Search results for ""Martin Edwards" "Howdunit""

Book SynopsisWinner of the H.R.F. Keating Award for best biographical/critical book related to crime fiction, and nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe and Macavity Awards for Best Critical/Biographical book.Ninety crime writers from the world's oldest and most famous crime writing network give tips and insights into successful crime and thriller fiction.Howdunit offers a fresh perspective on the craft of crime writing from leading exponents of the genre, past and present. The book offers invaluable advice to people interested in writing crime fiction, but it also provides a fascinating picture of the way that the best crime writers have honed their skills over the years. Its unique construction and content mean that it will appeal not only to would-be writers but also to a very wide readership of crime fans.The principal contributors are current members of the legendary Detection Club, including Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Peter James, Peter Robinson, Ann Cleeves, Andrew Taylor, Elly Griffiths, Sophie HTrade Review'Aspirant crime writers will relish the tips in Howdunit'—Barry Forshaw, Financial Times ‘A must-read for fans of crime writing and would-be authors alike.’—Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine ‘There can be few people in the country who know more about crime fiction than Martin Edwards.’—On Magazine

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Book SynopsisThe new and updated 10 year anniversary editionWinner of the Edgar, Agatha, Macavity and H.R.F. Keating crime-writing awards, this definitive account of the secretive Detection Club and its trail-blazing founders told for the first time the extraordinary story of British detective fiction between the two World Wars.Few, if any, books about crime fiction have provided so much information and insight' THE TIMESA gripping real-life detective story, The Golden Age of Murder investigates how Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, Agatha Christie and their contemporaries both competed and collaborated to turn the genre into a literary powerhouse that still dominates popular fiction today. Written in times of social and political turmoil, their books cast new light on unsolved murders whilst hiding clues to the authors' darkest secrets and their complex and sometimes bizarre private lives.Ten years since its first publication, Martin Edwards now the Detection Club's President and author of subsequent award-winning publications including Howdunit and the monumental The Life of Crime revisits the story with major updates, new revelations and four brand new chapters that no crime connoisseur will want to miss.Illuminating and entertaining provides a new way of looking at old favourites' LEN DEIGHTON

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Book SynopsisWinner of four major prizes for the best critical/biographical book related to crime fiction: the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and H.R.F. Keating Awards; and shortlisted for both the Agatha and Gold Dagger Awards.Martin Edwards is the closest thing there has been to a philosopher of crime writing.' The TimesIn the first major history of crime fiction in fifty years, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators traces the evolution of the genre from the eighteenth century to the present, offering brand-new perspective on the world's most popular form of fiction.Author Martin Edwards is a multi-award-winning crime novelist, the President of the Detection Club, archivist of the Crime Writers' Association and series consultant to the British Library's highly successful series of crime classics, and therefore uniquely qualified to write this book. He has been a widely respected genre commentator for more than thirty years, winning the CWA Diamond Dagger for making a significant contribution to crime writing in 2020, when he also compiled and published Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club and the novel Mortmain Hall. His critically acclaimed The Golden Age of Murder (Collins Crime Club, 2015) was a landmark study of Detective Fiction between the wars.The Life of Crime is the result of a lifetime of reading and enjoying all types of crime fiction, old and new, from around the world. In what will surely be regarded as his magnum opus, Martin Edwards has thrown himself undaunted into the breadth and complexity of the genre to write an authoritative and readable study of its development and evolution. With crime fiction being read more widely than ever around the world, and with individual authors increasingly the subject of extensive academic study, his expert distillation of more than two centuries of extraordinary books and authors from the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann to the novels of Patricia Cornwell into one coherent history is an extraordinary feat and makes for compelling reading.Trade Review‘Magisterial but wickedly entertaining … reliably readable and frequently amusing. It also inspires awe: Edwards combines wide reading with a good memory, meticulous control over his unruly material, critical acumen and sheer bloody persistence.’ ANDREW TAYLOR, THE SPECTATOR ‘As entertaining and illuminating a history of crime and thriller fiction as I’ve ever read.’ IAN RANKIN ‘Impressively scholarly and joyfully anecdotal… it’s hard to imagine this book being superseded for many years to come.’ MORNING STAR ‘Vastly entertaining … [Edwards] plots the development of the genre and the bizarre lives of writers … You’ll find all your favourites here, from Edgar Allan Poe to PD James … But be warned – you’ll end up with a reading list as long as a giant’s arm.’ DENIS MANN, DAILY EXPRESS ‘A magisterial history of mysteries and their creators.’ THE TIMES ‘There is plenty here for mystery readers, whether well-versed in the genre’s history or not —and mystery writers will welcome this book as a resource.’THE NEW YORK TIMES ‘A magisterial work… THE LIFE OF CRIME does more than just inform, entertain and provoke, it also sends new readers back to old books.’THE WASHINGTON POST REVIEWS FOR MARTIN EDWARDS: ‘Few, if any, books about crime fiction have provided so much information and insight so enthusiastically and, for the reader, so enjoyably’ THE TIMES ‘Illuminating and entertaining – provides a new way of looking at old favourites.’ LEN DEIGHTON, author of The Ipcress File ‘Forensically sharp and exhaustively informed… Crime fiction is driven by death. In this superbly compendious and entertaining book, Edwards ensures that dozens of authorial corpses are gloriously reborn.’ MARK LAWSON, Guardian

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