Kate Warne wanted to become an actress. A Canadian by birth, she found herself in the mid-1850s in Chicago and recently widowed. Then she saw an advertisement, and it changed her direction and an entire profession. The ad was from the Pinkerton Detective Agency and said agents were being hired. It said nothing about “male • Read More »
Archives: detective stories
The detective story, according to G.K. Chesterton
October 29, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: fiction, journalism, writers, writing.
G.K. Chesterton, the great British author of the early 20th century, liked detective stories, read them, and wrote them. He had the formula down pat. It went like this: The bones and structure of a good detective story are so old and well known that it may seem banal to state them even in outline. • Read More »
Trouble is their business: the ‘private eye’ and the writers who created them
December 21, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | 2 Comments | Filed in: Private eye, writers, writing.
The opening scene of Raymond Chandler’s story Trouble is My Business tells you a lot in a very few words about Chandler’s “private eye,” Phillip Marlowe. Marlow is talking to a woman who runs a detective agency, a big one with several agents. But none of her people is suitable for the job she has. • Read More »