Job Search
Scrap Trading
Books News
Scholarship Website
SUMMERTIME MADNESS – Murder Mysteries to Keep You Relaxed gathers the many pleasures of classic crime fiction beneath an invitingly ironic seasonal title. Its murders, thefts, disappearances, and ingenious deductions move from Gothic unease and sensation fiction to the clipped puzzle, comic caper, locked-room enigma, and early hard-edged adventure tale. Memorable investigations, gentleman thieves, eccentric sleuths, and domestic secrets demonstrate how mystery converts social disorder into narrative suspense—and, often, satisfying resolution. The contributors represent a transatlantic and European genealogy of detective writing, including foundational Victorian storytellers, architects of the Golden Age puzzle, and innovators in crime's comic, psychological, and procedural possibilities. Their varied careers connect the anthology to the rise of the modern detective, the sensation novel, popular magazine culture, and the international circulation of crime narratives. Together, these voices reveal that the genre has never been merely formulaic: it is a flexible literary mode for examining class, gender, urban modernity, imperial networks, and the deceptive surfaces of ordinary life. Ideal for devoted mystery readers, students of popular literature, and newcomers alike, this volume offers a richly varied introduction to the genre's formative traditions. Read consecutively or sampled at leisure, its stories invite comparison across methods, moods, and moral visions. SUMMERTIME MADNESS provides both relaxed entertainment and an illuminating dialogue among the many forms crime fiction can take.
