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Mar 13, 2011nicollemelanson rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
P.D. James is an excellent writer and that includes her non-fiction style. This book is an easy read that meanders through the development of detective fiction since its inception. Much focus is given to the 'golden age of detective fiction' and to the four doyennes of that era - Sayers, Christie, Allingham and Marsh. The importance of Wilkie Collins and Conan Doyle is well covered as well as the hard-boiled detectives Philip Marlow and Sam Spade. She helps us to understand how the genre has developed in conjunction with social change and what function it serves for the reader - mainly one of entertainment and reassurance that one can enter a world that is rational and orderly, even if only temporarily, between the covers of a book.