Introduction

Abstract

Not much has been written about crime fiction, but treatments of the subject vary greatly. Some writers present with a connoisseur’s relish material they see as no more than entertaining. Sutherland Scott and Richard Usborne are good examples. (See references at the end of this introduction and each chapter for details of critics mentioned.) Elsewhere crime fiction has been treated more seriously. Its development was traced some years ago by Régis Messac; Alma Murch has written more recently and more concisely on the topic. Julian Symons has described both the history of the genre and changing attitudes to it. Some critics have been less objective: starting with firm evaluative premises they condemn writers like Mickey Spillane and James Hadley Chase as gross and corrupting, but praise those with a polished style like Raymond Chandler or with intricate, quasi-intellectual content like Ellery Queen and Dorothy Sayers. George Orwell and Jacques Barzun have written in this way, and a whole series of ‘culturally’ attuned critics have supported the attitude—examples are to be found in collections of essays like Bernard Rosenberg and David Manning White’s Mass Culture.