The Golden Age of Murder
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Police at the Funeral (Allingham) 243
Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke (Freeman) 184
Portrait of a Murderer (Meredith) 238–9
Possession (Byatt) 433
President’s Mystery, The (Van Dine et al) 258n
Private Patient, The (James) 432
‘Problem of Uncle Meleager’s Will, The’ (Sayers) 23–4
Professor on Paws, The (Berkeley) 42
Provincial Lady Goes Further, The (Delafield) 137–8
Public School Murder, The (Woodthorpe) 273, 279n
‘Purloined Letter, The’ (Poe) 97, 425
Pursued, The (Forester) 146n
Put Out that Light (Woodthorpe) 406–7
Question of Proof, A (Blake) 275–6
Reader is Warned, The (Dickson) 395–6
Real Inspector Hound, The (play) (Stoppard) 259n
Red House Mystery, The (Milne) 112–13, 114
Red Thumb Mark, The (Freeman) 181–2
Regiment of Women (Dane) 213
Released for Death (Wade) 396–7
Rex v. Rhodes: the Brighton Murder Trial (Hamilton) 358
Rising of the Moon, The (Mitchell) 240
Riverside Villas Murder, The (Amis) 173n
Road to Wigan Pier, The (Orwell) 396
Rope (Hamilton) 364n
Rose and the Yew Tree, The (Christie) 275
Sabotage (film) 215, 216n
Scandal at School (G. D. H. and M. Cole) 218
Scandal of Father Brown, The (Chesterton) 305
Scoop, The (Detection Club radio detective story) 168–72, 173n, 177, 246, 301, 403
Second Shot, The (Berkeley) 131–2
Secret Adversary, The (Christie) 60–1, 71, 419
Secret of Chimneys, The (Christie) 63, 66
Seven Dials Mystery, The (Christie) 66
Sexton Blake series 19, 31n, 92
Shadow on the Wall (Bailey) 388–9
Shall We Join the Ladies (play) (Barrie) 332
She Had to Have Gas (Penny) 191n
Shilling for Candles, A (Tey) 257n
Shock to the System, A (Brett) 432
Shooting Party, The (Chekov) 63, 64
Shot at Dawn (Rhode) 200, 201
Sic Transit Gloria (Kennedy) 331
‘Sign of the Broken Sword, The’ (Chesterton) 351n
Silence of a Purple Shirt (Woodthorpe) 330–1
Silent Passenger, The (film) 307
Silk Stocking Murders, The (Berkeley) 48–9, 201, 351n
Singing Bone, The (Freeman) 286
Sinking Admiral, The (Detection Club novel) 434, 436n
Sins of Father Knox (Skvorecky) 119
Sir John Magill’s Last Journey (Crofts) 220
Sittaford Mystery, The (Christie) 155, 156, 187–8
Six against the Yard (Detection Club) 285–6, 290n
Six Dead Men (Steeman) 232n
Sleuth (play) (Shaffer) 31n, 259n
Snow upon the Desert (Christie) 59
Social Decay and Regeneration (Freeman) 179–80, 181
Somebody at the Door (Postgate) 79n
Someone from the Past (Bennett) 313n
So What Did You Expect? (Shaffer) 412n
Speedy Death (Mitchell) 153, 240–1
Spellbound (film) 258n
Still Dead (Knox) 180
Stoat, The (Brock) 146n
Strong Poison (Sayers) 21, 124–5, 127, 156, 215, 216n, 261, 405, 425
‘Sunningdale Murder, The’ (Wallace) 55
Suspicion (film) 144
Suspicions of Mr Whicher, The (Summerscale) 299–300, 446
Sweepstake Murders, The (Connington) 188
Sweet Danger (Allingham) 243
Tales of the Mean Streets (Morrison) 99
‘Tea Leaf, ‘The’ (Eustace/Jepson) 123, 127
Telephone Call, The (Rhode) 293
Ten Star Clues (Punshon) 404
Thank Heaven Fasting (Delafield) 426
‘They Don’t Wear Labels’ (Delafield) 427
39 Steps (film) 48
Thou Shell of Death (Blake) 375–6
Three Taps, The (Knox) 118
Three-Act Tragedy (Christie) 224
Thrones, Dominations (Walsh) 340–1, 342n, 404, 423
To Be Hanged (Hamilton) 364n
Todmanhawe Grange (Fletcher) 383n
To Wake the Dead (Carr) 96
Top Story Murder (Berkeley) 138
Torquemada Puzzle Book, The (Powys Mathers) 379
Towards Zero (Christie) 132
‘Travelling Rug, The’ (Sayers) 228
Trent’s Last Case (Bentley) 20, 104, 105–6, 111, 196, 262, 303, 307, 378
Trent’s Own Case (Bentley/Allen) 303–4
Trial and Error (Berkeley) 197, 361–2, 424
Truth Comes Limping (Connington) 374
‘Tuesday Night Club, The’ (Christie) 155
12.30 from Croydon, The (Crofts) 262–3
Twenty-Five Sanitary Inspectors (East) 146n
23 Paces to Baker Street (film) 257n
Two Tickets Puzzle, The (Connington) 187
‘Unbreakable Alibi, ‘The’ (Christie) 88
Under Capricorn (film) 213
Unexpected Guest, The (play) (Christie) 59, 159n
Unfinished Portrait (Westmacott) 420
Unnatural Death (Sayers) 23, 26, 56, 224
Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, The (Sayers) 27, 193, 309
‘Unsound Mind’ (Berkeley) 132–3
Untimely Death (Hare) 432
Vacation from Marriage (Perfect Strangers) (film) 212
Vane Mystery, The (Berkeley) 48, 127
Vantage Striker (Simpson) 331
Vegetable Duck (Rhode) 293
Verdict of Twelve (Postgate) 74, 77, 79n, 139
Verdict of You All, The (Wade) 194, 196
Vicar’s Experiments, The (Rolls) 365n
Warrant for X (MacDonald) 257n
Way Things Are, The (Delafield) 426
Well of Loneliness, The (Hall) 213
Wheel Spins, The (White) 31n
Where Every Prospect Please (Halkett) 235–6
‘Who Killed Baker?’ (Bush/Crispin) 204
Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? (Bayard) 382, 384n
Who Was Old Willy? (Kennedy) 406
Whose Body? (Sayers) 19–20, 21, 240
‘Why I Like Detective Stories’ (Stein) 116
Why I’m Not a Millionaire (Spain) 412n
Winnie-the-Pooh (Milne) 113
Wintringham Mystery, The (Berkeley) 43, 47, 63
‘Wrong Problem, The’ (Carr) 370
Wychford Poisoning Case, The (Berkeley) 43–4
X v Rex (Porlock) 137
Young and Innocent (film) 257n
Young Vanish, The (Everton) 190n
Zeal of Thy House, The (play) (Sayers) 383–4
‘Z’ Murders, The (Farjeon) 351n
Acknowledgments
The Golden Age of Murder is a very different book from any other study of this fascinating yet neglected subject. I could not have written it, however, without a great deal of help, or without building on foundations laid by others, above all Julian Symons, a former President of the Detection Club and author of Bloody Murder, a study which broke fresh ground. I am deeply grateful to the countless people who have given me assistance, directly and indirectly, during long years of reading and research, and while it is impossible to mention everyone by name, I’d like to express my thanks to all of them.
I am especially appreciative of my family, who have spent years surrounded by mountains of old books and magazines, and patiently (well, fairly patiently!) accompanied me to second hand bookshops up and down the country in search of elusive titles. This book would not exist in its present form if my agent, James Wills, and my publisher, David Brawn, had not believed in it, and I owe a great deal to them, to my copy-editor, John Garth, as well as to Simon Brett and my colleagues in the Detection Club. Among the latter, those distinguished writers Peter Lovesey, Ruth Dudley Edwa
rds, Jessica Mann and Ann Cleeves read early drafts, and offered generous insight and guidance. So did Tony Medawar, one of Britain’s Golden Age experts, as well as John Curran, who decoded Agatha Christie’s secret notebooks, and two American authorities on traditional detection, Douglas Greene and Tom Schantz. Their input was invaluable, and saved me from many errors, yet there is still much more to be discovered about Golden Age detective fiction and the people who wrote it. This book is not the last word, but I hope it may form a landmark, and encourage further research and discovery. I bear in mind the wisdom of Julian Symons, who made clear that he was always receptive to ‘reasoned contradiction’ and lived up to that promise, responding generously and with a willingness to revisit his opinions when, as a young man, I wrote to him about the first two Francis Iles books.
In the course of my investigations, I met, spoke to or corresponded with members of the families of several early members of the Detection Club. Understandably, memories of events dating back more than half a century were often hazy, but their reminiscences gave me a fuller understanding of the past. Once or twice, I felt there was a danger of intruding on private unhappiness; the legitimate public interest in such things has its limits, and I have striven to reflect that in writing this book. I will not, therefore, mention individual family members by name, but I am indebted to various members of the families of Anthony Berkeley, Anthony Gilbert, Helen Simpson, Christopher Bush, Josephine Bell and Margot Bennett, and deceased members of the Detection Club Robert Barnard, Harry Keating and Margaret Yorke, for their assistance and consideration.
Many lovers of Golden Age detective fiction in a number of different countries have given me useful information, as well as taking part in lively but good-natured debate about the respective merits of some writers, and the right way to assess Golden Age stories. Some supplied illustrations, some loaned me rare first editions. Space permits only a selective list of specific thank-yous, but the British contingent include Geoff Bradley and many contributors to CADS, including Liz Gilbey and Philip L. Scowcroft; the late Christopher Dean; Seona Ford and their colleagues in the Dorothy L. Sayers Society; the Sayers estate; Barry Pike and Julia Jones of the Margery Allingham Society: the late Bob Adey, Celia Down, David M. Chapman, Nigel Moss, Mark Sutcliffe, Jamie Sturgeon, Ralph Spurrier, James M. Pickard, Lyndsey Greenslade, Chris Garrod, Christine Simpson, Ann Granger, P. D. James, Sheila Mitchell, Catherine Aird, Charles Gordon Clark, Mike Ashley, Christine Poulson, Jennifer Palmer, Alan Hamilton, Emma Wilson, the late Chris Peers, and the late R. F. Stewart. I benefited from help from American friends and correspondents, notably Laura Schmidt and her colleagues at Wheaton, home of the Dorothy L. Sayers archive, Steve Steinbock, Arthur Robinson, B.J. Rahn, Arthur Vidro, Curtis Evans, Howard Lakin, George Easter, and Marvin Lachman. Italy’s Mauro Boncompagni, Germany’s Almuth Heuner, France’s Xavier Lechard, and Australia’s Malcolm J. Turnbull were a mine of information. So were contacts I made via social media, and in particular members of the GA Detection forum and Facebook group. To all of them, my sincere thanks.
Martin Edwards
About the Author
MARTIN EDWARDS is an award-winning crime writer and an internationally renowned commentator on detective fiction. His Lake District Mysteries include The Coffin Trail, which was shortlisted for the Theakston’s prize for best British crime novel. He has also published eight non-fiction books, eight novels about Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin, two stand-alone novels, over 50 short stories, and has edited 22 anthologies. His awards include the CWA Short Story Dagger and the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham Prize. Alongside his writing, he is Archivist of the Detection Club and the Crime Writers’ Association, series consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics books, and consultant to a national law firm. The Golden Age of Murder is the result of years of research and a lifetime of reading.
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