A review by johnnyphonny
The Life of Crime: Unravelling the mysteries of fiction's favourite genre by Martin Edwards

informative reflective fast-paced

3.0

Ambitious survey of the history of crime fiction that covers all the usual suspects and quite a few that might’ve flown under the radar of all but the most committed readers. Inevitably there are slightly peculiar (mis)judgements and oversights (the genius Elmore Leonard is dismissed in a single footnote; Stephen King’s mid/late career turn to crime fiction is entirely ignored) but the author seriously knows his stuff and Life of Crime meets most reasonable expectations and will put some names on a lot of people’s reading lists.