The Murder Game
Play, Puzzles and The Golden Age
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From The Murder of Roger Ackroyd to Magpie Murders, and related diversions including cryptic crosswords and Cain’s Jawbone, The Murder Game examines the games authors played with their readers and the importance of puzzles in Golden Age whodunits.
With books flourishing in the 1920s and ’30s like never before, no genre was more innovative or popular than detective fiction. It was an era that saw the emergence of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen and dozens of other authors who became household names for a generation of readers.
The Golden Age of Detection has enjoyed a great resurgence of interest in recent years, with publishers mining back catalogues to bring the best of yesteryear to very receptive new audiences. What is it about a literary movement that took off in the 1920s that still appeals to book lovers in the 2020s?
In this authoritative new study, John Curran reveals that it is the ludic qualities of classic crime fiction that continue to intrigue. At its heart is the ‘whodunit’ game between writer and reader, but there is also the game between detective and murderer, between publisher and book-buyer, even between the writers themselves.
Coinciding with an increase in leisure time and literacy, the Golden Age also saw the development of the crossword, the growth of bridge and Mahjong, the enduring popularity of jigsaws and the emergence of Cluedo – all activities requiring the ‘little grey cells’. The Murder Game considers all of these, and many other sporting and competitive recreations, helping to explain the reading public’s ongoing love affair with the Golden Age.
Reviews
'Crime-fiction enthusiasts will remain grateful to Dr Curran for diligently exposing the fundamentals of the genre.' Wall Street Journal
'Curran knows his subject backwards.' Guardian
'Lucid, ludic and well-clued. Combining the intellect of a scholar and the wit of a fellow game player, John has written another essential text for the mystery reader’s bookshelf.' Ah Sweet Mystery
'A fascinating study of the genre that provides real insight into the enduring popularity of Golden Age detective fiction and its many successors today.' The Frumious Consortium
'It is nice to be able to go into a book and know you’re going to have a good time. Informative, useful, interesting, engaging and entertaining … John is a deft hand at weaving in sources, being knowledgeable but accessible.' Cross Examining Crime
About the author
Dr John Curran is a lifelong fan of Golden Age detective fiction and one of Ireland’s foremost experts on classic crime. For many years he edited the official Agatha Christie Newsletter and helped to establish the Agatha Christie Archive. He was consultant to the National Trust during the restoration of Greenway House and wrote his doctoral thesis on the Golden Age of Detective Fiction at Trinity College, Dublin. His two volumes about Agatha Christie’s notebooks won three major US mystery awards (the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity), and his history of Collins’ Crime Club, The Hooded Gunman, was nominated for an Edgar and won the 2019 H.R.F. Keating Award for best critical book related to crime fiction. He set up the annual Bodies from the Library conference at the British Library and is in demand as a speaker and lecturer on Agatha Christie from his home in Dublin.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This extensive if somewhat shallow study from Agatha Christie scholar and archivist Curran (The Hooded Gunman) explores how game-like qualities drove the long-term success and influence of detective fiction in the early 20th century. Curran sets the genre's golden age between 1920 and 1945 and outlines common characteristics among mysteries published in the era, such as an emphasis on solving a puzzle (a crime that typically involved murder), a limited number of suspects, and a surprise ending. He then delves into the development of specific rules for mysteries, created most notably by novelists Ronald Knox and S.S. Van Dine, like the concept of "fair play," which requires all clues to be made available to the reader so they are on an even playing field with the fictional detectives. Common devices are also discussed, like the game-within-a-game plot, in which characters play a game that results in a real-life crime; in Agatha Christie's novel Dead Man's Folly, for example, a game of "Murder Hunt" leads to the pretend victim's actual killing ("Where better, from the writer's viewpoint, to hide a murderer than in a ‘murder'?" Curran writes). Some spoilers are included, but Curran largely protects gameplay. Though his comprehensive history of the genre is jam-packed with examples, it lacks a stimulating overall argument tying the elements together. Murder mystery fans will leave with an extensive reading list but few new insights.
