I finished The Great Courses class called "The Secret of Great Mystery and Suspense Fiction" the other day, thirty-six lectures that totaled close to nineteen hours in all. At first I skipped around a bit, but after I started watching the lectures in the order in which they are numbered, their interconnectedness made it easier to understand the evolution of mystery and suspense novels as it was being presented by the lecturer. I highly recommend the course to anyone who has access to it; it is well worth the time required.
Whenever a name, a book, or a concept was new to me I made a few brief notes that I want to share here, partially for my own record-keeping, but mostly in hopes that some of you might discover a new author by scrolling through the names and comments shown below:
Mystery milestones:
- Father of Detective Fiction: Edgar Allan Poe
- Mother of Detective Fiction: Anna Katherine Greene
- Author of First Detective Series: Ebenezer Gryce
- First Fictional American Detective: Amelia Butterworth novels begun in 1878 by Anna Katherine Greene
Relating to Other Early Fictional Female Detectives:
- Harriet Vane - created in 1930 by Dorothy L. Sayers
- 1972 novel Private Eye by P.D. James
- Kate Delafield - first lesbian detective - created by Katherine V. Forest in 1984 when she began the Kate Delafield series
Important Contributors to Native American Mysteries:
- Linda Hogan: Mean Spirit - 1990
- Sherman Alexi: Indian Killer - 1996
- Mardi Oakley Medawar: Murder on the Rez
- Tony Hillerman
Some Groundbreaking European Mystery Writers:
- Ferdinand von Schirach: German author of The Collini Case
- Bornhard Schlink: German author of the "Self Trilogy")
- Jakob Arjouni: German author of Kismet and Brother Kamal
- Carlo Emilio Gadda: Italian author of That Awful Mess on Via Merculana, the "anti-detective novel" written in 1957
- Leonardo Sciascia: Italian author of the Sicilian novels The Day of the Owl (1961) and Equal Danger (1970)
- Andrea Camilleri: Italian author of The Shape of Water and the Inspector Montallbano series
- Manuel Vasquez Montalbon: Spanish author of An Olympic Death and the Detective Pepé Carvalho books
Notable African-American Mystery Writers:
- Chester Himes: 1950s writer of "absurd" mysteries set in Harlam
- Barbara Neely: author of the Blanche White novels
- Walter Mosley: prolific author best known for his Easy Rawlins novels
- Valerie Wilson Wesley: writer of the hardboiled "Hayle novels" such as When Death Comes Stealing
- Attica Locke: author of the "Jay Porter novels" set in Houston
Notable American Latino Mystery Writers:
- Rolando Hinojosa: author of novels such as The Valley (1973), Fair Gentlemen of Belkin County, Korean Love Songs, Partners in Crime (1985), and Ask a Policeman in addition to the Rafé Buenrostro detective novel series
- Rudolfo Anaya: author of the Sonny Bacco four-book series
- Lucha Corpi: Eulogy for a Brown Angel (a Detective Gloria Demasco book), Cactus Blood, Crimson Moon, and Death at Solstice
- Hector Tobar: The Tattooed Soldier
These notes cover about half of what I jotted down while watching the lectures. I plan to prepare a second post that will cover "Nordic Noir and Mystery," "Latin American Mysteries," "Japanese Mysteries," "African Mysteries," and "Women Mystery Writers." In the meantime, I hope you find something here that leads your mystery reading in an unexpected direction or two.
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| Course Lecturer David Schmid |
Just look at all the authors the course introduces you to! Sounds like an informative and interesting course, Sam. Looking forward to your future posts. :)
ReplyDeleteIt certainly opened my eyes to some new possibilities I probably would never have heard otherwise, Jen. The class really changed my 2021 reading in a way I didn't see coming.
DeleteI did several of the "Great Courses" years ago and I still get emails from them wanting me to sign up for more. Based on your recommendation of this course, I just might. Every course that I ever did with them was extremely well-researched and presented.
ReplyDeleteThis one is available free on the Kanopy app, Dorothy. All it takes is your library card.
DeleteI bet this course was incredibly interesting. I wish such a thing would be televised, I would be hooked. Over here we get told that the first detective story was The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - 1868. I'm guessing that would the first 'British' detective story because Poe was definitely earlier than that. (1840s?) My favourite books from your lists are the Italian Montalbano series. Oddly enough I prefer the Italian TV series to the books although they are good too.
ReplyDeleteThe Moonstone was noted as a milestone, but you're right in that the Poe mysteries came first...as I recall, there were three of them, I think all set in France. I've only read a little from Italian mystery writers, so that's definitely an area I will be exploring.
DeleteI feel like I should have heard of Anna Katherine Greene but haven't .... Have you tried one of her books?
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried one yet, but I think they are all in the public domain and can pretty easily be downloaded as e-books, if your interested. I want to work in one of hers pretty soon.
DeleteI've done several "Great Courses" on audio... all were excellent! My husband has enjoyed several of their history courses that have video, too. Audible offers many courses and I'm happy to see more and more of them in my library, too. Lots of new-to-me mystery authors here!
ReplyDeleteThis particular one was a real eye-opener for me. I'm going to do one more post similar to this one that has another whole group of authors to consider...from a few more sub-genres.
DeleteI would be most interested in exploring more European Mystery writers and also African-American writers.
ReplyDeleteI have read The Collini Case by Schirach. A very interesting book. And have read two or three books by Camilleri. I have an early book by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Tattoo, but haven't read it.
I have read one Barbara Neely and several books by Walter Mosley, but none by Chester Himes.
The course sounds very worthwhile and like it has a lot of depth.
You've read some of the authors I haven't tried yet, Tracy. I've read a lot of Walter Mosley's stuff, the one Himes, and two of the Native American novels on the list, but I think that's about it.
DeleteIt really is a good course, but I wish I hadn't messed around with the order of the lectures at the beginning, because there was definitely a cohesive plan in presenting in the order they are numbered. It just makes more sense that way, and it's easier to see how the influencers make their way from one generation and one country to another.
I'm almost afraid to check out any of these authors on this list for fear of adding to my already too long TBR list. ;D
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a problem, Lark. My reading year is turning into something much different from what I expected it would be.
DeleteHope it's ok to add a comment here... I just wanted to say 'me too' to your last sentence, Sam. In fact, I'm intrigued enough to try to do a post about it before the end of June as a 'First six months of 2021 and how it's gone' kind of post.
DeleteDefinitely OK, Cath. I love these conversations. Your idea of a post on the subject would be interesting. I suspect that all of us who regularly read and comment on other book blogs are experiencing the same things. I need to go back and look at a list of the books I've read to see how many resulted from me seeing the on other blogs. I can't imagine how many books and writers I would have completely missed out on if not for book blogs like yours and a bunch of others. We all seemed to have formed our own international book club...and it really works well.
DeleteThanks, Sam. I love these conversations too and you're right we do seem to have formed a little international book club and it works wonderfully, I love it. The exchange of ideas about new books we've discovered influences what I read all the time and has probably changed my reading habits this year. Well, I know it has. It's an amazing thing.
DeleteCath...thought I would mention this even though it has nothing to do with books. I've been reading about your country's new news channel: GB News and the mixed reception it is receiving. I just discovered that it streams for free online and is not blocked in this country. Sky News has done that for years, but that is the exception. I've watched a bit of GB News in the last couple of days, and I've found it interesting. It's a little rough around the edges, but that is being cleaned up rapidly. I particular like listening to Neil Oliver, the Scottish archaeologist who, I think, makes an excellent presenter.
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