From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Golden Age of Murder

Martin Edwards

Start date: December 11, 2021

Finish date: January 14, 2022

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: The perfect taster for our Detection Club-themed challenge for 2022
[close] The perfect taster for our Detection Club-themed challenge for 2022

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What Members Thought

May 07, 2015 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a history of the Detection Club; an elite social network of crime writers, during the Golden Age period of 1930 – 1949. The book begins in 1937, with Ngaio Marsh attending a ritual dinner to elect the new President of the Detection Club, complete with ‘Eric the Skull’ and a host of crime writers who included founding members Dorothy L Sayers, Anthony Berkeley and Agatha Christie. Between the years this book covers, thirty nine members were elected. In order to be admitted to this elite c This is a history of the Detection Club; an elite social network of crime writers, during the Golden Age period of 1930 – 1949. The book begins in 1937, with Ngaio Marsh attending a ritual dinner to elect the new President of the Detection Club, complete with ‘Eric the Skull’ and a host of crime writers who included founding members Dorothy L Sayers, Anthony Berkeley and Agatha Christie. Between the years this book covers, thirty nine members were elected. In order to be admitted to this elite company, writers had to produce work of ‘admitted merit’ – which was basically a code to keep out popular authors that members considered ‘crude’ such as Tiger Standish or ‘Sapper.’

As well as being a fascinating history of the Detection club during this Golden era for crime writing, the author gives biographies of those involved, their relationships with each other, and also detours to discuss true crimes of the time which inspired the members. Many of the members found the Club a refuge, where they could be themselves and discuss their craft with those who would understand their problems. Anthony Berkeley first approached other writers about organising a dining club to discuss matters concerning their craft and it led to many collaborative writing projects.

Importantly, criticisms levelled at Golden Age fiction are also tackled. Often derided as ‘cosy’ the author points out that most people were unwilling to face too much violence after the First World War and wished to be entertained. In a time of financial hardship, in the depression, novels set in exotic locations also gave a sense of escapism to readers. While living in a bed sit and coping with innumerable problems – including the personal tragedy of having to have her illegitimate son adopted and never publicly acknowledging him – Dorothy L Sayers responded by making her central character, Lord Peter Wimsey, have all the privilege and security that she was denied.

If you do enjoy Golden Age detective fiction then you will certainly adore this book as much as I did. The author muses on plots, novels, true crime of the era, how the authors used their books to refer to each other and there are endless interesting snippets and new books to discover. This book has, in fact, cost me an awful lot – because whilst reading it, I have constantly had to stop and look up authors and download books that I have missed or want to re-read. So many of my personal favourites are in here; from the three central characters of the book – Berkeley, Sayers and Christie – to Nicholas Blake, E.C.Bentley, John Dickson Carr, Gladys Mitchell, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Michael Innes and many, many more. My only sadness here was that one of my very favourite crime authors of the period, Christianna Brand, was obviously not liked by Martin Edwards, whose sniping whenever he mentioned her became a little wearing. Regardless of her love of gossip and possible unreliability, she was the author of many excellent crime novels, including “Green for Danger,” and I felt she was being a little singled out for criticism. That aside, this was a tremendous read and I absolutely loved it and recommend it highly to any lovers of crime novels from the era between the wars. ...more

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Mar 16, 2015 Bev rated it it was amazing

Shelves: award-winner, mystery, vintage-mystery, non-fiction, review-copy, reference

Fantastic and fascinating book that is an absolute must-have for anyone with interest in the Golden Age of mysteries, crime, and detection. The Golden Age is one of my favorite periods for detective novels and it was an absolute delight to get an inside view of the Detection Club. It is just a real shame that the Club did not have an Archivist before Martin Edwards and that the Minute Book and other materials from the time of the Club's inception through the Blitz have disappeared. What a treasu ...more

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Dec 09, 2021 Susan in NC rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, tbr-with-gr-groups, audiobook

Enjoyable and interesting, read (on audiobook) with the Reading the Detectives group to prepare for our 2022 challenge to read a different book each month from the original members of the Detection Club.

Martin Edwards, a mystery writer, was President of the Detection Club when he wrote this “biography” of the club’s beginnings in the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s. He covers a great deal of ground, and honestly, I could only follow closely when he discussed the authors and books I was mo ...more

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Nov 04, 2022 Bronwyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, title-a-i, author-a-i, by-men, non-fiction, mystery-detective-suspense, audiobook, history, european, 2022-reads

Man this was so dense and interesting. I feel like it’s something to come back to though, so you can really get it all. Edwards did a *lot* of research and it shows (helps to be the current Detection Club President :) ). This is meticulous and so well done.

I know a decent amount about Christie, and some about Sayers. Otherwise what I know is mainly from the Shedunnit podcast (highly recommend!), so this was a really great way to learn about these authors. I need to get on reading some of these ...more

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May 28, 2022 Jan C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: gr-group-read, 2022, non-fiction

Loved it but it seemed to go on forever. Now I see it was 500+ pages so it kind of makes sense. But I was reading it on the Kindle machine and the particular one I was reading decided to take away any indication of how much is left in the book, what percentage I have read. This was not appreciated as it happened midway in the book!

But for a Golden Age fan it was excellent. Only thing I didn't like was that he spoiled the endings for beaucoup books - some I am reading and some I haven't gotten to ...more

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Jun 03, 2016 Jenn Estepp rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: just-give-me-some-truth, kindling

Finally finished up this one, after reading it for months. And while I admit that non-fiction usually takes me a good bit longer to get through, I don't think Edwards' writing helped the process along. It's exhaustively researched and I do respect that. And his fondness for the subject matter is quite clear. The Detection Club itself and the various members are fascinating in so many ways.

And yet. There's almost too much here and it's thrown together in a way that sometimes seems very haphazard ...more

1 like · Like · see review