Golden Age Gateway to a Lifetime of Crime Fiction

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Earlier this summer, The New York Times published Sadie Stein's list of her "10 best escapist" mystery novels from the Golden Age (generally the period between the two world wars), capable of getting a reader hooked on the mystery genre.


I was pleased by how many I'd read, but surprised by how many I HADN'T read. Even authors I'd never heard of.

Here's her list…

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie (1926)
A mystery featuring her delicious creation, Hercule Poirot, six years after she introduced him to the world in “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” in 1920. Ms. Stein calls it "a master class in red herrings, misdirection and unreliable narration, and it ends with perhaps the greatest twist of all time."

Fer-de-Lance
by Rex Stout (1934)
This is the first novel featuring the massively massive Nero Wolfe with his sidekick (Archie) who channels a Fred Astaire vibe. Wolfe never leaves his office, never mind his chair. Loves orchids and veal cordon bleu, and "gets" women not at all.

The Franchise Affair
by Josephine Tey (1948)
Stein calls this one an "unsettling and acid-tinged nail-biter." In it, an elderly woman and her daughter are accused of kidnapping a teenage orphan, but their defense counsel (Robert Blair) is convinced they are innocent. Based on a real 18th-century case, the novel was and remains as controversial.

The Case of the Lame Canary
by Erle Stanley Gardner (1937)
The 11th novel featuring defense attorney Perry Mason (and published long before the TV show featuring him and the lovely Della Street began), the intrigue begins when a gorgeous broad brings the eponymous injured bird to his office.

The Duke of York’s Steps
by Henry Wade (1929)
In Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Poole's second outing, a banker is found murdered near London’s Duke of York monument. It's known for its great final twist.

Fear Stalks the Village
by Ethel Lina White (1932)
Into an idyllic village comes a series of poison-pen letters. Joan Brook, companion to Lady d’Arcy, receives one. So many suspects, from the vicar to a lady novelist. Paranoia abounds.

The Blank Wall
by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1947)
At home in Connecticut while her husband fights in the Pacific, Lucia Holley tries to keep her teenage daughter safe from a creepy older man. Murder and blackmail on the home front, with Mom trying to keep everyone safe.

A Man Lay Dead
by Ngaio Marsh (1934)
A frivolous weekend party at an English country house with games that turn all too real. Enter handsome Roderick “Rory” Alleyn, intent on identifying the killer who planted an antique dagger in a guest’s back.

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
by Dorothy L. Sayers (1928)
Wealthy amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey solves another (his fourth) murder. An elderly general is found dead in his armchair at his "club" and his sister is found dead at home. Who inherits? Subtle insights into the fallout from the Great War, even for those most cosseted by British society.

The Tiger in the Smoke
by Margery Allingham (1952)
In gentleman detective Albert Campion's 14th case set in postwar London, his supposedly widowed cousin needs him to investigate whether her husband really died on D-Day.

The Hollow Man
by John Dickson Carr (1935) A great locked-room mystery featuring Dr. Gideon Fell (supposedly modeled on G.K. Chesterton.) A body, three Transylvanian brothers, faked deaths, live burials, and a magician keep the reader juggling clues.
***************
I was expecting the list to include "greats" like Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, John Dickson Carr, Earl Stanley Gardner... . But I was surprised by some of the authors whose work I've never read.

So, my dears, what do you think of this list? Have you read the books on the list, and what would you add, maybe one that got you started reading crime novels?

RHYS BOWEN: I am also surprised to see names I never knew about! I have read every Christie, Sayers, Marsh and most Allingham but this is a Josephine Tey I’d never heard of before.

I’m trying to remember which was my first Christie. I think it was The Body in the Library.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I just read The Hollow Man for an article on locked room mysteries I wrote, and whoa, it is….dated. But seminal, so there’s that.

Wade, White, and Holding? NO idea! That’s so perplexing. I thought I was tuned in. I think I’ve read the rest, wait, no, not that particular Allingham, which I have to say is SUCH a good idea. And some of the others sound terrific.

My first Christie was Orient Express, still completely fabulous, and definitely got me hooked on the whole genre, but Ackroyd is the best. Got to agree. And oh, I was in LOVE with Roderick Alleyn. And Peter Wimsey.

LUCY BURDETTE: I believe I’ve only read the first two and wouldn’t want to take a quiz on their contents! My gateway drugs were Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins and the Hardy boys and Cherry Ames.

JENN McKINLAY: I’ve read five – Christie, Tey, Gardner, March and Sayers–but that was decades ago when I worked as a page at my local library in high school and my grandmother was addicted to mysteries so we read everything we could get our hands on by those authors.

I’ve never heard of Wade, White, or Holding, but I am absolutely tracking down a copy of White’s Fear Stalks the Village. It sounds fabulous!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've read the Christie, the Marsh, the Sayers, the Allingham, and the Tey. I remember that while I loved some of Tey's other books (Brat Farrar!!) I didn't particularly like The Franchise Affair but I could not tell you the plot. Three of the authors, Wade, White, and Holding, I'd never even heard of! I I might have to look up Wade's The Duke of York's Steps! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: As you may recall, I became a mystery writer after trying my hand at my then-reading favorite, science fiction, so I'm late catching up to the founding fathers and mothers. I'm still much more conversant with SF's Golden Age!

I've dipped in and out of several of these authors, but I clearly have a lot more to go. I'm surprised nothing by Mary Roberts Rinehart is included; she was a major American crime writer from the 'teens through the early forties, and she's credited with the (now old) term, "the butler did it!"

Hallie: So, Readers... what about you? Were there any "Golden Age" mystery writers whose work introduced (and hooked you) on the genre? Whose book would you add to this list??