I have been reading mysteries for nearly five decades now. I got my start with Nancy Drew and The Secret of Shadow Ranch (the revised version). I devoured hundreds of mysteries written for juveniles (as we were called in those days) before moving on to adult fare when I was about thirteen. That adult fare consisted mainly of romantic suspense novels by writers like Victoria Holt, Phyllis A. Whitney, Mary Stewart, and Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters. I didn't start to read classic detective fiction seriously until I was in grad school in Houston. I had read a couple of Agatha Christie books -- And Then There Were None and The Murder at the Vicarage -- before then, but having a reliable source for such books made a difference. That source was Murder by the Book in Houston which had opened a year before I moved to Houston to start a Ph.D. program in medieval history at Rice University.
During the years at Rice, mysteries were my lifeline, in a way. I read mysteries for entertainment and escape on the weekends. As a poor history grad student, I didn't have money for much else in the way of relaxation. With the bookstore as a source -- along with a number of other great bookstores in Houston in the early 1980s -- I found plenty of inexpensive used books to feed my seemingly insatiable appetite for mysteries. In 1984 I started recording each book I read, and I still maintain that list (albeit now in a spreadsheet instead of handwritten in a journal).
Through the grad school years and those that followed after, especially once I started working at the bookstore and thus had a discount that only fueled the purchase of books, I read and accumulated thousands of books. I discovered many writers and sampled many types of mysteries (with the exception of spy novels), and my great love was the Golden Age detective story. The Golden Age was the period between the two world wars when the classic detective story flourished. I was already an Anglophile before I came to adore the British GA mystery, but reading those books only strengthened the Anglophilia. I also read American mysteries from the period, and I enjoyed those as well.
My favorite discovery was the English writer Margery Allingham (1904-1966) who to this day remains my favorite mystery writer (seen here in the photo on the right). I devoured the works of her contemporaries, like Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh. I read and enjoyed Edmund Crispin, Michael Innes, and Nicholas Blake. I can't forget Georgette Heyer's dozen mysteries, although my favorites are her incomparable historical novels. Not to mention Anthony Gilbert (aka Lucy Malleson) and E.C.R. Lorac/Carol Carnac. And on the American side, Elizabeth Daly and Charlotte Murray Russell.
The mystery genre has a rich and colorful history; with the authors I've mentioned I've barely begun to tell the story. So many of these books are, in my opinion, well worth reading, and thankfully these days it's a little easier than it was just a few years ago. With the British Library Crime Classics series bringing obscure writers back into print, and small publishers like Dean Street Press doing the same, I would probably never have read Annie Haynes, Ianthe Jerrold, or Robin Forsythe. The Rue Morgue Press also reprinted many great books and authors.
I do of course read contemporary mystery writers and have many great favorites among them, but I suppose my heart will always belong to my first love, the Golden Age detective novel.
I need to read Allingham, Dean I'm a fan of another golden age writer, Craig Rice. And I agree -- Murder by the Book in Houston is a terrific bookstore, a treat for readers and writers both.
Posted by: Elaine Viets | March 16, 2016 at 02:58 PM
Oh, I love Allingham. But I had no idea she looked like that! Perfect! Thank you!
Posted by: Hank Phillippi Ryan | March 16, 2016 at 03:21 PM
I must confess I skipped right over that period of time when you are supposed to read the authors from the Golden Age. I was reading mostly mystery as a kid, but during my teen years, I was reading Christian fiction (which wasn't all Amish back then) mainly historical and general fiction. (Okay, and I kept reading kid's fiction until well into high school as well. I just didn't want to stop and my brother is 7 years younger than me, so I had his books.)
When I came back to mystery, I started with contemporary authors and never found/made the time to go back and read the classics.
Posted by: Mark | March 16, 2016 at 07:50 PM
I love Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter books and really enjoy the Walsh continuation of the series. I read the original Sherlock Holmes and a lot of disappointing short story continuations over the years until Laurel King gave him back to me in the Mary Russel books.
Posted by: Susan Neace | March 17, 2016 at 08:07 AM
Dean, Allingham was my favorite "discovery" too, around 1980. I loved Christie and all the others, but Miz A's writing was so much more lively. And so funny with Lugg. :)
Susan, totally agree about the Mary Russel books!
Posted by: Mary S. | March 17, 2016 at 08:16 PM