THE MURDER GAME

From The Murder of Roger Ackroyd to Magpie Murders and related diversions including cryptic crosswords and Cain s Jawbone The Murder Game examines the games authors played with their readers and the importance of puzzles in Golden Age whodunits With books flourishing in the 1920s and 30s like never before no genre was more innovative or popular than detective fiction It was an era that saw the emergence of Agatha Christie Dorothy L Sayers John Dickson Carr Ellery Queen and dozens of other authors who became household names for a generation of readers The Golden Age of Detection has enjoyed a great resurgence of interest in recent years with publishers mining back catalogues to bring the best of yesteryear to very receptive new audiences What is it about a literary movement that took off in the 1920s that still appeals to book lovers in the 2020s In this authoritative new study John Curran reveals that it is the ludic qualities of classic crime fiction that continue to intrigue At its heart is the whodunit game between writer and reader but there is also the game between detective and murderer between publisher and book buyer even between the writers themselves Coinciding with an increase in leisure time and literacy the Golden Age also saw the develo