附註:Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-216) and index.
1. Modernity as Context -- 2. Knowing Others Better (than They Know You) -- 3. Detectives Reading the Other -- 4. Tradecraft: The Systematization and Professionalization of Duplicity -- 5. Costs and Benefits -- 6. Doing Things with Mystery Fiction -- 7. Some Readers Reading.
摘要:"This analysis of the genre shows that the fictional world portrayed by the mystery writer parallels the actual world of the reader. Because daily life is so implausible, readers willingly suspend disbelief as they are absorbed by the pages of detective fiction. This apparent unity of the fictional thriller and veritable circumstance produces a code of modernity that is the essence of the genre." "In the light of this concept of modernity Mystery Fiction and Modern Life examines works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, John Buchan, Eric Ambler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald, Tony Hillerman, Agatha Christie, Helen MacInnes, Patricia Cornwell, Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, Anthony Price, and others." -- Provided by publisher.
