Clues 36.1: Christie, Conan Doyle, Green, Hammett, Ray, Silva, and more.

Clues 36.1 (2018) has been published; order the issue from McFarland. Abstracts are listed below.

Updates, 3-24-18 and 6-16-18. The issue is now available on Google Play, Nook., and Kindle.

Introduction Janice M. Allan (University of Salford)
 

E Pluribus Unum: A Transnational Reading of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express

Stewart King (Monash University)

This article questions both the Englishness and generic stasis ascribed to Agatha Christie and argues that her Murder on the Orient Express (1933) displays an inherent transnationalism that questions the strict taxonomies supposedly separating the English clue-puzzle from the American private-eye novel.

Psychogeography and the Detective: Re-evaluating the Significance of Space in Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced

Sarah Martin (University of Chester)

The author discusses the nature of the village space and its influential role in plot, character, and structure of Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced. The concept of psychogeography unearths the true nature of space and its influence on the construction and preservation of social identity in the book.

Do We Know His Methods? Ratiocination in the Works of Arthur Conan Doyle

Jackie Shead

This article discusses Arthur Conan Doyle’s explanation of Sherlock Holmes’s methods, contrasting them with his presentation of the detective in action. It explores contradictions in the Holmes stories, suggesting Conan Doyle’s investment in a hyperrational sleuth is at odds with his intuitive understanding of detective methodology.

Playing with Narrative Technique, Pushing Generic Boundaries: Clare Mackintosh’s I Let You Go

Heather Duerre Humann (Florida Gulf Coast University)

Clare Mackintosh’s I Let You Go (2014) challenges and disrupts narrative boundaries, subverting readers’ expectations and causing them to question what they had taken for granted. The book also destabilizes generic boundaries by veering away from the traditional whodunit and incorporating traits of confessional literature and social protest fiction.

Dressing Up: Social Climbing, Criminality, and Fashion in Anna Katharine Green’s Behind Closed Doors

Claire Meldrum (Sheridan College)

The author discusses the role of the social climber in Anna Katharine Green’s Behind Closed Doors (1888), examining the role played by costume and dress in facilitating social performance and upward social movement in nineteenth-century American society. Imposture and criminality are considered as well as the parameters of the authentic and inauthentic in a period of widespread conspicuous consumption and mass production.

“It’s Never Twins?”—It’s Always Twins: The Notting Hill Mystery (1865) and the Specter of Twinship in Early Detective Fiction

Wieland Schwanebeck (TU-Dresden)

Twins appear remarkably often in early Victorian detective fiction. Charles Felix’s recently rediscovered Notting Hill Mystery (1865) illustrates that twins always run the risk of exceeding the grasp of the detective’s comprehension, as well as that of contemporary science, and were thus integral as heuristic aids in the genre’s formation.

Diamonds and Racism in Dashiell Hammett’s The Dain Curse: An Intertextual Study

Matthew Bernstein (Los Angeles City College/APEX Academy High School)

Written and published between Dashiell Hammett’s groundbreaking novels Red Harvest (1927) and The Maltese Falcon (1929), the controversial The Dain Curse (1928) has garnered little critical attention. However, the textual variants between the pulp installments and the Knopf publication—particularly elements related to racism—reveal that the novel is a significant fulcrum for understanding Hammett’s San Francisco.

The Postcolonial Sleuth for Adolescents: Rereading Satyajit Ray’s Feluda Narratives
Pinaki Roy (Raigani University)

Well-known filmmaker Satyajit Ray (1921–92) created Bengali detective Feluda (aka Pradosh C. Mitter), who appears in a series of novels popular with young adult readers. This essay offers a postcolonial reading of select examples from Ray’s corpus.

Daniel Silva’s Terrorism Fiction

David Seed (Liverpool University)

From Prince of Fire (2005) onward, author Daniel Silva examines different aspects of contemporary terrorism. This represents a refocusing of history in the making rather than the retrospection of his earlier novels, as historical circumstances contextualize his subjects from the Middle East to the new Russia and the trade in stolen artifacts.

Mothers Hunting Murderers: Representations of Motherhood in Broadchurch and Happy Valley
Shauna Wilton (University of Alberta)
This article explores the emancipatory potential of the detective mother in the British television series Broadchurch and Happy Valley. It argues that, although mothers are often the objects of social and moral scrutiny, and detectives are often the agents enforcing social norms, the combination of these two roles in one character can both empower women and mothers as well as challenge stereotypical gender dichotomies.

REVIEWS

Audrey Parente. Once a Pulp Man: The Secret Life of Judson P. Philips as Hugh Pentecost.

Rebekah Buchanan

Margaret Kinsman. Sara Paretsky: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction. Rachel Schaffer

Phyllis M. Betz. Katherine V. Forrest: A Critical Appreciation. Susan Rowland

Casey A. Cothran and Mercy Cannon, eds. New Perspectives on Detective Fiction: Mystery Magnified. Alexander N. Howe

Louise Nilsson, David Damrosch, and Theo D’haen, eds. Crime Fiction as World Literature. Mary Stoecklein