The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories

By Herbert Hillerman

Book Overview

Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" launched the detective story in 1841. The genre began as a highbrow form of entertainment, a puzzle to be solved by a rational sifting of clues. In Britain, the stories became decidedly upper crust: the crime often committed in a world of manor homes and formal gardens, the blood on the Persian carpet usually blue. But from the beginning, American writers worked important changes on Poe's basic formula, especially in use of language and locale. As early as 1917, Susan Glaspell evinced a poignant understanding of motive in a murder in an isolated farmhouse. And with World War I, the Roaring '20s, the rise of organized crime and corrupt police with Prohibition, and the Great Depression, American detective fiction branched out in all directions, led by writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, who brought crime out of the drawing room and into the "mean streets" where it actually occurred.
In The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories, Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert bring together thirty-three tales that illuminate both the evolution of crime fiction in the United States and America's unique contribution to this highly popular genre. Tracing its progress from elegant "locked room" mysteries, to the hard-boiled realism of the '30s and '40s, to the great range of styles seen today, this superb collection includes the finest crime writers, including Erle Stanley Gardner, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Rex Stout, Ellery Queen, Ed McBain, Sue Grafton, and Hillerman himself. There are also many delightful surprises: Bret Harte, for instance, offers a Sherlockian pastiche with a hero named Hemlock Jones, and William Faulkner blends local color, authentic dialogue, and dark, twisted pride in "An Error in Chemistry." We meet a wide range of sleuths, from armchair detective Nero Wolfe, to Richard Sale's journalist Daffy Dill, to Robert Leslie Bellem's wise-cracking Hollywood detective Dan Turner, to Linda Barnes's six-foot tall, red-haired, taxi-driving female P.I., Carlotta Carlyle. And we sample a wide variety of styles, from tales with a strongly regional flavor, to hard-edged pulp fiction, to stories with a feminist perspective. Perhaps most important, the book offers a brilliant summation of America's signal contribution to crime fiction, highlighting the myriad ways in which we have reshaped this genre. The editors show how Raymond Chandler used crime, not as a puzzle to be solved, but as a spotlight with which he could illuminate the human condition; how Ed McBain, in "A Small Homicide," reveals a keen knowledge of police work as well as of the human sorrow which so often motivates crime; and how Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer solved crime not through blood stains and footprints, but through psychological insight into the damaged lives of the victim's family. And throughout, the editors provide highly knowledgeable introductions to each piece, written from the perspective of fellow writers and reflecting a life-long interest--not to say love--of this quintessentially American genre.
American crime fiction is as varied and as democratic as America itself. Hillerman and Herbert bring us a gold mine of glorious stories that can be read for sheer pleasure, but that also illuminate how the crime story evolved from the drawing room to the back alley, and how it came to explore every corner of our nation and every facet of our lives.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195085817
• ISBN13: 9780195085815
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 704 Pages
• Weight: 2.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.1" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Not Free SF Reader

A book tracing the evolution and changes in style of the American detective story chronlogically from Poe to the rise of the hardboiled female private investigator. For an Oxford volume, the introduction is pretty disappointing. It is quite short, and some of it is taken up with extremely uninteresting waffling about Hillerman's career, as opposed to the subject at hand, even though he had lived through a lot of it. Should have had an editor write this. The story selection is pretty good though, many good stories, even if none stood out as the very best to me. Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Edgar Allan Poe Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Stolen Cigar Case - Bret Harte Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Problem of Cell 13 - Jacques Futrelle Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Doomdorf Mystery - Melville Davisson Post Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Missing: Page Thirteen - Anna Katharine Green Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Beauty Mask - Arthur B. Reeve Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : A Jury of Her Peers - Susan Glaspell Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The False Burton Combs - Carroll John Daly Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Keyboard of Silence - Clinton H. Stagg Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : A Nose for News - Richard Sale Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Spider - Mignon G. Eberhart Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Leg Man - Erle Stanley Gardner Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : I'll Be Waiting - Raymond Chandler Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Footprint in the Sky [Clue in the Snow] - John Dickson Carr Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Rear Window [It Had to Be Murder] - Cornell Woolrich Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Lipstick - Mary Roberts Rinehart Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Homicide Highball - Robert Leslie Bellem Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : An Error in Chemistry - William Faulkner Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : From Another World - Clayton Rawson Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : A Daylight Adventure - T.S. Stribling Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : See No Evil [See No Murder] - William Campbell Gault Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Crime Must Have a Stop - Anthony Boucher Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Small Homicide - Ed McBain Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Guilt-Edged Blonde - Ross Macdonald Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Christmas Party [The Christmas Party Murder] - Rex Stout Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : A Matter of Public Notice - Dorothy Salisbury Davis Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : The Adventure of Abraham Lincoln's Clue - Ellery Queen Oxford Book Of American Detective Stories : Words Do Not a Book Make - Bill Pronzin

interesting

I have to admit that this book takes some beating it causes me to go into a light dream state and start using language in a completely new and creative way I hope many of you appreciate this I might just list a few hundred words and say that's how I feel but that would not do it justice so I will try to express it in a new way... And Carla the chameleon was an interesting character you couldn't tell where she would go and I know I know I hear you "Blame the Bogus Borderline" she would run around changing all over the place under false pretences as the weather got colder and calder shouting beware a bankruptcy filed will make you bankrupt and send you below normal credit levels forcing us all into foreclosure. And that's what its like in America or U.S.A or at least in California agencies are making rules for everything so if you get civil case caught, accused the law abuse that follows can be a total brian drain. So the words of this book heed good warning and help you avoid such a breach in case. The clever thing to do is read this book and avoid companies that con people with the complaint filed or breach of contract or con you into a management conference continued. This behaviour is criminal but entirely legal. The diagnosis should be proper use of contract law in the appropriate county or county in which it was first filed. We must stop these criminals getting away with it. We are all comparatively disabled when faced with this level of dishonesty it makes us all distressed and the elderly and disabled really stand no chance. Its as if a herd of elk drove us down in a grove and no one is hearing what's going on. Its our duty to read more books like this and make changes now to help create more equity for all entities concerned. Some ex's and ex-partners will disagree but that's their job some move on with their family or families they all need to be fed and some just get feds up with it. You see it really depends how a foreclosure is filed, it's a fact that foreclosures are forging ahead in this market and that is why this book is so good to read now. Its critical to this market what the federal reserve does next. The author could have addressed this issue better however. It would be great if we all had the vision and were free to see what is possible such freedom is rare and a solution is available to all if they could only see it here the author is forging ahead and trying to make us see in a new form FTC to galt the government is the grantor of grant after all. Homeowners the world over will be interested to know that these affect all of us our home is no longer sacred havoc is around the corner and homes and houses partners and partnerships are all covered by this aspect of law. A huge part of our identity is in this information and if it was illegal it should be investigated jerry Joaquin in the book states this clearly in chapter 9. Lawsuits are here to stay but JSB of Kaiser once said that "the more complex the lies and the l

Breaking the Rules, the Evolution of the American Detective Story - Good Collection

Critics have observed that the widely popular detective story is essentially a literary game, and have speculated that readers might tire of its structured formula, thereby leading to the eventual disappearance of this genre. Nonetheless, after more than 150 years, the mystery story remains vibrant. Why is this so? The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories provides an answer. Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert have assembled stories that trace the evolution of the American detective short story. Their contention, amply supported by their selections, is that American authors have stretched, modified, and violated the rules and structural form of the detective story, thereby continuously enriching this genre, and ensuring its longevity. Each story is preceded with an interesting, one-page discussion on topics like the emergence of credible female detectives, the growth of regionalism, and the development of authentic, psychologically complex characters. This literary theme is interesting in itself, but the primary attraction is the stories. I especially liked I'll Be Waiting (Raymond Chandler), Small Homicide (Ed McBain), Guilt-Edged Blonde (Ross MacDonald), Christmas Party (Rex Stout), Words Do Not A Book Make (Bill Pronzini), Benny's Space (Marcia Muller) and Chee's Witch (Tony Hillerman). Some were titles that I have encountered elsewhere: Rear Window (Cornell Woolrich), The Problem of Cell 13 (Jacques Futrelle), The Doomdorf Mystery (Melville Davisson Post), The Parker Shotgun (Sue Grafton), An Error in Chemistry (Faulkner) and The Murders in the Rue Morgue (Poe). Others were by early masters of this genre: Erle Stanley Gardner, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, Anthony Boucher, and Edward Hoch. All in all, the thirty-three stories selected by Hillerman and Herbert create a satisfying, enjoyable anthology, one that will appeal to avid readers of detective fiction.

Interesting selection

There are a good mix of stories here. They range over a broad time period, early to present. I like the fact that there were some authors I haven't read yet, or others that I never associated with mysteries. The reason I didn't give it five stars is that there were quite a few stories that I had already read in other anthologies. Nice introductions to each story, with background info on the author.

A remarkable collection of American detective fiction

I am taking a class this semester, Mysteries, and this book is the required text. I have always enjoyed mysteries, but this book has added to that pleasure immensely. Hillerman and Herbert have done an extraordinary job of piecing together a good representative slice of American detective/mystery writers past and present. The books begins with Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The editors wrap the selection up with Marcia Muller's "Benny's Space," published in 1991. The book spans the evolution of the American detective story throughout its entire history. I highly recommend this anthology to anyone who enjoys reading the short story. With few exceptions, the stories in this book are very enjoyable mysteries.