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…