Dennis Lynds - Freak

A wealthy man, owner of computer company hires Dan Fortune to find his missing son who escaped somewhere with his girl. Dan Fortune accepts the offer of a job and stumbles on a web of murder, betrayal, and tragedy. Quite good crime novel from Michael Collins (1924 -2005), winner of many awards and writer of Dan Fortune mysteries. As is written in book 'Private Eyes : 101 Knights', many critics believe Dan Fortune to be the culmination of a maturing process that transformed the private eye from the naturalistic Spade, through the romantic Marlowe, and the psychological Archer to the sociological Fortune.

He is also one of the best private eyes among Lawrence Block, Elmore Leonard, Bill Pronzini, Robert Parker, Joseph Hansen and Joe Gores.

R. Austin Freeman - A Certain Dr Thorndyke

In this novel one man on a ship to Africa buries his friend and assume his identity. Then he finds on the journey home a nice girl and fall in love with her. But he is also a criminal and wants to escape the law, although he isn't quite a criminal, because his sister father stole the gems, and in the process of events, after careful investigation by Dr Thorndyke they are in no worry of arresting. R. Austin Freeman (1862 - 1943) was an inventor of inverted detective story, when we see the crime first and the following of criminal, and in the second part investigation of inspector. R. Austin Freeman was best known for his novels about forensic doctor-investigator Dr Thorndyke and is probably progenitor of all these modern forensic crime writers. Raymond Chandler praised his work, writing in a letter to Hamish Hamilton : "This man Austin Freeman is a wonderful performer. He has no equal in his genre and he is also a much better writer than you might think, if you were superficially inclined, because in spite of the immense leisure of his writing he accomplishes an even suspense which is quite unexpected."

He also wrote an essay The Art Of The Detective Story, in which he said : "The reader had seen the crime committed, knew all about the criminal, and was in possession of all the facts. It would have seemed that there was nothing left to tell, but I calculated that the reader would be so occupied with the crime that he would overlook the evidence. And so it turned out. The second part, which described the investigation of the crime, had to most readers the effect of new matter."

Freeman paid a great deal of attention to details, and carried out the experiments described in his books to ensure that they worked and would give the expected results. He also went to the trouble of visiting the places he wrote about so that the details in his descriptions were correct.

De Balcam says that "Freeman displays a mastery of craftsmanship" in every story, and that he always used the language of the trade concerned. Freeman is "a man who writes of things that he has seen, handled and understood, and not of things that he has met only in print, or in a hazy, inattentive observation". This is a critical aspect of Freeman - he tested the methods he used.

Elizabeth Sanxay Holding - Lady Killer

Solid crime novel about group of men taking a cruise on the ship. One of them is very curious, and then finds a dead womans body in a cabin of the ship. But nobody believes it and when other things happen, she grow more and more baffled. Why is she so curious? I thought in the end she will prove to be a murderer, but ex-cop who is on the ship describe her as a sick woman looking everywhere for a murder or some crime. In the end it reveals that another woman killed her husband lover, who was planning to get her money and take away to some remote place. Raymond Chandler praised her, calling her 'the top suspense writer of them all'. And literary critic Anthony Boucher said 'that for subtlety, realistic conviction, incredible economy, she's in a class by herself'.

Craig Rice - The Big Midget Murders

Craig Rice (1908 - 1957) was an unusual character in history of crime fiction. She perfectly blended hard-boiled crime fiction and surreal, screwball comedy. Her protagonists are Jake Justus, press agent, Helene Brand, party animal and Joseph Malone, an alcoholic lawyer. There is funny policeman Von Flanagan who barely has no involvement in his case, and is constantly whining about his wish to be somebody else than a policeman. In this particular novel, midget was killed after the show, strangled with a stockings. Trio of detectives decide to remove his body from the casino, and there starts funny incidents, which all lead to hilarious situations. Book critic wrote of her as 'Dorothy Parker of detective fiction, she wrote the binge and lived the hangover'. Unfortunately, she was an alcoholic and made two suicide attempts, before overdosing on barbiturates and alcohol in 1957.

                                                                

Harry Stephen Keeler - The Five Silver Buddhas

This is probably the weirdest crime novel that I read. It revolves around man who bought at an auction figure of buddha, and then story develops as other men bought four other ones. As it turns out, these figurines bring bad luck and in the novel we see some secret weapon stolen from rich man, which could help the war of white people versus yellow. Neil Gaiman said of the Keeler that he was probably best bad writer of all time but that he loves him. All in all, an atypical murder mystery, but rather funny.

A Companion To Crime Fiction - Charles J. Rzepka

This is very informative and insightful book on crime fiction, from the 19th century to 21st century. Great explanation how crime fiction evolved from real life crime cases, good section on golden age of detective story, nice chapter on hard-boiled writers, and on roman noir. There is also very good section on metaphysical detective story that I personally found very intruiging, and chapter about true crime. But section on film and comic books is rather limited, and there are some of my favorite authors who are not listed at all, but I guess that is the case for  these kind of books, a little for everything and nothing for something. But although it's written in somewhat dry, scholarly tone, I found it very interesting and can recommend it for those little bit more interested in crime fiction aside for reading crime novels.