......Page 48 "I liked mystery, and it was easy for me."
......Page 49 "There . . . in New York, was a new life indeed, that casual comfortable life of all people affiliated with the theater."
......Page 51 "I wanted that home fiercely. It spelled peace, security."
......Page 55 "It was one thing to plan the great adventure, and another to go through with it."
......Page 57 "And as I looked about me, I saw many other women confused and at a loss."
......Page 60 "For almost five years I had been obsessed by the war; I knew nothing else."
......Page 65 "So we said good-bye to the white house, there on its hill
overlooking the river. . . ."
......Page 67 "This depression will end very soon."
......Page 71 "I had no apprehensions, save for a disturbed world."
......Page 76 "Not many of us can bear the truth, even about ourselves."
......Page 79 ". . . virtue must always triumph . . ."
......Page 81 Bibliography: Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)
......Page 83 Nonfiction
......Page 84 Had She but Known
......Page 85 The Ghosts and Mrs. Rinehart
......Page 86 Mrs. Rinehart to the Rescue
......Page 87 Part Two—A Golden Era: The Genteel Puzzlers
......Page 89 "The detective story . . . is a sporting event."
......Page 92 "It is the ladies and gentlemen of . . . the Golden Age of detective fiction that really get me down."
......Page 93 If It's Fishy . . . It Could Be a Red Herring
......Page 98 Big, Bad Bertha
......Page 99 Craig Rice
......Page 100 Agatha Christie: The Queen of Crime
......Page 102 "I had a very happy childhood."
......Page 103 "Truly I believe there was a blessing upon the house."
......Page 106 "I was always prepared to like the next thing that came along."......Page 110 "I loved a stranger. . . ."......Page 113 " . . . if you can write like this now you might go far."
......Page 116 "We had never been people who played safe."
......Page 121 ". . . after illness, came sorrow, despair and heartbreak."
......Page 125 "Mental misery and physical misery are too much to have together. . . ."
......Page 127 "I was scared of marriage."
......Page 132 "There is a great deal of wickedness in village life."
......Page 136 ". . . so free of outside shadows . . ."
......Page 139 "In England we had too much war in too short a time."......Page 143 "Gone was that innocent simplicity. . . ."
......Page 146 "Thank God for my good life. . . ."
......Page 152 "A writer's work . . . is . . . her offering to the world. . . ."
......Page 156 Mystery Novels and Story Collections......Page 158 Plays
......Page 161 Films
......Page 162 Television
......Page 163 Agatha's Blue-Eyed Nightmare
......Page 164 The Poirot File
......Page 165 A Miss Marple Questionnaire
......Page 167 Where in the World Is St. Mary Mead?
......Page 171 Mrs. Ariadne Oliver: Doppelganger
......Page 172 Innocence and Justice
......Page 173 The Mystery of the Pickled Shrimps......Page 174 Agatha Speaks . . . The Most Likely Suspect
......Page 175 Whose Idea Was It to Kill Roger Ackroyd?
......Page 176 Dorothy L. Sayers: The Passionate Mind
......Page 177 "I am a citizen of no mean city."
......Page 178 "She was self-absorbed, egotistical, timid, priggish, and in a mild sort of way, disobedient."
......Page 182 "What long talks we shall have together in the red firelight . . . long talks, with nobody to be bored by our conversation. . . ."
......Page 183 "She would be either the school star or the school butt. Which? She had not imagined that it was perfectly possible to be both."
......Page 185 "Dear old Oxford!... I wonder why I love it so—I always feel when I go there as if I were going home. . . ."
......Page 188 "If I could have found a man to my measure, I could have put a torch to the world."
......Page 197 "To carry it through one needs two things: a) guts, b) iron health."
......Page 200 "I have a careless rage for life. . . ."
......Page 202 "Give me a man that's human and careless and loves life, and one who can enjoy the rough-and-tumble of passion."
......Page 204 "But if only there were 48 hours in the day or fewer exciting things to do in the 24! More time, O God, more time!"
......Page 208 "Fair and Mayfair"
......Page 213 "On the intellectual platform, alone of all others, Harriet could stand free and equal with Peter. . . ."
......Page 216 ". . . their salvation is in themselves and in each separate man and woman among them. . . ."
......Page 220 "He seems to be turning out a good sort of kid, and I'm disposed to like him. . . ."......Page 226 "When we go to Heaven all I ask is that we shall be given some interesting job and allowed to get on with it."
......Page 229 Mystery Novels and Story Collections
......Page 232 Plays
......Page 233 The Lord Peter File
......Page 234 The Loquacious Lord Peter
......Page 236 Dorothy's Traveling Man......Page 238 Miss Climpson and Company......Page 239 That's Dorothy with an L . . .
......Page 240 Ngaio Marsh: The Secret Self
......Page 241 ". . . you must try to understand the life of a girl who lives on the free hills goes without stockings in summer and runs about all day."
......Page 243 "With us all was sweetness, tabards and tights."
......Page 247 "I laid down a little cellar of experiences. . . ."
......Page 250 "There he was, waiting quietly in the background ready to make his entrance at Chapter IV, page 58, in the first edition."
......Page 255 "It was strange to be the only one of our little family."
......Page 261 "One hesitates to speak of death to one's friends for fear of making them feel awkward."
......Page 267 Bibliography: Ngaio Marsh (1895–1982)
......Page 271 Mystery Novels
......Page 272 Film and Video Adaptations
......Page 273 The Alleyn File......Page 274 A Merry Marsh Christmas
......Page 276 Josephine Tey: A Singular Soul
......Page 278 ". . . the most delightful author I have ever worked with in the theatre."
......Page 280 "But once or twice lately an odd, alien thought had crossed his mind; irrelevant and unhidden. As nearly as it could be put into words it was: 'This is all you are ever going to have.' "
......Page 285 "I expect this is what death is like when you meet it. Sort of wildly unfair but inevitable."
......Page 288 Stage Plays
......Page 293 The Grant File
......Page 294 Margery Allingham: Odd Woman Out
......Page 296 "I was energetic, affectionate and lonely, and all the interesting people in the world appeared to be on the other side of the glass."
......Page 297 ". . . quick to rage or laughter, self-conscious, over-aware and altogether about as restful as an unbroken mule."
......Page 300 "I don't know if he is quite such a little beast as I thought . . ."
......Page 305 "Where am I going? What am I getting?"
......Page 308 "Feel disaster has overtaken me. One of the two supports of my world is going."
......Page 310 ". . . so far the war has been my salvation . . . I've recovered my health and equilibrium. I'm all right."
......Page 314 "I think Minnie's mad and she thinks I'm dishonest, and we're both explosive personalities."
......Page 318 "The question of taste keeps cropping up. One hovers between titles like 'Old Age and How to Get Rid of It' and 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Cemetery' or, more simply, 'Euthanasia, Here I Come!' "
......Page 323 Bibliography: Margery Allingham (1904–1966)
......Page 328 Mystery Novels
......Page 329 Film and Video Adaptations
......Page 330 The Campion File......Page 331 "It's Crackers to Slip a Rozzer the Dropsy in Snide."
......Page 332 Bread, Cake, and Love
......Page 334 Part Three—Modern Motives: Mysteries of the Murderous Mind
......Page 335 Patricia Highsmith: Murder with A Twist
......Page 342 "There is no secret of success in writing except individuality, or call it personality."
......Page 344 ". . . this is what makes writing a lively and exciting profession, the ever-present possibility of failure."
......Page 351 Mystery Novels and Story Collections
......Page 353 Film Adaptations
......Page 354 P. D. James: An Artful Kind of Order
......Page 356 "My mother used to tell me that I was a cynical child. Examining things seems to be in my genes."
......Page 357 "Charm is an odd word, but he had it. He was Anglo-Irish. He was fair. He had a very nice smile."
......Page 361 ". . . I had an interest in death from an early age. It fascinated me. When I heard, 'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,' I thought, 'Did he fall or was he pushed?' "
......Page 364 "No day is really without interest, being filled with thoughts, memories, plans, moments of particular hope and occasional moments of depression."
......Page 369 "Death, after all, seldom comes when invited or by appointment."
......Page 371 Mystery Novels
......Page 375 Video Adaptations
......Page 376 That Gray Girl
......Page 377 Ruth Rendell: Triple Threatening
......Page 378 "Am I extrovert or introvert? I'd have to say introvert. I live inside me, although I've struggled a lot not to do so."
......Page 379 "It is the suspense and the build-up of fear that has always interested me most. There's also a lot about obsession in my books. I have an obsessive nature and I observe."
......Page 384 Mystery Novels and Short Story Collections
......Page 387 Barbara Vine Novels
......Page 388 Film and Video Adaptations
......Page 389 Mary Higgins Clark: Damsels in Distress
......Page 390 "From the time I was a little girl, I loved to tell stories. It was part of my Irish heritage."
......Page 391 "I want the woman to be in jeopardy."
......Page 395 Novels
......Page 399 Film and Video Adaptations
......Page 400 Sue Grafton: An "Ornery" Original
......Page 402 Other Works
......Page 407 Patricia Cornwell: Dangerous Dissection
......Page 409 Kay Scarpetta Mystery Novels
......Page 414 Other Works
......Page 415 Minette Walters: Dark Shadows
......Page 416 Video Adaptations
......Page 421 Emma Lathen: Fatal Greed
......Page 422 Emma Lathen Novels (featuring John Putnam Thatcher)
......Page 426 R. B. Dominic Novels (featuring Congressman Ben Safford)......Page 427 Margaret Millar: Lest We Forget
......Page 428 Mystery Novels
......Page 433 Film and Video Adaptations
......Page 434 Lilian Jackson Braun: Purr-fectly Pleasant
......Page 435 Bibliography: Lilian Jackson Braun (ca. 1916– )
......Page 439 Short Story Collection
......Page 440 Anne Perry: Past Imperfect
......Page 441 "A purity of heart is not being unblemished, it's learning to understand your faults so that you can erase them yourself. It's purity of intent."
......Page 444 Mystery Novels
......Page 447 Video Adaptation
......Page 448 Gwendoline Butler (British: born 1922)
......Page 449 Linda Fairstein (American)
......Page 450 Allison Joseph (British)
......Page 451 Carol O'Connell (American: born 1947)
......Page 452 Margaret Yorke (British: born 1924)
......Page 453 I. Start to Golden Age
......Page 455 II. 1920 to 1950
......Page 457 III. 1951 to Present
......Page 459 References and Resources
......Page 461 Mary Roberts Rinehart
......Page 463 Agatha Christie
......Page 464 Dorothy L. Sayers
......Page 465 Patricia Highsmith
......Page 466 Ruth Rendell
......Page 467 Patricia Cornwell
......Page 468 Lilian Jackson Braun
......Page 469 Others
......Page 470 B
......Page 471 C
......Page 472 E
......Page 474 G
......Page 475 I
......Page 476 M
......Page 477 Q
......Page 479 R
......Page 480 S
......Page 481 V
......Page 482 Z
......Page 483