Thursday, February 17, 2011

Happy birthday, Ronald Knox.

Detection Club member and Catholic convert Monsignor Ronald A. Knox was born today in Leicestershire in 1888. His essay "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes" (published in 1912) and his pastiche "The Adventure of the First Class Carriage" (1947) are favorites among Sherlockians. Knox published his first mystery novel, The Viaduct Murder, in 1925 and his famous Decalogue (with rules for mystery writing such as "not more than one secret room or passage is allowable") in 1929. Although his niece, novelist Penelope Fitzgerald, dubbed his sleuth Miles Bredon a "stick" in The Knox Brothers, I found his timetable mystery The Footsteps at the Lock (1928) to be diverting. Knox died in 1957.

2 comments:

Martin Edwards said...

Just read Body in the Silo- not bad!

Elizabeth Foxwell said...

I'll have to try that one, Martin!