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Women of Mystery: The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime Novelists
In this remarkable book, Martha Hailey DuBose has given those multitudes of readers who love the mystery novel an indispensable addition to their libraries. Unlike other works on the subject, 'Women of Mystery' is not merely a directory of the novelists and their publications with a few biographical details. DuBose combines extensive research into the lives of significant women mystery writers from Anna Katherine Green to P.D. James, with evaluations on their work, anecdotes, critical opinions and some of the women's own comments. She takes us through the Golden Age of the British women mystery writers, Christie, Sayers, Marsh, Allingham and Tey, to the leading crime novelists of today, focusing on the women who have become legends of the genre. And though she laments, "So many mysteries, so little time," she makes a good effort a mentioning "some of the best of the rest."
When DuBose writes of the lives of her principal players, she relates them to their times, their families, their personal situations, and above all to their books. The biographies of these women are as engrossing as the stories they wrote, and Martha DuBose has shined a different, intimate, and intriguing light on them, their works, and the lives that informed those works.
This book is so full of treasure it's hard to see how any mystery enthusiasts will be able to do without it. And what a gift it would make for anyone on your list who has been heard to announce "I love a mystery."
When DuBose writes of the lives of her principal players, she relates them to their times, their families, their personal situations, and above all to their books. The biographies of these women are as engrossing as the stories they wrote, and Martha DuBose has shined a different, intimate, and intriguing light on them, their works, and the lives that informed those works.
This book is so full of treasure it's hard to see how any mystery enthusiasts will be able to do without it. And what a gift it would make for anyone on your list who has been heard to announce "I love a mystery."
478 pages, Hardcover
First published December 11, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 17, 2017
It is no surprise that this book won a variety of awards for Martha Hailey DuBose has presented us with a gem. The thorough research she has done has enabled her to write in great detail about the women she discusses, not only concentrating on their private lives but also on the influences on their work and, perhaps most importantly, on that work itself. She has been ably assisted by Margaret Caldwell Thomas who provides a number of the essays that cover the later writers.
After introducing the first true literary detective in Poe's C. Auguste Dupin, DuBose sets the scene with the mothers of detection that include Mrs Henry Wood, with 'East Lynne' Mary Elizabeth Braddon with 'Lady Audley's Secret' and the first recognised purely detective novel 'The Dead Letter: An American Romance' by Mrs Metta Victoria Fuller Victor, who wrote under the pen name of Seeley Regester, before moving on to the American lady who would write the first internationally successful detective novel that would earn her the title of "The Mother of the Detective Novel".
Her name was Anna Katherine Green and her novel of 1878 was entitled 'The Leavenworth Case: A Lawyer's Story', which became an immediate success at home and overseas. The novel set the standard for professional police work in detective fiction and she went on to write 38 further mystery novels. DuBose continues the line with Baroness Orczy, best known for her creation of the Scarlet Pimpernel but also the author of nine mystery novels, the prolific Mary Roberts Rinehart, whose mystery writing career stretched from 1908 to 1953, before she embarks on the ladies who epitomised the golden age of detective fiction.
She describes these ladies as "The Genteel Puzzlers" and unsurprisingly she begins with the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. There is a lengthy biography of Christie plus plenty of interesting critical comment on Christie's 67 novels and 130 short stories. That so-called strange lady Dorothy L Sayers, New Zealander Ngaio Marsh, the introspective Elizabeth MacKintosh, who wrote under the name of Josephine Tey, and finally Margery Allingham. with her main character Albert Campion, who first appeared in 'The Crime at Black Dudley' in 1929, complete golden age collection.
Then it is on to the modern generation, whose approach to crime writing is so much different from that of the ladies of the golden age, so much more gore and psychology that it was thought that the more traditional detective mystery would disappear altogether. Fortunately it didn't but with Patricia Highsmith (one of my favourites) murder with a twist seemed to become de rigueur.
PD James, Ruth Rendell, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Minette Waters, Margaret Millar, who was the queen of telling opening lines, Lilian Jackson Braun, long live Koko and Yum Yum, with her 'Cat Who ...' stories and finally Juliet Marion Hulme, writing under the name of Anne Perry, complete the modern day collection. But there is still room for 17 others who Dubose classes as "The Best of the Rest", some of whom, Val McDermid for instance, could arguably have taken their places in the main body of the work.
It is a superb study of the genre and each lady's entry is accompanied by a fairly exhaustive short title bibliography and there are three timelines at the end, "Criminous Chronolgies" DuBose calls them, that pick out the highlights in the history of mystery fiction, from start to the golden age, 1920 to 1950 and 1951 to present.
The book certainly made me think long and hard about the genre and, as I progressed through the ages, it made me realise, why I generally prefer the golden age novels to those of the modern day; give me the country house settings and less gritty investigations any time - a much more peaceful and less aggressive read all the way. But I appreciate that is just me!
After introducing the first true literary detective in Poe's C. Auguste Dupin, DuBose sets the scene with the mothers of detection that include Mrs Henry Wood, with 'East Lynne' Mary Elizabeth Braddon with 'Lady Audley's Secret' and the first recognised purely detective novel 'The Dead Letter: An American Romance' by Mrs Metta Victoria Fuller Victor, who wrote under the pen name of Seeley Regester, before moving on to the American lady who would write the first internationally successful detective novel that would earn her the title of "The Mother of the Detective Novel".
Her name was Anna Katherine Green and her novel of 1878 was entitled 'The Leavenworth Case: A Lawyer's Story', which became an immediate success at home and overseas. The novel set the standard for professional police work in detective fiction and she went on to write 38 further mystery novels. DuBose continues the line with Baroness Orczy, best known for her creation of the Scarlet Pimpernel but also the author of nine mystery novels, the prolific Mary Roberts Rinehart, whose mystery writing career stretched from 1908 to 1953, before she embarks on the ladies who epitomised the golden age of detective fiction.
She describes these ladies as "The Genteel Puzzlers" and unsurprisingly she begins with the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. There is a lengthy biography of Christie plus plenty of interesting critical comment on Christie's 67 novels and 130 short stories. That so-called strange lady Dorothy L Sayers, New Zealander Ngaio Marsh, the introspective Elizabeth MacKintosh, who wrote under the name of Josephine Tey, and finally Margery Allingham. with her main character Albert Campion, who first appeared in 'The Crime at Black Dudley' in 1929, complete golden age collection.
Then it is on to the modern generation, whose approach to crime writing is so much different from that of the ladies of the golden age, so much more gore and psychology that it was thought that the more traditional detective mystery would disappear altogether. Fortunately it didn't but with Patricia Highsmith (one of my favourites) murder with a twist seemed to become de rigueur.
PD James, Ruth Rendell, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Minette Waters, Margaret Millar, who was the queen of telling opening lines, Lilian Jackson Braun, long live Koko and Yum Yum, with her 'Cat Who ...' stories and finally Juliet Marion Hulme, writing under the name of Anne Perry, complete the modern day collection. But there is still room for 17 others who Dubose classes as "The Best of the Rest", some of whom, Val McDermid for instance, could arguably have taken their places in the main body of the work.
It is a superb study of the genre and each lady's entry is accompanied by a fairly exhaustive short title bibliography and there are three timelines at the end, "Criminous Chronolgies" DuBose calls them, that pick out the highlights in the history of mystery fiction, from start to the golden age, 1920 to 1950 and 1951 to present.
The book certainly made me think long and hard about the genre and, as I progressed through the ages, it made me realise, why I generally prefer the golden age novels to those of the modern day; give me the country house settings and less gritty investigations any time - a much more peaceful and less aggressive read all the way. But I appreciate that is just me!
May 29, 2018
While the topic and biographic chapters on each author were interesting, the author's style was textbook-like.
Read
January 30, 2023Read section about Anna Katherine Green.
January 31, 2017
Not much on Elizabeth MacKintosh, but that seems to be the norm. Is there any biography on Josephine Tey?
January 1, 2022
Women of Mystery: lives & works of Notable women Mystery writers DuBose, Martha Haliey 3 NF Biography women mystery writers read exerts Agatha Christie's life- not finished 2018 3/21/2018 3/21/2018
June 4, 2014
This book reminds me of a poorly edited doctoral dissertation. While it is readable, there is a profusion of information that rambles about. The first section deals with writers of the Golden Age -- Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and several others I'd never heard of . There is 50 plus pages of bio on each woman, with some literary criticism interspersed, followed by lists of all the mysteries written by that author, followed by a chatty profile of the author's recurring detective, followed by any other tidbits DuBose wants to throw in. The style is sort of "I found this out, so I must include it." But with all the excruciating detail, there are still unanswered questions. Like how does a British girl come to be named "Ngaro" and how do you produce it?
The next section deals with more contemporary writers -- P. D. James, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Emma Lathen, Lillian Jackson Braun,and others I was not familiar with. The bios are much shorter -- in some cases non-existent. The text is primarily literary criticism, followed by the list of works, and ending with the initials MCT. Who is that? And how does one chose to include Lillian Jackson Braun and not Martha Grimes???
The lists are a great resource, if you find yourself interested in any of these authors. However, most of them sounded too deep into bloody corpses and psycho killers to appeal to me. And what about Anne Perry. She's a contemporary mystery writer who, as a teenager, committed murder with her best pal. They murdered the friend's mother because she wouldn't let the best friend go on a trip with Anne's family. How creepy is that!
The next section deals with more contemporary writers -- P. D. James, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Emma Lathen, Lillian Jackson Braun,and others I was not familiar with. The bios are much shorter -- in some cases non-existent. The text is primarily literary criticism, followed by the list of works, and ending with the initials MCT. Who is that? And how does one chose to include Lillian Jackson Braun and not Martha Grimes???
The lists are a great resource, if you find yourself interested in any of these authors. However, most of them sounded too deep into bloody corpses and psycho killers to appeal to me. And what about Anne Perry. She's a contemporary mystery writer who, as a teenager, committed murder with her best pal. They murdered the friend's mother because she wouldn't let the best friend go on a trip with Anne's family. How creepy is that!
April 18, 2016
c2000: Ms Dubose has a deft touch, indeed. Although the more well-known female authors take up a large portion of the book, there are some more modern authors treated with the same respect. I am partial to a book on books and there are some interesting nuggets of lesser-known information scattered through the book. There is also information regarding the publishing history and conversion to the big-or-little screen. Thanks to Ms Dubose's relating the author's personal history into the chapters, it is clear that I am going to have to go back and re-read some of the books taking this background into account. Definitely recommended to those in the normal crew that also enjoy a good book-on-books. "Agatha worked as a paid assistant and studied for the Apothecaries Hall Examination, which would qualify her to prepare medicines for physicians and pharmacists."
June 3, 2016
Excellent resource for published books of ALLLLLL our favorite Divas of the Dead Body Society! There's short biographies of each of the most popular authors and short bios and full lists of all the other females up to this books printing (2000). Martha DuBose shares warts and all of each of each author so if you've got the 'girls' on a pedestal in your mind and would like to keep them there better not read this one. To me it just makes them more human and it's even more amazing that they could create such great mysteries while facing the troubles of life. Good Good Good!
April 14, 2018
Kindle: Poorly prepared, formatting weak. Footnotes behave very strangely for most of book. Lots of typos. There's an index, nice, but rather than create the necessary links, but they you to look it up yourself -- really. Table of contents difficult to understand.
Writing so-so, at least it's not offensive. Organization seems weak. Some of the chapters, on the earlier writers are very long with no break.
Lots of good information. Questionable selection of the writers from the modern era; doubt many will be remembered in fifty years.
Writing so-so, at least it's not offensive. Organization seems weak. Some of the chapters, on the earlier writers are very long with no break.
Lots of good information. Questionable selection of the writers from the modern era; doubt many will be remembered in fifty years.
July 26, 2013
This book tells a little of the lives of the women who became the founding mothers in the mystery genre and it includes brief summaries of some of the current authors in the field. I did tend to skim a bit, as some of the lives seemed pretty pedestrian. I appreciated the bibliographies of some the writers; I will try a couple of new authors as a result of reading about them.
July 28, 2015
A collection of mysteries written by women, biographies of some of the top names, and a listing of the books in the order published and/or to be read.
Honestly, I've had this on my Sony ereader for years and years now. It wasn't what I expected. Not a bad book, but I can't say if I'd recommend unless the person I'm rec'ing to is interested more in the biography aspect. 3.5 out of 5.
Honestly, I've had this on my Sony ereader for years and years now. It wasn't what I expected. Not a bad book, but I can't say if I'd recommend unless the person I'm rec'ing to is interested more in the biography aspect. 3.5 out of 5.
May 13, 2009
Enjoyed reading about my favorite authors of the Golden Age...esp Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie. Anne Perry was the only bio of current authors I found really interesting. A good book for dipping.
October 1, 2013
Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews