Mystery fiction and modern life
By: R. Gordon Kelly.
Series: Studies in popular culture; Studies in popular culture (Jackson, Miss.)
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Jackson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 227
Subjects: Detective and mystery stories, American -- History and criticism.; Detective and mystery stories, English -- History and criticism.; Literature and society -- English-speaking countries.; American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Crime in literature.
Description: This analysis of the genre shows that the fictional world portrayed by the mystery writer parallels the actual world of the reader. Because daily life is so implausible, readers willingly suspend disbelief as they are absorbed by the pages of detective fiction. This apparent unity of the fictional thriller and veritable circumstance produces a code of modernity that is the essence of the genre.

In the light of this concept of modernity Mystery Fiction and Modern Life examines works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, John Buchan, Eric Ambler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald, Tony Hillerman, Agatha Christie, Helen MacInnes, Patricia Cornwell, Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, Anthony Price, and others.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-216) and index.