What Did Golden Age Detective Fiction Ever Do For Us? A Legacy…
I think if you love crime and detective stories and everything in-between, you will find this really interesting and thought-provoking. I did.
Last Autumn, through reading Howdunit: A Master Class in Crime Writing (2020), I became interested in finding out what modern-day crime writers consider to be the legacy of Golden Age detective fiction. So, in December I sent out an invitation to crime writers to answer the following question:
What is the most important thing Golden Age detective fiction left modern crime writers?
A tricky question, right? It is like being asked which is your favourite Agatha Christie novel, (and no you can’t have the complete collection on Kindle).
In total I received 28 responses from a range of British and American mystery fiction authors. I will be quoting from their responses in this piece, but I have also included a complete list of participants at the end of this post, with accompanying information about their latest or soon to be released work. I would also, at this point, like to…
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Jane Risdon 
That’s certainly a very comprehensive study, Jane. If you’ll excuse the cliché, I think the tl;dr for me is: whilst a nod to the legacy is not necessarily a bad thing, you can’t please all the people all the time, and I think a variety of styles is essential to keep the genre fresh, especially as there are only so many ways you can tell the basic stories! Cheers, Jon.
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Indeed, the variety and sub-genres in crime and cosy crime, Golden Age Crime etc., is what keeps the readers and writers of crime engaged. Something for everyone.
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