Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James

I heard about this one from Steve Donoghue on Booktube. He is a fantastic booktuber, always with loads of controversial opinions and a big smile. He IS enthusiasm, and love him or hate him, one cannot deny the vast variety of books he reads. In my opinion, I would rather listen to him moan about a booktube favourite, than sit and watch the twentieth video claiming the same book is 'amazeballs!". Keep it up, Steve. You're fantastic (and responsible for my HUGE want-to-read list).

Talking about Detective Fiction is a non-fiction book about crime fiction. P.D James, an author I have yet to read (but I have two of her books from my last book haul, so that will be shortly rectified) is a British writer of numerous crime novels.

The start of this book was fantastic. I learnt so much. James discusses the beginning of crime fiction. As a result, I have added a whole bunch of authors to my want-to-read list, including Edgar Alan Poe's crime fiction, which, according to this, helped inspire Arthur Conan Doyle to create Sherlock. That was a surprise!

The writing was completely accessible, and while I found the middle part a bit repetitive, I can't say it was a waste of time. It was interesting seeing aspects that I had worked out for myself with regards to the plotting of crime novels laid out so clearly. Apparently I wasn't kidding or exaggerating when I said I had crime novels down pat.

If there was one thing I was looking forward to seeing in this book (that wasn't there) was a take on more modern crime fiction. The new wave of forensic crime solving was only hinted at, whereas long passages were spent on discussing how the crime novels written between the two world wars captured people's needs at that time. I think I would have also liked to see something (other than a brief chapter on two American authors) about crime fiction from other countries. It was only mentioned that this existed.

I have also, as a result of reading this, decided that my love of crime novels is no longer something I will be ashamed of. An added and unforeseen bonus.

I would recommend this to folks who are avid crime novel readers, or those who might be interested in writing a crime novel.