Golden Age detective stories (aka, classic mysteries) focus primarily on the puzzle of the crime. The detective’s approach to solving the crime varies with the character the writer invents.
Perry Mason, Erle Stanley Gardner’s famous lawyer, uses the courtroom to solve his mysteries. Frances and Richard Lockridge’s Mr. and Mrs. North solve their mysteries together.
I’m fond of Stuart Palmer’s exotic Hildegarde Withers (with her wild hats) and her canny skill at solving crimes. Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee) created legendary mysteries and frequently issued challenges to the Reader to solve them before their detective did.
My favorite story in Golden Age Detective Stories (2021) is Cornell Woolrich’s “The Mystery in Room 913” where Woolrich ratchets up the suspense page by page. If you’re the mood for classic mystery stories written by some of the best mystery writers of that era, don’t miss Golden Age Detective Stories! You can’t go wrong with an anthology edited by Otto Penzler! Do you prefer these classic detectives or do you prefer more modern detectives. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction 1
Charlotte Armstrong (Detective: Mike Russell) The Enemy 5
Anthony Boucher (Detective: Sister Ursula) The Stripper 33
Mignon G. Eberhart (Detective: Susan Dare) Postiche 48
Erle Stanley Gardner (Detective: Perry Mason) The Case of the Crimson Kiss 71
H. F. Heard (Detective: Mr. Mycroft) The Enchanted Garden 123
Baynard Kendrick (Detective: Captain Duncan Maclain) 5-4=Murderer 155
Frances Richard Lockridge (Detectives: Mr. & Mrs. North) There’s Death for Remembrance 172
Stuart Palmer (Detective: Hildegarde Withers) The Monkey Murder 190
Ellery Queen (Detective: Ellery Queen) The Adventure of the African Traveler 209
Patrick Quentin (Detectives: Peter & Iris Duluth) Puzzle for Poppy 232
Clayton Rawson (Detective: The Great Merlini) From Another World 249
Craig Rice (Detective: John J. Malone) Good-bye, Good-bye! 281
Mary Roberts Rinehart (Detective: Hilda Adams) Locked Doors 307
Cornell Woolrich (Detective: Striker) The Mystery in Room 913 358
I like these on occasion but prefer more modern writers. I also prefer more noirish writers of the thirties and forties such as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.
Steve, Chandler wrote “The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers.” Chandler’s critique of the “classic” Golden Age detective story goes beyond a lack of realistic characters and plot; Chandler complains about contrivances and formulas and an inability to move beyond them.
Chandler praises Hammett: “Hammett took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley; it doesn’t have to stay there forever, but it was a good idea to begin by getting as far as possible from Emily Post’s idea of how a well-bred debutante gnaws a chicken wing.” Later he lauds Hammett (and by implication himself) for giving “murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not with hand-wrought dueling pistols, curare and tropical fish.”
Is there anyone more noirish than Cornell Woolrich?
Mysti, Cornell Woolrich is noirish, but so is Gil Brewer, Jim Thompson, Megan Abbott, and Patricia Highsmith.
Don’t dismiss Mysti’s point too quickly…there is no one That Much More in love/hate with doom than Woolrich. I suspect the French Serie Noire and references to roman noir took at least some inspiration from the early popularity of Woolrich’s various “BLACK” novels, though am choosing at the moment to be too lazy to Go Look for the evidence.
Todd, I’m a huge fan of Cornell Woolrich. Sure, his work is noirish, but Woolrich knew how to amp up suspense in a story or a novel to excruciating levels!
In my early days as a mystery reader in the 60s and 70s I read a lot of Golden Age stuff. My introduction to mystery fiction started with writers like Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, and John Dickson Carr, almost exclusively novels rather than stories. Which explains why I’ve read hardly any of the stories in this anthology. Then, around the mid-70s, I was hit by the private eye bug and the Golden Age was mostly over for me. I do prefer the more modern stuff. To me, the Golden Age stories can be enjoyable, but too technical. This anthology looks really appealing and I’ve already put a library hold on it, and I’ll see if it takes me back.
Michael, like you I binged on Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, and John Dickson Carr back in the 1960s. Then I discovered Carter Brown, Mike Shayne, and Perry Mason. In the 1970s, I caught up with Hammett and Chandler. Now, I read Golden Age mysteries in small doses.
Michael and George, same here!
As a student in the 60s I tried to read as much of these authors as I could but from the 70s I concentrated on SF.
OK, sometimes I found a cheap detective story while searching for SF in the London second hand book shops and markets and if it wasn’t too expensive I’d take it with me.
Wolf, some of my reading choices back in the Sixties and Seventies depended on availability of some books. Agatha Christie paperbacks were everywhere in the 1960s, the same with Queen and Carr. Now, only Christie shows up on Book Sale tables. Plenty of Private Eye series flourished in the 1970s so I stocked up on them, too.
Same as the rest on here. At one time, I read them exclusively but not much nowadays.
Patti, I need to be in the right mood to read Golden Age mystery stories. I enjoy them, but in small doses.
I’ve read a lot of Golden Age short stories in recent years – Otto’s anthologies and the British ones edited by Martin Edwards in particular, plus other locked room collections. In general, I prefer more modern stuff, but I will always make time for collections like this one.
Jeff, like you I enjoy Martin Edward’s anthologies along with Otto’s.
A great lineup here, George. My favorite is the Armstrong, who I fear has become a forgotten writer. Close on it’s heels is the Craig Rice, followed by the Queen and Rawson. Penzler’s anthologies often have a few tales that just don’t work for me, but not in this case!
Jerry, I enjoyed GOLDEN AGE DETECTIVE STORIES and I’ll bet you will too!
I’ve read most, but not all of these authors. I enjoyed the Hildegarde Withers movies I’ve seen, but forget the actress who played her. I still have many of the Craig Rice books, etc. I know I”ve owned a clayton rawson book or 2 but don’t remember reading him or the Patrick Quentin
Maggie,Edna May Oliver starred in the first three screen adaptations, produced by RKO Radio Pictures, and is considered by fans of the film series the definitive Miss Withers. When Oliver left RKO in 1935 to sign with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, RKO attempted to continue the series with Helen Broderick and then ZaSu Pitts, but Oliver’s presence was sorely missed and the films were poorly received.
When reading novels, I generally prefer older mysteries (not only Golden Age, but into the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s) to new mystery novels. For short stories, I generally like newer fiction over Golden Age stories. But I haven’t been reading short stories that long, only the last 3 or 4 years, so I am sure I will find many short stories in all time periods that I like.
I will be getting a copy of this anthology eventually. I have enjoyed all of the Charlotte Armstrong stories I have read. I have read several of these authors but mostly novels, not short stories.
Tracy, sometimes I discover writers new to me in these anthologies and I follow up by checking out their novels and other short stories they’ve written.
The only author I have not heard of is H.F. Heard 🙃. And it reminds me I need to pick up a Woolrich.
Neeru, I’ve read most of Cornell Woolrich’s short stories and he’s a master of the form. Suspense, Suspense, Suspense!