Mysteries Unlocked

Curtis Evans, an independent scholar and book dealer, has published numerous articles and essays on detective fiction as well as an award-winning book on industry and labor in the American South. He lives in Germantown, Tennessee.

Table of Contents


Prologue: Meeting Doug Greene (Steven Steinbock)

Introduction: Douglas G. Greene: The Man Who Explained Detective Fiction (Curtis Evans)

Section One: Detection by Gaslight

The Incandescent Claptrap of Hamilton Cleek (William Ruehlmann)

The Strange Case of Max Rittenberg (Mike Ashley)

J. S. Fletcher: Man of Many Mysteries (Roger Ellis)

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: The Fleming Stone Detective Novels of Carolyn Wells (Curtis Evans)

Section Two: Classic English Crime

The Reader Is Warned: Discovering John Dickson Carr and the Works of Douglas G. Greene (Michael Dirda)

Agatha Christie and the Impossible Crime (John Curran)

Anthony Berkeley’s Golden Age Gothic Follies (Martin Edwards)

The Left Hand of Margery Allingham (B. A. Pike)

“Intuition’s Reckless Compass”: Margery Allingham’s The China Governess and a Problem of Literary Biography (Julia Jones)

And Carr Begat Crispin: A Meeting of Criminal Minds (David Whittle)

Section Three: Classic American Crime and Intellectuals

Patrick Quentin/Q. Patrick/Jonathan Stagge: A Phantasmagoria of Crime Writers (Mauro Boncompagni)

Now You See It: Hake Talbot, Magic and Miracles (Steven Steinbock)

Murder in The Criterion: T. S. Eliot on Detective Fiction (Curtis Evans)

An Intellectual and the Detective Story: The Problems of Fernando Pessoa (Henrique Valle)

Section Four: Tough Stuff

“The Amateur Detective Just Won’t Do”: Raymond Chandler and British Detective Fiction (Curtis Evans)

Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard: Craig Rice, Mistress of Madcap Mystery (Jeffrey Marks)

A Deluge of Drunken Detectives: A (Strictly Sober) Look at Four Fredric Brown Novels (Jack Seabrook)

“Stella Maris”: Poetry in Ross Macdonald’s The Galton Case (Tom Nolan)

Section Five: Murder in Miniature, Death on the Air, Murder in Pastiche

Douglas G. Greene: Savior of the Short Form Mystery (Marvin Lachman)

Experimenters, Pioneers, Prodigies and ­Passers-By: Ten Detective Story Writers in Search of an Anthology (Jon L. Breen)

Knife Chords: The Radio Mysteries of John Dickson Carr (Sergio Angelini)

Adventures in Radioland: Ellery Queen On (and Off) the Air (Joseph Goodrich)

Parody, Pastiche and Presentism in Mystery Fiction: Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey and the Immortal Jane (Helen Szamuely)

“Parlez-Vous Français?” The Riddles of René Reouven (Patrick Ohl)

A Final Toast: Clubland

The Secret Life of Eric the Skull: Dorothy L. Sayers and the Detection Club (Peter Lovesey)

Afterword: Prayers to Kuan Yin (Boonchai Panjarattanakorn)

Appendix One: Works on Mystery Fiction by Douglas G. Greene

Appendix Two: Short Crime Fiction Collections Published by Crippen & Landru

About the Contributors

Index