Funny Thing About Murder

David Geherin, a professor emeritus of English at Eastern Michigan University, is the author of ten books on crime fiction, two of which were finalists for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award. He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Table of Contents


Preface

Introduction

Part I: Crime Fiction delete21

Rex Stout (1886–1975)

Jonathan Latimer (1906–1983)

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)

Craig Rice (1908–1957)

Norbert Davis (1909–1949)

Edmund Crispin (1921–1978)

Ed McBain (1926–2005)

Donald E. Westlake (1933–2008)

Joseph Wambaugh (1937–)

Robert B. Parker (1932–2010)

Elmore Leonard (1925–2013)

William Marshall (1944–)

Simon Brett (1945–)

Lawrence Block (1938–)

Martha Grimes (1931–)

Sue Grafton (1940–)

Kinky Friedman (1944–)

Carl Hiaasen (1953–)

Joan Hess (1949–)

Janet Evanovich (1943–)

Andrea Camilleri (1925–)

Colin Bateman (1962–)

Fred Vargas (1957–)

Ken Bruen (1951–)

Alexander McCall Smith (1948–)

Ben Rehder (1965–)

Christopher Fowler (1953–)

Craig Johnson (1961–)

Lisa Lutz (1970–)

Timothy Hallinan (1949–)

Part II: Crime Films

Killers, Crooks, Kidnappers

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Too Many Crooks (1959)

Take the Money and Run (1969)

Raising Arizona (1987)

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Miami Blues (1990)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Get Shorty (1995)

Jackie Brown (1997)

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking

Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000)

Bandits (2001)

In Bruges (2008)

Heist/Caper Films

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

The Ladykillers (1956)

Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)

Topkapi (1964)

How to Steal a Million (1966)

The Italian Job (1969 and 2003)

The Sting (1973)

Bottle Rocket (1996)

Fargo (1996)

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Cops

A Shot in the Dark (1964)

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

The Guard (2011)

Detectives, Amateur and Private

The Thin Man (1934)

Murder by Death (1976) and

The Cheap Detective (1978)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Sherlock (BBC, 2010–)184

Bibliography

Index