EDITOR'S NOTE Renowned poet and certified literary big shot T.S. Eliot has a bigger connection to crime fiction than you might expect -- he was a fan and an early defender of the genre. He was -- get this -- the mystery reviewer for The Criterion (later The New Criterion),a prestigious British literary journal (1922-39) founded by Eliot, … Continue reading T.S. Eliot’s Rules of English Detective Stories (Boiled Down)
Tag: Writing Advice
Lester Dent’s Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot
EDITOR'S NOTE: Lester Dent (1904 - 1959) was a prolific author of about a million pulp stories, best known -- at least among pulp fans -- as the main author of the Doc Savage series, under the pen name of Kenneth Robeson. But he was more, much more than that. In addition to the Doc … Continue reading Lester Dent’s Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot
Craig Rice on “How To Write a Mystery Novel”
A bestselling mystery author reveals all. The ever-cheeky Craig Rice had a slew of bestselling mysteries under her belt, including such classics as The Big Budget Murders, Having a Wonderful Crime and Home Sweet Homicide, when she appeared on the cover of Time -- the first mystery writer to do so. But it wasn't the first time she was … Continue reading Craig Rice on “How To Write a Mystery Novel”
Father Knox’s Decalogue: The Ten Rules of (Golden Age) Detective Fiction
EDITOR'S NOTE Monsignor Ronald A. Knox (1888-1957) was a British clergyman, editor, a literary critic, a humourist and a detective story writer himself who nicely laid out, with a gentle wit, the "ten rules" that guided detective fiction in its so-called Golden Age. They appeared in his preface to Best Detective Stories of 1928, an … Continue reading Father Knox’s Decalogue: The Ten Rules of (Golden Age) Detective Fiction
Bald Trickery: S.S. Van Dine’s Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories
EDITOR'S NOTE S.S. Van Dine (1888-1939, real name Willard Huntington Wright) was one of the most popular American mystery writers of the twenties and thirties, and his wealthy amateur sleuth Philo Vance remains one of the great fictional detectives, if not also one of the most insufferable. Read today, Vance comes off as a pompous, … Continue reading Bald Trickery: S.S. Van Dine’s Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories