The Golden Age Of Detective Fiction

Many individuals have flashbacks after experiencing trauma. Survivors of such horrible traumas sometimes can act out in violence, after something triggers them to remember the ordeal. The novel The Suspect by L.R. Wright, offers a realistic account of what goes on in the mind of an individual who has committed murder. Throughout the novel, I made connections to many real life examples of how trauma has affected the lives of criminals and their victims, through either alcohol or mental illness. Individuals affected by this sort of trauma can seek medical or social help in order to be able to learn how to cope with daily living.

Agatha Christie, author of the murder mystery And Then There Were None, used foreshadowing and both external and internal conflict to portray the theme of her novel that justice can be served for the crimes that go unpunished. Christie used these elements because she enjoyed mystery and she liked to keep her readers engaged while reading. Agatha Christie is still considered one of the best, if not, the best murder mystery writer today because she wrote the first murder mystery novel and she wrote many more after that that was well loved by people.

When Gayle Wald wrote, “Sayers’s career writing detective stories effectively ends with Gaudy Night” (108), she did not present a new argument, but continued the tradition that Gaudy Night does not center on the detective story.  Barbara Harrison even labeled Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter/Harriet Vane books, Strong Poison, Gaudy Night, and Busman’s Honeymoon, as “deliriously happy-ending romances” (66).  The label stretches the definition of a romance, but Gaudy Night indeed has very little to do with crime.  Sayers encrypted the real story within her detective novel.  This story behind the story narrates love and human relationships.  In fact, the crimes in Gaudy Night only supply a convenient way for

In the book, And Then There Were None; a popular mystery novel written by Agatha Christie, widely considered her masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write said agatha. The story And Then There Were None was first printed in United Kingdom on November 6, 1939, but was reprinted in the US based off of the nursery rhyme Ten

A Cleveland detective (McFadden), on a downtown beat which he had been patrolling for many years, observed two strangers (petitioner and another man, Chilton) on a street corner. He saw them proceed alternately back and forth along an identical route, pausing to stare in the same store window, which they did for a total of about 24 times. Each completion of the route was followed by a conference between the two on a corner, at one of which they were joined by a third man (Katz) who left swiftly. Suspecting the two men of "casing a job, a stick-up," the officer followed them and saw them rejoin the third man a couple of blocks away in front of a

In the film and the literary versions of The Maltese Falcon, cops are portrayed differently because of the distinct tools available to each media. The written descriptions of the novel give people on the police force a personality, so that they are humanized. On the other side, the film creates a cynical depiction of cops, where policemen are less complex humans than the criminals of the world, so this portrayal makes the film’s world appears grimmer than the literary world. In lieu of written description, the lighting of Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941) causes the policemen to lack some of the depth that they had in Hammett’s novel of The Maltese Falcon (1929) because the lighting creates fewer contrasting shadows

My Detective is Detective Victor Velon. or V. for short. Detective V. is 29 years old. He is Caucasian with black hair. He is 5’8 and skinny. He has blue eyes and a small nose. Detective V is methodical. He is very organized, orderly, and tends to be a perfectionist. Detective V’s favorite foods include steak, strawberries and lollipops. His favorite colors are grey, white and black... Activities that he likes to do on his spare time would be playing tennis, cooking and shooting targets. He likes to listen to the old classic music even though he is only 29. He likes to dress like a sharp dressed man in a suit and tie.

The movie The Maltese Falcon is about a private investigator who is striving to unravel the mystery surrounding a black enamelled bird known as the Maltese Falcon. Samuel Spade, the protagonist of the story, is what was known as a “hard-boiled” detective. Men such as that rarely show a tender side (if they have one). Likewise, they are physically tough, frequently resorting to guns or fists to get what they want. In addition, they tend to be amoral, yet with an inflexible code of honour of their own.

“Outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap” (“Homepage”). The New Historicism Lens is a way for readers to speculate deeper understandings of texts by relating the text to the historical era in which it was set or written. Another aspect of this lens involves looking specifically at how the author’s life impacts their writing. Published in 1939, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, continues to be one of Christie's most successful books, and with the use of this lens, readers can observe historical happenings at the time it was written and how events in Christie’s life influenced her writing of this text.

Dashiell Hammett was an American writer who is credited with starting the rise of hard-boiled detectives in writing. Hammett was born in Baltimore, Maryland, growing up, he had exposed himself to many different experiences in life. One of Hammett’s biggest influences in his specific style of writing is his exposed when he became an operative for the Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. The Pinkerston agency was started as a private police force and gained much fame for dealing with robbers and outlaws of the 19th century. Hammett’s encounters within the agency laid a foundation of material for his short stories. His experiences with the agency would come to an end once he had returned from world war 1 where had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, which

In her novels “Death on the Nile” and “And Then There Were None” Agatha Christie uses foreshadowing and both external and internal conflict to portray the theme of her novel, the idea that justice will always triumph. In "Death on the Nile" Poiret undertakes the position of bringing about what’s due to the guilty character. At the same time in “And Then There Were None" the protagonist is unclear because while Justice Wargrave is the one seeking justice, his methods are flawed. Agatha Christie uses mystery in both of her books to emphasize how the truth will come out in the end. This is clearly shown in “Death on The Nile” where the outcome is clear-cut while “And Then There Were None” is undefined and elusive. Although both books use morbid and unethical methods of showing their objective, both stress their point and Agatha Christie's opinion on

While American and British authors developed the two distinct schools of detective fiction, known as “hard-boiled and “golden age,” simultaneously, the British works served to continue traditions established by earlier authors while American works formed their own distinct identity. Though a niche category, detective works reflect the morality and culture of the societies their authors lived in. Written in the time period after World War I, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and “The Gutting of Couffignal”, and Raymond Chandler’s “Trouble Is My Business” adapt their detectives to a new harsh reality of urban life. In “hard-boiled” works, the detective is more realistic than the detective in “golden age” works according to the

1A. A good detective is a very smart person who is able to use evidence and to detect lies and truth. And is also able to think things in a logic and quicker way as well as understanding criminal's movements. For example, detective Dupin in the "Murders of the Rue Morgue" from how the bones were broken and how a lot of hair was pulled out, he figured out that the criminal was not a human, but rather an criminal(Orangutan). "I proceeded to think thus—à posteriori. The murderers did escape from one of these windows. This being so, they could not have refastened the sashes from the inside, as they were found fastened; — the consideration which put a stop, through its obviousness, to the scrutiny of the police in this quarter. Yet the sashes were fastened. They must, then, have the power of fastening themselves. There was no escape from this conclusion." I have seen the character of detectives evolve from one author to the next by having a brilliant life in Doyle's novel "The Sign of the four" to love as in Rampo's "Beast in the Shadows. In "The Sign of the Four" it said, "I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for?" In the "Beast in the Shadows" it said, "Thus, I fell for her completely, sending her meaningless on a frequent basis." Doyle's, Rampo's, Gaboriau's, Christie's, and Borges's fiction character and plot were similar as Poe's detective and plot. Therefore, they do depend on earlier models. In respect, Gaboriau aims to glorify or support the French police while it said, “Well done, Goulard!" quoth the commissary, approvingl;” Poe has a contemptuous attitude towards the agency. I believe that Gaboriau got the idea from Poe, but did the opposite from what I see, I could definitely tell that Poe deserves the title "One of American Greatest Storyteller" because so many authors followed his example of how to write a detective novel. Which shows that his writing impact others to write detective novels.

Agatha Christie's history is full of surprises. She has not only written detective novels, which have reached to 82 novels, but has also written many autobiographies. She also wrote six novels under a pseudonym called Mary Westmacott. Agatha Christie also wrote 19 plays Including the play "The Trap" which was known in London as the longest play at that time.

The book And Then There Were None was written by Agatha Christie in 1939. The