Rosemary Herbert - Böcker

Perfect for anyone who harbours a love of the sea or simply of mystery stories, this is an intriguing new selection of tales in which crimes and their solutions occur in shipboard or shoreline environments. Luminaries past and present are represented, with selections spanning a wide range of moods: from the humorous work of Catherine Aird to a psychologically chilling piece by Susan Moody. Stories feature well-loved characters in a variety of waterside settings: John Mortimer's Rumpole and She Who Must be Obeyed, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, and Edward D. Hoch's Nick Velvet all find their vacation cruises interrupted by crimes requiring their services. The book also features translations of works by such famed international authors as Gabriel García Márquez, Saho Sasazawa, and, for the first time ever in English, Chris Rippen of the Netherlands. Each story is introduced by a brief essay noting the hallmarks of the author's work, and providing the reader with an enticing comment about each highly original use of the waterside setting.

"Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend."--Agatha Christie Perhaps that is why audiences continue to be captivated by what Raymond Chandler called "The Simple Art of Murder." For who populates the pages of crime and mystery writing? People, sometimes in ordinary situations, sometimes in extraordinary ones, but in every respect, human. These are the characters we willingly follow into the mystery genre's uneasy imaginative territory. What is it about their strengths and flaws that makes us join them? Is it possible that we see a bit of ourselves in them--or in the sleuth tracking them? And who created those characters in the first place? What life experience and expertise informs their work? What are the sources of their themes, regional accents, and even the axes that some grind? Why do some wish to give us a good laugh, while others seem hell-bent on making us shudder? Whodunit? A Who's Who in Crime & Mystery Writing answers these questions and more. Here mystery expert Rosemary Herbert brings together enlightening and entertaining information on hundreds of classic and contemporary characters and authors. Some--such as P.D. James, Ian Rankin, Sherlock Holmes and Kinsey Millhone appear in individual entries. Still more keep company in articles about characters we admire, such as the Clerical Sleuth, and in pieces about those we love to hate, including the Femme Fatale and Con Artist. There is even an article on a figure that haunts so many great works of mystery --The Corpse. Drawing on the Edgar Award-nominated volume The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing, Herbert has added 101 new entries on the hottest new names in works ranging from puzzling whodunits to chilling crime novels.

This new collection will pick up where Dorothy L. Sayers' The Omnibus of Crime (1929) left off - "in the heart of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction" - bringing together monumental, entertaining works of mystery short fiction from the early 1930s to the present, from the inter-war years of the twentieth century to first years of the twenty-first century. Herbert will introduce each story, placing the selection in the context of the author and the genre's literary history. Emphasis will be placed upon representing the most exciting styles and voices in the genre rather than a slavish servitude to a decade-by-decade approach. Stories on the short list include Norman Mailer "The Killer", P.D. James "Great Aunt Allie's Fly Papers" or "The Victim", Sue Grafton "The Parker Shotgun", Frankie Y. Bailey "Since You Went Away", John Cheever "Montraldo", Paul Theroux "The Johore Murders", Tony Hillerman "First Lead Gasser", David Winser "The Boat Race Murder", James M. Cain "Cigarette Girl", Dorothy L. Sayers "The Necklace of Pearls", Linda Barnes "Lucky Penny", Cornell Woolrich "Death at the Burlesque", Raymond Chandler "Red Wind", Dennis Lehane "Running Out of Dog", and James Crumley "Hot Springs".

This fantastic new collection picks up where Dorothy L. Sayers left off, bringing together monumental, important,and entertaining works of short crime fiction published over eight decades from the era of the Great Depression to the first uears of the twenty-first century. In lively introductory essays, celebrated crime writer Tony Hillerman and critic Rosemary Herbert place each story in the context of the author's work and the genre's literary history. Their extraordinary collection is international in scope and emphasizes the most exciting styles and voices, rather than taking a typical decade-by-decade approach. As a result A New Omnibus of Crime is packed with page-turning, engaging, and spine-tingling selections. Stories include Patricia Highsmith's "Woodrow Wilson's Necktie," Sue Grafton's "A Poison That Leaves No Trace," and many more, including never-before-published works from Jefferey Deaver, Catherine Aird, and Alexander McCall Smith.