Books: "The Life of Crime"

I just finished reading The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators by Martin Edwards.

This 2022 release is a 622-page comprehensive history of mystery writing, from the eighteenth century to the present. Each chapter contains numerous footnotes, and the book includes a bibliography and two indexes at the back: an Index of Titles and an Index of Names. 724 pages total.

Edwards covers hundreds of authors, many of whom I was not familiar with. He often includes details on a writer's background and experiences that helped shape their writing, and frequently compares and contrasts one author (or novel) with another. It's all done in a very readable style that doesn't feel too dry and academic.

Some authors receive quite a bit of coverage--Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Raymond Chandler, for example--while others receive only a passing mention (Michael Connelly and Louise Penny). Philip Kerr and Andrea Camilleri, two among my favorites, do not appear at all.

Goodreads currently gives it a 4.19 average rating, but I'd probably bump that up a little. If you're a fan of crime and mystery novels, I think you'll enjoy The Life of Crime. And you'll probably add several authors and books to your to-be-read list as a result.