Tag: crime fiction

How Silly is Too Silly?

Although classic detective novels tell stories, these stories are presented as “problems of logic and deduction…” Those aren’t my words, but the words of Raymond Chandler in his seminal essay The Simple Art of Murder. He’s talking specifically about an early detective novel by A. A. Milne called The Red House Mystery. Chandler continues: “[I]t […]

Metaphysical Detective Fiction

There are many subgenres to crime fiction. Police procedural, cozy crime, domestic noir, etc. I enjoy some more than others. But the subgenre I really love is metaphysical detective fiction. It’s not a term you’ll encounter often, though it goes back to the 1940s. It’s probably not the best from a marketing perspective. It sounds […]