Desde los magistrales cuentos de Edgar Allan Poe hasta las espectaculares novelas de espionaje, el género policial ha acumulado una extraordinaria riqueza de títulos y una notable variedad estilística. Al ingenio de la intriga, a la intensidad del "suspense", se han ido añadiendo elementos como la indagación psicológica, el enfrentamiento de ideologías, la metafísica ultraterrena y la anticipación científica. En un campo tan vasto y variado, esta "Historia del relato policial" cubre la doble función de informar al aficionado y entretener como un relato más. Julian Simons, editor, investigador y autor de brillantes narraciones policiales, sintetiza en este trabajo todo lo que desean conocer los más apasionados cultores del género. ( )

Julian Symons, himself a crime author, discusses the history of the detective story, its development into the crime novel, the offshoots of this genre (police procedurals and spy novels), and the merits or lack thereof of various British and American crime novelists. Some space is given to crime writers from elsewhere in Europe, such as Simenon, and Asia is mentioned primarily through Japan.

At the time of my edition (1977), the English-speaking crime novel world didn’t have much diversity in its ranks, whether geographically or otherwise. Symons is a bit grumpy about women crime novelists, particularly the early ones, but does have good things to say about Patricia Highsmith. And he does seem to suggest that it would be interesting to read more crime from other parts of the world. I wonder what he would think of the explosion in crime novel publication and translation nowadays.

The meat of this book is the evolution of the genre from the “detective story”—a puzzle to be solved with cardboard characters—to the “crime novel”—a book with crime at its heart, solved by well-rounded characters and offering a window into society. Many of the books mentioned in its pages, forgotten at the time of publication, have now been republished by British Library Crime Classics or the American Mystery Classics imprint, so it is nice to see that they have been brought back to the public’s attention.

One awkward bit for Symons is trying to analyze his *own* place in the crime novel universe. He writes self-deprecatingly of his work, then at the suggestion of his publishers Edmund Crispin added a footnote. Crispin also reviewed the typescript of the book, as mentioned by Symons in the acknowledgements. This part of the book illustrates life before the internet in a striking way: Symons states that he has endeavoured to provide birth and death dates for all of the authors mentioned, but some of them he was unable to find. Most of that would be readily available online these days.

This book contains an index of all of the books and authors mentioned in its pages, which is handy for enthusiasts who have to read them all! I may have to do that myself.

Recommended if you’ve been devouring the British Library Crime Classics or if you like reading about the history of crime writing. ( )

Interesting history of crime fiction from the beginning up to 1970 (the book was first published in 1972). Symons is illuminating on the early development of the genre, on the formalism of novels written in the "Golden Age" of the 1920's and 30's, and on the importance of Hammett. But, for a current day reader, the age of the book is a negative -- so much just doesn't make it in. ( )

This is both a thorough and an excellent history of the detective story and crime novel. Written in an entertaining and lively style, it is a well-researched study of the genre covering the development of it from the early nineteenth century through the late twentieth. All of the familiar authors and their creations are covered with many others that are only known to aficianados of the genre. I would highly recommend this history as both a reference and a good read. ( )

4/6/22