Watching the detectives
MARION MCMULLEN follows the clues to look back at more than a century of fiction’s top sleuths
WHEN it comes to pageturners it is hard to beat a good whodunnit.
Some of the world’s top murder mystery classics are featured in 1,000 Books To Read Before You Die.
Author James Mustich has spent 14 years putting his lists and essays together, and the book covers everything from science fiction and travel writing, to children’s favourites and detective novels. So, can you point the finger at the first appearance of some of fiction’s superstar sleuths? POET TS Eliot once called this “the first, the longest and the best of English detective novels”.
Wilkie Collins later adapted his novel as a play and a film version was made in 1934 followed by a BBC adaptation in 1996 starring Keeley Hawes and Greg Wise, and a more recent miniseries in 2016. The action revolves around the theft of a yellow diamond from India and the depiction of opium addiction in the novel is based on personal experience. Collins was addicted to laudanum and also claimed to have no memory of writing some parts of The Moonstone.
PUBLISHED 1887: THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
“THERE was only one student in the room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work. At the sound of our steps he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure. ‘I’ve found it. I’ve found it,’ he shouted to my companion.”
So marked the first meeting between Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in A Study In Scarlet, which appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual 1887.
There are nearly 60 stories and novels of Sherlock Holmes collected in various volumes and in print and the super sleuth has starred in numerous films and TV shows. It would be hard to name another modern literary character who has achieved such international celebrity.
PUBLISHED 1926 THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD
by Agatha Christie
ANOTHER novel and a book of stories starring Poirot appeared before the success of The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd in 1926 made Christie a bestselling author.
The book later became the basis of one of the ITV Poirot episodes starring David Suchet.
Agatha Christie may well have more books in print than any other writer in history – two billion is a figure regularly bandied about.
PUBLISHED 1930 THE MALTESE FALCON
by Dashiell Hammett DASHIELL HAMMETT is largely credited with the invention of the modern hard-boiled detective novel and The Maltese Falcon introduced the now archetypal private eye, Sam Spade. Dashiell dropped out of school at the age of 14 and worked an assortment of odd jobs before gaining employment as an operative for the Pinkerton detective agency. He used the experience when he started writing. Humphrey Bogart brought Sam Spade to the big screen in director John Huston’s 1941 film version of The Maltese Falcon.
PUBLISHED 1939 THE BIG SLEEP
by Raymond Chandler
“I WAS wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it.”
Raymond Chandler gave his detective Philip Marlowe a voice that would become the hallmark of the genre.
Marlowe was the protagonist in all of Chandler’s novels and the movie adaptations proved to be a heavy influence on American film noir.
Humphrey Bogart starred as the detective in the 1946 movie, The Big Sleep. Chandler’s last novel, Poodle Springs, left unfinished by the time of his death in 1959 was completed by Robert B Parker and published in 1989.
PUBLISHED 1953 MAIGRET AND THE MAN ON THE BENCH
by Georges Simenon
FRENCH novelist Georges Simenon wrote hundreds of works of fiction, yet his most enduring creation remains the detective Jules Maigret.
One of the most popular detectives in the annals of the mystery genre, his Parisian police inspector wends his way through the plots of 75 novels and a third as many short stories, smoking his pipe and untangling complex knots of murder and passion through the application of observation and intuition.
Jean Gabin played Maigret in three French films between 1958 and 1963 and the character has inspired TV series in both France and Britain with Rupert Davies, Michael Gambon and Rowan Atkinson playing Maigret in the television adaptations.
PUBLISHED 1985 A TASTE FOR DEATH
by PD James
SCOTLAND Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh featured in 14 crime thrillers by Phyllis Dorothy James, better known as simply PD James.
Dalgliesh was a poet as well as a Jaguar-driving inspector and he brought both gravitas and grace to his cases. Roy Marsden and Martin Shaw have both played him on TV.
■ 1,000 Books To Read Before You Die: A Life-changing List by James Mustich, published by Workman, priced £26.99