MODUS OPERANDI. AN EXCURSION INTO DETECTIVE FICTION.

by Robin W. Winks

First edition. x , 131, 3 pages. 1982 , 8vo., cloth, dust jacket.. Publisher.

131 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Robin W. Winks was an American academic, historian, diplomat, writer on the subject of fiction, especially detective novels, and advocate for the National Parks.

Reviews

[Christophe Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

This rather short book is a freewheeling essay on detective and spy fiction. Unfortunately, the author--a professor in the Humanities at Yale University--felt it necessary to display his erudition and cultural capital so often that it detracted from my reading pleasure. There were some good insights, especially on spy fiction, but I was turned off by the overly high falutin writing. I'd rather do without pompous stuff when reading about detective fiction.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 2 out of 5]

more formal language than i would have enjoyed.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robin Winks, a Yale history professor, died a few years ago. This book was his "amateur," but highly learned and incredibly breezy "excursion" into the history, nature, and value of detective fiction (with further excursions into spy thrillers and the nature of history, all in 120 pages). If some of the fiction he relates is a bit aged now, the book remains engaging because many of the works are timeless and he includes poetry, literary comparisons, psychology, and even a small bit of theology ("Auden thus saw detective fiction as the Christian morality play restated in modern dress."). A read as quick as a short mystery novel and more thought provoking then all but the best of that lot.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

An academic essay on subject of detective fiction. The author is a history professor at Yale as well as a mystery book reviewer. He's got a few interesting points here, but it's pretty high-brow stuff. And he gives away the ending of "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".