It’s true that, when the chips are down, it’s the story that counts. Who doesn’t love a great story? People will forgive terrible writing, cardboard characters (only just), and leaden dialogue provided the tale that’s told is sensational. Just look at authors like Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer. Their prose would trouble a teenager, their …
Colin Dexter died on the first day of Spring, 2017: March 21st. He was a good age, eighty-six years old. Most of his life was spent as a teacher, but Dexter will not be remembered primarily as an educator. He was the author of a series of intricate detective stories set in his native city …
It was always called Crime Fiction in the UK and Mystery Fiction in the USA. Then, along came the internet and definitions blurred. Dozens of linked genres and sub-genres muddy the waters. You have detective stories, murder mysteries, whodunnits, hardboiled, cosies, historical, noir, private detectives… The list is practically endless and overlaps all the time. It’s perfectly …