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THE DETECTIVE FICTION REVIEWS OF CHARLES WILLIAMS 1930-1935
by Jared Lobdell, editor
McFarland and Company, February 2003
221 pages
$35.00
ISBN: 0786414545


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It is an unusual task to write a review of a book of reviews. How is one supposed to explain or explore the merit of the review of a book one has not read? The easiest way is to show what role the book can play in society and to whom the book would appeal, as well as provide specific information about the set-up of the book in order to help curious readers.

There are two groups to whom THE DETECTIVE FICTION REVIEWS OF CHARLES WILLIAMS would appeal. One group would be those looking purely for an informative look at the Golden Age of Mysteries, Charles Williams' specific role and how early mystery reviews appeared. This book has the ability to provide plenty of background information; however, it is intended as an academic book.

Therefore, the second group of readers this book would appeal to would be those approaching the topic scholastically. This group would still look at the book in the manner of the informative group, but they would hope this book could help them for papers and other academic endeavors. For example, this book could help form the basis of a paper on how the Golden Age came about, its influence on other literature, how the Golden Age was influenced by other fictional forms and so on. In fact, this book has the ability to support unlimited theses.

The book is set up with an opening chapter exploring Williams' opinion about fiction and writing, followed by several chapters full of reviews. Each review discusses two or three books that have similarities and explores the general theme Williams is portraying. While this does entail that there is only a paragraph or two about each book, it still presents a general opinion of the book.

The element that I enjoyed the most about this book was that I had the chance to read reviews of books that I had read and those that I had not yet read. It was interesting to see how my opinion differed regarding THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE by Agatha Christie, THE WRAITH by Philip MacDonald, THE GREEK COFFIN MYSTERY by Ellery Queen and THE THIN MAN by Dashiell Hammett. It was also interesting to see what Williams said about books I had never heard of before such as CORPSE IN CANONICALS by GDH & M Cole and DAMES ERRANT by George Norsworthy.

Charles Williams was an author of several works including some that could be considered mysteries. In addition to this, he was greatly involved with science fiction and authors such as Tolkien. During the early 1930s, Williams also wrote mystery reviews in which he explored his views of fictional works in addition to the specific books in question.

Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, November 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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