53-535: Maisie Dobbs is a 2003 mystery novel by Jacqueline Winspear . Set in England between 1910 and 1929, it features the title character Maisie Dobbs, a private investigator building her business in the aftermath of the First World War. Generally well received by critics, mostly because of Maisie's strength of character, the novel was nominated for several awards and received the 2003 Agatha Award for Best First Novel. It
106-490: A crime scene with no indication as to how the intruder could have entered or left, i.e., a locked room. Following other conventions of classic detective fiction, the reader is normally presented with the puzzle and all of the clues, and is encouraged to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed in a dramatic climax. Kirkus Reviews Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media ,
159-491: A discreet investigator , teaches Maisie as much as he can about psychology , science , and anything else Maisie is willing to learn. When Maisie becomes old enough she attends Girton College at Cambridge University , but threats of war soon intervene. World War I intensifies, and the pressures of war can be felt in Maisie's England. Deciding that the war efforts are extremely important to her and her country, Maisie volunteers as
212-595: A new angle on the investigation, so as to bring about a final outcome different from the one originally devised by the investigators. In the legal thriller, court proceedings play a very active, if not to say decisive part in a case reaching its ultimate solution. Erle Stanley Gardner popularized the courtroom novel in the 20th century with his Perry Mason series. Contemporary authors of legal thrillers include Michael Connelly , Linda Fairstein , John Grisham , John Lescroart , Paul Levine , Lisa Scottoline and Scott Turow . Many detective stories have police officers as
265-420: A nurse at the front, where she meets a young man, with whom she falls in love. Part of the mystery surrounding Maisie is what happens to the young man. After the war, Maisie apprentices with Blanche in his investigative work. In 1929, after Blanche has retired, Maisie opens her own investigation business. Her first seemingly open-and-shut case involves her in a mystery surrounding something known as The Retreat,
318-575: A respect for human reason and the ability to solve problems. Perhaps a reason that mystery fiction was unheard of before the 19th century was due in part to the lack of true police forces. Before the Industrial Revolution , many towns would have constables and a night watchman at best. Naturally, the constable would be aware of every individual in the town, and crimes were either solved quickly or left unsolved entirely. As people began to crowd into cities, police forces became institutionalized, and
371-450: A sociological bent, exploring the meaning of his characters' places in society and the impact society had on people. Full of commentary and clipped prose, his books were more intimate than those of his predecessors, dramatizing that crime can happen in one's own living room. The PI novel was a male-dominated field in which female authors seldom found publication until Marcia Muller , Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton were finally published in
424-455: A solution achieved by intellect or intuition rather than police procedure, with order restored in the end, honorable characters, and a setting in a closed community. The murders are often committed by less violent tools such as poison and the wounds inflicted are rarely if ever used as clues. The writers who innovated and popularized the genre include Agatha Christie , Dorothy L. Sayers and Elizabeth Daly . The legal thriller or courtroom novel
477-487: A starred review from Publishers Weekly and was called an inspired debut. It was also featured as one of the 12 best mystery books of 2003 in Publishers Weekly . In addition, Maisie Dobbs was chosen as one of School Library Journal' s best adult books for high school students in 2003. Not everyone was impressed with Winspear's debut novel. Kirkus Reviews stated: "Winspear rarely attempts to elevate her prose past
530-465: A suspicious home for veterans of the war. Maisie must act fast when she learns that Lady Compton's own son has signed over his fortune to The Retreat and is about to take asylum there. With the help of Billy Beale, a caretaker at her office and veteran of the Great War himself, she is able to infiltrate The Retreat. As Maisie uncovers the mystery of The Retreat she is also confronted with her own ghosts from
583-439: Is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective (such as Sherlock Holmes ), who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to
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#1732858347811636-414: Is a literary genre that recounts real crimes committed by real people, almost half focusing on serial killers . Criticized by many as being insensitive to those personally acquainted with the incidents, it is often categorized as trash culture . Having basis on reality, it shares more similarities with docufiction than the mystery genre. Unlike fiction of the kind, it does not focus much on the identity of
689-439: Is also credited with continuing interest in mystery fiction. Interest in mystery fiction continues to this day partly because of various television shows which have used mystery themes and the many juvenile and adult novels which continue to be published. There is some overlap with "thriller" or "suspense" novels and authors in those genres may consider themselves mystery novelists. Comic books and graphic novels have carried on
742-447: Is also related to detective fiction. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters. In this way, the legal system provides the framework for the legal thriller as much as the system of modern police work does for the police procedural. The legal thriller usually starts its business with the court proceedings following the closure of an investigation, often resulting in
795-490: Is headquartered in New York City . Kirkus Reviews confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction , nonfiction , and young readers' literature . Kirkus Reviews , published on the first and 15th of each month, previews books before their publication. Kirkus reviews over 10,000 titles per year. Virginia Kirkus was hired by Harper & Brothers to establish a children's book department in 1926. In 1932,
848-450: Is no crime involved. This usage was common in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, whose titles such as Dime Mystery , Thrilling Mystery , and Spicy Mystery offered what were then described as complicated to solve and weird stories: supernatural horror in the vein of Grand Guignol . That contrasted with parallel titles of the same names which contained conventional hardboiled crime fiction. The first use of "mystery" in that sense
901-450: Is often thought to be his masterpiece. In 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes , whose mysteries are said to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity in this genre. In 1901 Maurice Leblanc created gentleman burglar, Arsène Lupin , whose creative imagination rivaled the "deduction" of Sherlock Holmes, who was disparagingly included in some Lupin stories under obvious pseudonyms. The genre began to expand near
954-595: Is one of the first examples of the modern style of fictional private detective. This character is described as an "'Everyman' detective meant to challenge the detective-as-superman that Holmes represented." By the late 1920s, Al Capone and the Mob were inspiring not only fear, but piquing mainstream curiosity about the American crime underworld. Popular pulp fiction magazines like Black Mask capitalized on this, as authors such as Carrol John Daly published violent stories that focused on
1007-586: Is the first in the series of Maisie Dobbs novels. Maisie becomes a maid at the Belgravia Mansion of Lady Rowan Compton in 1910 at thirteen years old, after her mother dies, and she must help her father make ends meet. Soon after getting caught in Lady Compton's library fulfilling her joy of reading and learning, Maisie is introduced to Maurice Blanche, close friend of the Comptons, and becomes his pupil. Blanche,
1060-613: The Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene pseudonyms respectively (and were later written by his daughter, Harriet Adams , and other authors). The 1920s also gave rise to one of the most popular mystery authors of all time, Agatha Christie , whose works include Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937), and the world's best-selling mystery And Then There Were None (1939). The massive popularity of pulp magazines in
1113-477: The 1930s and 1940s increased interest in mystery fiction. Pulp magazines decreased in popularity in the 1950s with the rise of television , so much that the numerous titles available then are reduced to two today: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine —both now published by Dell Magazines , a division of Crosstown Publications. The detective fiction author Ellery Queen ( pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee )
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#17328583478111166-454: The Great War and 1920s England. While recovering from an accident that broke her arm and crushed her shoulder, Winspear completed over half of Maisie Dobbs with just one hand on the keyboard. She sent out sample chapters and proposals to thirty literary agents and received several phone calls back within a few weeks. Within a few months she had signed a contract with an agent and sold the book by
1219-436: The best-selling author Michael Connelly,"Chandler credited Hammett with taking the mystery out of the drawing-room and putting it out on the street where it belongs." In the late 1930s, Raymond Chandler updated the form with his private detective Philip Marlowe , who brought a more intimate voice to the detective than the more distanced "operative's report" style of Hammett's Continental Op stories. Despite struggling through
1272-465: The common romance, and what might have been a journey through a strata of England between the wars is instead just simple, convenient and contrived." NPR book critic Maureen Corrigan noted that the coincidences in the plot are too "wopping", but commented that the secondary characters are "winning" and Maisie herself is what truly draws readers in as "part clairvoyant , part intellectual, and part new age therapist". Mystery fiction Mystery
1325-496: The crime scene. The genre was established in the 19th century. Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) is considered the first locked-room mystery; since then, other authors have used the scheme. John Dickson Carr was recognized as a master of the genre and his The Hollow Man was recognized by a panel of 17 mystery authors and reviewers as the best locked-room mystery of all time in 1981. The crime in question typically involves
1378-504: The crime was solved, while mystery fiction concentrates on the identity of the culprit and how the crime was committed, a distinction that separated And Then There Were None from other works of Agatha Christie . A common subgenre of detective fiction is the Whodunit . Whodunits experienced an increase in popularity during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction of the 1920s-1940s, when it was
1431-410: The crime. In the 1940s the police procedural evolved as a new style of detective fiction. Unlike the heroes of Christie, Chandler, and Spillane, the police detective was subject to error and was constrained by rules and regulations. As Gary Huasladen says in his book Places for Dead Bodies , "not all the clients were insatiable bombshells, and invariably there was life outside the job." The detective in
1484-556: The culprit and has no red herrings or clues, but often emphasizes how the culprit was caught and their motivations behind their actions. Cozy mysteries began in the late 20th century as a reinvention of the Golden Age whodunit; these novels generally shy away from violence and suspense and frequently feature female amateur detectives. Modern cozy mysteries are frequently, though not necessarily in either case, humorous and thematic. This genre features minimal violence, sex and social relevance,
1537-509: The department was eliminated as an economic measure. However, within a year, Louise Raymond, the secretary Kirkus hired, had the department running again. Kirkus, however, had left and soon established her own book review service. Initially, she arranged to get galley proofs of "20 or so" books in advance of their publication; almost 80 years later, the service was receiving hundreds of books weekly and reviewing about 100. Initially titled Bulletin by Kirkus' Bookshop Service from 1933 to 1954,
1590-455: The detective's attempt to solve the mystery. There may also be subsidiary puzzles, such as why the crime was committed, and they are explained or resolved during the story. This format is the inversion of the more typical "whodunit", where all of the details of the perpetrator of the crime are not revealed until the story's climax. Martin Hewitt , created by British author Arthur Morrison in 1894,
1643-422: The early 20th century, many credit Ellis Peters 's The Cadfael Chronicles (1977–1994) for popularizing what would become known as the historical mystery. The locked-room mystery is a subgenre of detective fiction. The crime—almost always murder—is committed in circumstances under which it was seemingly impossible for the perpetrator to commit the crime and/or evade detection in the course of getting in and out of
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1696-597: The editorial head of Kirkus until 2006 and modifying the review format and style for improved readability, concision, accuracy, and impact. Kirkus Reviews was sold to The New York Review of Books in 1970 and subsequently sold by the Review to Barbara Bader and Josh Rubins, who served also as the publication's editors. In 1985, magazine consultant James B. Kobak acquired Kirkus Reviews . David LeBreton bought Kirkus from Kobak in 1993. BPI Communications , owned by Dutch publisher VNU , bought Kirkus from LeBreton in 1999. At
1749-588: The end of 2009, the company announced the end of operations for Kirkus . The journal was purchased from VNU (by then renamed The Nielsen Company , or Nielson N.V.) on February 10, 2010, by businessman Herbert Simon . Terms were not disclosed. The company was thereafter renamed Kirkus Media, and book industry veteran Marc Winkelman was made publisher. Kirkus Reviews has a traditional program of reviewing that does not require payment for reviews. Kirkus Reviews also offers an Indie program that allows book authors to purchase, but not modify or influence, reviews that
1802-483: The form again with his detective Lew Archer . Archer, like Hammett's fictional heroes, was a camera eye, with hardly any known past. "Turn Archer sideways, and he disappears," one reviewer wrote. Two of Macdonald's strengths were his use of psychology and his beautiful prose, which was full of imagery. Like other 'hardboiled' writers, Macdonald aimed to give an impression of realism in his work through violence, sex and confrontation. The 1966 movie Harper starring Paul Newman
1855-438: The late 1970s and early 1980s. Each author's detective, also female, was brainy and physical and could hold her own. Their acceptance, and success, caused publishers to seek out other female authors. These works are set in a time period considered historical from the author's perspective, and the central plot involves the solving of a mystery or crime (usually murder). Though works combining these genres have existed since at least
1908-447: The main characters. These stories may take a variety of forms, but many authors try to realistically depict the routine activities of a group of police officers who are frequently working on more than one case simultaneously, providing a stark contrast to the detective-as-superhero archetype of Sherlock Holmes. Some of these stories are whodunits; in others, the criminal is known, and the police must gather enough evidence to charge them with
1961-453: The mayhem and injustice surrounding the criminals, not the circumstances behind the crime. Very often, no actual mystery even existed: the books simply revolved around justice being served to those who deserved harsh treatment, which was described in explicit detail." The overall theme these writers portrayed reflected "the changing face of America itself." In the 1930s, the private eye genre was adopted wholeheartedly by American writers. One of
2014-451: The need for detectives was realized – thus the mystery novel arose. An early work of modern mystery fiction, Das Fräulein von Scuderi by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1819), was an influence on The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe (1841) as may have been Voltaire 's Zadig (1747). Wilkie Collins ' novel The Woman in White was published in 1860, while The Moonstone (1868)
2067-402: The next spring. The book was published the following year by Soho Press, Incorporated. Maisie Dobbs was mostly well received by critics. The title character was described as strange, clever, and resourceful by New York Times Book Review crime columnist Marilyn Stasio . Reviewer for School Library Journal Susan H. Woodcock characterized Maisie as a strong protagonist. The book received
2120-417: The police procedural does the things police officers do to catch a criminal. Writers of the genre include Ed McBain , P. D. James and Bartholomew Gill . An inverted detective story, also known as a "howcatchem", is a plot structure of murder mystery fiction in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describes
2173-499: The primary contributors to this style was Dashiell Hammett with his famous private investigator character, Sam Spade . His style of crime fiction came to be known as "hardboiled", which is described as a genre that "usually deals with criminal activity in a modern urban environment, a world of disconnected signs and anonymous strangers." "Told in stark and sometimes elegant language through the unemotional eyes of new hero-detectives, these stories were an American phenomenon." According to
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2226-420: The primary style of detective fiction. This subgenre is classified as a detective story where the reader is given clues throughout as to who the culprit is, giving the reader the opportunity to solve the crime before it is revealed. During the Golden Age, whodunits were written primarily by women, however Wilkie Collins ' The Moonstone is often recognized as one of the first examples of the genre. True crime
2279-439: The reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction . Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit . Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism. Mystery fiction can involve a supernatural mystery in which the solution does not have to be logical and even in which there
2332-729: The task of plotting a story, his cadenced dialogue and cryptic narrations were musical, evoking the dark alleys and tough thugs, rich women and powerful men about whom he wrote. Several feature and television movies have been made about the Philip Marlowe character. James Hadley Chase wrote a few novels with private eyes as the main heroes, including Blonde's Requiem (1945), Lay Her Among the Lilies (1950), and Figure It Out for Yourself (1950). The heroes of these novels are typical private eyes, very similar to or plagiarizing Raymond Chandler's work. Ross Macdonald, pseudonym of Kenneth Millar , updated
2385-451: The title was changed to Bulletin from Virginia Kirkus' Service from January 1, 1955, issue onwards, and successively shortened to Virginia Kirkus' Service with the December 15, 1964, issue, and Kirkus Service in 1967, before it attained its current title, Kirkus Reviews , with January 1, 1969, issue. In 1985, Anne Larsen was brought on as fiction editor, soon to become editor, remaining
2438-437: The tradition, and film adaptations or the even-more-recent web-based detective series, have helped to re-popularize the genre in recent times. Though the origins of the genre date back to ancient literature and One Thousand and One Nights , the modern detective story as it is known today was invented by Edgar Allan Poe in the mid-19th century through his short story, " The Murders in the Rue Morgue ", which featured arguably
2491-460: The turn of the century with the development of dime novels and pulp magazines . Books were especially helpful to the genre, with many authors writing in the genre in the 1920s. An important contribution to mystery fiction in the 1920s was the development of the juvenile mystery by Edward Stratemeyer . Stratemeyer originally developed and wrote the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries written under
2544-602: The war after ten years of holding the memories at bay. In an interview with Jacqueline Winspear, Andi Schechter of Library Journal points out that "World War I is a major theme" in the book. Winspear notes that Maisie is "very much a woman of her time" and her interest in the lives of women in Europe during the years surrounding World War I became a backdrop for the story. Jacqueline Winspear became deeply interested in World War I and its after effects because of her grandfather, who
2597-460: The way and a detective denouement , but differs on several points. Most of the Sherlock Holmes stories feature no suspects at all, while mystery fiction, in contrast, features a large number of them. As noted, detective stories feature professional and retired detectives, while mystery fiction almost exclusively features amateur detectives. Finally, detective stories focus on the detective and how
2650-400: The world's first fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin . However, detective fiction was popularized only later, in the late 19th century, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes stories, considered milestones in crime fiction . The detective story shares some similarities with mystery fiction in that it also has a mystery to be solved, clues , red herrings , some plot twists along
2703-527: Was based on the first Lew Archer story The Moving Target (1949). Newman reprised the role in The Drowning Pool in 1976. Michael Collins, pseudonym of Dennis Lynds , is generally considered the author who led the form into the Modern Age. His private investigator, Dan Fortune, was consistently involved in the same sort of David-and-Goliath stories that Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald wrote, but Collins took
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#17328583478112756-546: Was by Dime Mystery , which started out as an ordinary crime fiction magazine but switched to " weird menace " during the later part of 1933. The genre of mystery novels is a young form of literature that has developed since the early 19th century. The rise of literacy began in the years of the English Renaissance and, as people began to read over time, they became more individualistic in their thinking. As people became more individualistic in their thinking, they developed
2809-520: Was severely wounded and shell-shocked after the Battle of the Somme in 1916. At first she did not set out to write a war novel, but her deep interest in history provided a framework for the character of Maisie Dobbs to develop. In what she describes as "a moment of artistic grace", Winspear says the character of Maisie Dobbs developed in her mind while stuck in traffic. From there, Winspear began intensely researching
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