Certainty and Ambiguity in Global Mystery Fiction

John J. Han is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Missouri Baptist University, USA, where he teaches world literature, creative writing, and mystery fiction, among others. C. Clark Triplett is Emeritus Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Psychology at Missouri Baptist University, USA. Matthew R. Bardowell is Associate Professor of English at Missouri Baptist University, USA, where he teaches British literature, world literature, and composition.

A much-needed investigation of the parameters of morality in that genre most concerned with the capacity of human behaviour for evil and justice.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionJohn J. Han, C. Clark Triplett, and Matthew Bardowell, Missouri Baptist University, USAPart I. Narrative Structure and Moral Imagination1. A Memoir Without Conscience: Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger AckroydTimothy Ruppert, Slippery Rock University, USA2. A Not-So-Certain Morality: Adaptations in Murder on the Orient ExpressAnnette Wren, McMurry University, USA3. The Colorado Kid, Joyland, and Later: Genre Hybridity and the Moral Imagination in Stephen King’s Hard Case Crime NovelsAlissa Burger, Culver-Stockton College, USA4. “They’ve already killed him”: Moral Ambiguity in Chronicle of a Death ForetoldAndrea Tinnemeyer, College Preparatory School, Oakland, CA, USA5. “What’s luck got to do with it?”: Privilege, Morality, and the Victim in Tana French’s Wych ElmDeirdre Flynn, University of Limerick, Ireland6. Beyond “Puzzles and Bugaboos”: A Family Systems Interpretation of Dorothy L. Sayers’s “Monster,” Gaudy NightBeth McFarland-Wilson, Northern Illinois University, USAPart II. World Literature and Moral Ambiguity7. Opaque Feminine Ethics in Kirino’s OutAya Kubota, Bunka Gakuen University, Japan, and John J. Han, Missouri Baptist University, USA8. Moral Certainty or Ambiguity in the Clerical Detective Novels: Discovering a Middle Way in F. H. Batacan’s Smaller and Smaller CirclesC. Clark Triplett, Missouri Baptist University, USA9. "Life’s messy complexity”: Moral Ambiguity, Compromise, and Vigilante Justice in Kishwar Desai’s Simran Singh TrilogyNikita Gloria Pinto, Independent Scholar, U.A.E.10. Mystery Pierced with Social Evil: Reading Caste and Class Issues in The Quills of the PorcupineDebaditya Mukhopadhyay, Manikchak College, IndiaPart III. Faith, Certainty, and Doubt in Mystery Fiction11. Between Faith and Nihilism: Greene’s Moral Imagination in The Third ManJohn J. Han, Missouri Baptist University, USA12. Brother Cadfael, Social Justice, and the Medieval Mystery Fiction of Ellis PetersJane Beal, University of La Verne, USA13. A Vocation of Truth: The Pursuit of Moral Certainty in the Detective Fiction of Dorothy L. SayersAndrew J. Spencer, Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, USA14. “What if a war was what he was waiting for?": Graham Greene, Patrick Hamilton, and the Writing of Crime Between the WarsMichael Hallam, University of Brighton, UK15. The Restorative Vision of Justice in G. K. Chesterton’s Father BrownMatthew Bardowell, Missouri Baptist University, USAAbout the ContributorsIndex