The Life of Crime

‘Magisterial but wickedly entertaining … reliably readable and frequently amusing. It also inspires awe: Edwards combines wide reading with a good memory, meticulous control over his unruly material, critical acumen and sheer bloody persistence.’ ANDREW TAYLOR, THE SPECTATOR ‘As entertaining and illuminating a history of crime and thriller fiction as I’ve ever read.’ IAN RANKIN ‘Impressively scholarly and joyfully anecdotal… it’s hard to imagine this book being superseded for many years to come.’ MORNING STAR ‘Vastly entertaining … [Edwards] plots the development of the genre and the bizarre lives of writers … You’ll find all your favourites here, from Edgar Allan Poe to PD James … But be warned – you’ll end up with a reading list as long as a giant’s arm.’ DENIS MANN, DAILY EXPRESS ‘A magisterial history of mysteries and their creators.’ THE TIMES ‘There is plenty here for mystery readers, whether well-versed in the genre’s history or not —and mystery writers will welcome this book as a resource.’ THE NEW YORK TIMES ‘A magisterial work… THE LIFE OF CRIME does more than just inform, entertain and provoke, it also sends new readers back to old books.’ THE WASHINGTON POST REVIEWS FOR MARTIN EDWARDS: ‘Few, if any, books about crime fiction have provided so much information and insight so enthusiastically and, for the reader, so enjoyably’ THE TIMES ‘Illuminating and entertaining – provides a new way of looking at old favourites. I admire the way that Martin Edwards weaves the sometimes violent, sometimes unlawful, and always gripping true stories of these writers with the equally wild tales they tell in their books.’ LEN DEIGHTON, author of The Ipcress File ‘Forensically sharp and exhaustively informed… Crime fiction is driven by death. In this superbly compendious and entertaining book, Edwards ensures that dozens of authorial corpses are gloriously reborn.’ MARK LAWSON, Guardian