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Golden Age of Murder
Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
23 posts | 8 read | 1 reading | 18 to read
A real-life detective story, investigating how Agatha Christie and colleagues in a mysterious literary club transformed crime fiction, writing books casting new light on unsolved murders whilst hiding clues to their authors darkest secrets. Now an Edgar Award Nominee!This is the first book about the Detection Club, the world s most famous and most mysterious social network of crime writers. Drawing on years of in-depth research, it reveals the astonishing story of how members such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers reinvented detective fiction.Detective stories from the so-called Golden Age between the wars are often dismissed as cosily conventional. Nothing could be further from the truth: some explore forensic pathology and shocking serial murders, others delve into police brutality and miscarriages of justice; occasionally the innocent are hanged, or murderers get away scot-free. Their authors faced up to the Slump and the rise of Hitler during years of economic misery and political upheaval, and wrote books agonising over guilt and innocence, good and evil, and explored whether killing a fellow human being was ever justified. Though the stories included no graphic sex scenes, sexual passions of all kinds seethed just beneath the surface.Attracting feminists, gay and lesbian writers, Socialists and Marxist sympathisers, the Detection Club authors were young, ambitious and at the cutting edge of popular culture some had sex lives as bizarre as their mystery plots. Fascinated by real life crimes, they cracked unsolved cases and threw down challenges to Scotland Yard, using their fiction to take revenge on people who hurt them, to conduct covert relationships, and even as an outlet for homicidal fantasy. Their books anticipated not only CSI, Jack Reacher and Gone Girl, but also Lord of the Flies. The Club occupies a unique place in Britain s cultural history, and its influence on storytelling in fiction, film and television throughout the world continues to this day.The Golden Age of Murder rewrites the story of crime fiction with unique authority, transforming our understanding of detective stories and the brilliant but tormented men and women who wrote them."
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Lizpixie
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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@Mitch is starting the #GoldenAgeCrimeClub in 2023. Starting in January, there‘ll be a book each month from one of the best golden age crime writers published, including Dame Agatha, Miss Sayers & many more. Original post is on his page, if interested let her know there. And let other Littens know if you think they‘d be interested too & repost away!

Blueroseis How do you actually join please? Do you just search each month for comments. I wasn't certain on how to share the post either. 2y
Lizpixie @Blueroseis if you click on her name @Mitch it will take you to her Litsy page then scroll down till you see the original post and comment that you‘re interested. That‘s it! And to share it just take a screenshot of the picture above then make your own post using the hashtag and tag her. You‘ll get the hang of it👍 2y
kspenmoll I am excited to join in! Please add me! @Mitch (edited) 2y
36 likes3 comments
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Chrissyreadit
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Would you be interested in buddy reading golden age Murder mysteries? Let @Mitch know if you want to join in with the group and discussion.

Mitch Thanks for spreading the word Chrissy 2y
50 likes1 comment
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kspenmoll
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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@Mitch is setting up a “Golden Age”
Mystery club beginning in January if there is enough interest. Plan is to read one book per month, discuss with a few prompts. I am so excited as I read more than one mystery per month & this is an era I would like to read more from. Please go to her account for more details. You do not have to commit to every month; join when you can.#goldenagecrimeclub

Mitch Thanks for sharing ! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 (edited) 2y
SamAnne Ooh….might have to join this one. 2y
47 likes2 comments
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Andrew65
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Shared for @Mitch
I‘m recently rediscovered my love of crime fiction - and I‘m unearthing some golden age gems! Thinking of setting up a monthly Litsy bookclub. Super simple and low key - we read a book each month and then at the end of the month I post 3 or 4 prompts to get us talking about the book. Anyone interested?????
Let me know below if you‘d like to join in and if there‘s enough interest I‘ll get us started with our January book asap!

Mitch Thank so much for sharing 2y
Andrew65 @Mitch Happy to and good luck with this, sounds brilliant. (edited) 2y
kspenmoll I am in! 2y
51 likes3 comments
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julesG
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Reposting for @Mitch

#GoldenAgeCrimeClub

Check Mitch's original post to let her know you're in.

Mitch Thanks so much for sharing 2y
kspenmoll Mitch, what a fabulous newsletter! @Mitch (edited) 2y
40 likes2 comments
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Mitch
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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I‘m recently rediscovered my love of crime fiction - and I‘m unearthing some golden age gems! Thinking of setting up a monthly Litsy bookclub. Super simple and low key - we read a book each month and then at the end of the month I post 3 or 4 prompts to get us talking about the book. Anyone interested?????
Let me know below if you‘d like to join in and if there‘s enough interest I‘ll get us started with our January book asap!

Mitch Ps…… if people could share around so people see this post and get to join in that would be fab! 2y
jenniferw88 I'll dip in and out, if that's ok? (It'll depend on whether I have the book or not - going to try to read my own shelves next year!) 2y
See All 79 Comments
Mitch @jenniferw88 that‘s fabulous - glad to have you on board. Some you might have read so you might just want to join in the end of month chat. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2y
RaeLovesToRead I'm potentially interested. I'm working my way through Poirot series in order (and Marples in any order!) and also have Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Dorothy Sayers on the go - but may need to re-read! Depending on what you're reading I can join in. 2y
Mitch @RaeLovesToRead yeah. Would love to have you. I‘m going to chose some classics and some more obscure! 2y
kspenmoll I am so excited for this!!!! 2y
Chrissyreadit I‘m interested as long as I can find books - I like mysteries and murder 😳 but I do know some months I get behind in reading. 2y
Cinfhen Not my genre but wonderful idea 💡💖 2y
RaeLovesToRead @Mitch It's my fave genre, so I'll definitely be following!! And you know me... any excuse to acquire more books 😉 2y
Lizpixie Brilliant! Count me in, I have multiple editions of Dame Agatha, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy.L.Sayers & a lot more. Hopefully I have most of what we‘ll read already. 2y
IndoorDame Like @jenniferw88 i‘m really making a push to read from my owned shelves in the new year, but I‘m in love with this idea, fabulous genre! So I‘d love to join some months if that works for you all. 2y
Mitch @Lizpixie brilliant. You‘re in! 👍🏼 2y
Mitch @IndoorDame Absolutely- I‘ll tag you when we read feel free to join in or give it a pass - whatever works for you 😀 2y
IndoorDame @Mitch yay! Thank you!! 2y
TheAromaofBooks I'm definitely in!! I love Christie, but haven't read many other writers from that era, so this sounds like a great way to to explore old favorites and “new“ authors, too!! 2y
Librarybelle I‘m very interested in this…great idea! 2y
Mitch @TheAromaofBooks brilliant. We might start with a Christie and then venture out as the year progresses! 2y
BarkingMadRead Love this idea, I‘ve read Christie but that‘s it! Count me in! 2y
Mitch @Librarybelle fabulous 🥳 2y
AmyG I would love to join! There may be a month or two where I can‘t, if waytoo busy, but please count me in!!!! Thank you for tagging me! (edited) 2y
Mitch @AmyG yeah! We‘ll do some classics and some new discoveries! 👍🏼 2y
AmyG Very excited! I love new author discoveries. 2y
erzascarletbookgasm I‘ll love to join, as long as I have/ can find the book. So there may be some months I‘m not in. Is that ok? 2y
Mitch @erzascarletbookgasm absolutely! This is a low key, inclusive project - join us when you can, feel free to skip a month if life gets in the way. 👍🏼 2y
erzascarletbookgasm Thanks! I look forward. Love your idea! 2y
Aimeesue I'd love to join in! 2y
Soubhiville I rarely read this genre, but please tag me, I may occasionally try something different 😊💜 2y
jlhammar Count me in! Love this idea. 2y
quietjenn I am most definitely in! It's a terrific idea and I adore golden age crime stories. 2y
Mitch @Aimeesue yeah! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2y
Mitch @Soubhiville 👍🏼👏🏼👍🏼 2y
Mitch @jlhammar yeah 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2y
Mitch @quietjenn yeah 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2y
catiewithac ❤️ 🇬🇧 ☠️ 2y
Ruthiella I‘d definitely like to participate, please! 🙏 2y
Mitch @Ruthiella yeah ! 👍🏼 2y
sarahbellum Yes, please count me in! 🕵🏻 2y
Mollyanna I would be interested too. 2y
Mitch @sarahbellum yes! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👍🏼 2y
Mitch @Mollyanna 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 2y
LeahBergen Count me in! Like others, I may not read every month but I‘ll still want to follow along. I think @CarolynM and @batsy might also be interested. 😊 2y
SamAnne Interested! 2y
Bibliomania Oh yes, I'm interested :)
2y
CarolynM Oooh, yes please! Thanks for tagging me @LeahBergen 2y
Mitch @LeahBergen it‘ll be lovely to have you 🎉 2y
Mitch @SamAnne 🥳🥳🥳 2y
Mitch @Bibliomania 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2y
Mitch @CarolynM Yeah 👍🏼 2y
LeahBergen @Mitch I have a bunch of GAC waiting on my shelves and hope this gets me reading them! 😆 2y
rabbitprincess I love this idea, but I‘m too much of a mood reader to commit to a book club. I‘ll be interested to see what y‘all read though! 😊 2y
kwmg40 I love Golden Age mysteries! Please tag me. I may not join every month but I'd love to follow along and read the comments. 2y
batsy Thank you for the tag @LeahBergen ! This is right up my alley so I'd love to join @Mitch though I may not be able to participate every month 🙂 2y
Gissy 🙋🏽‍♀️ 2y
Larkken I love this idea! I may not be up for this every month, but I‘ve been toying with the idea of reading less front list, and this challenge/read along aligns with that perfectly. 2y
CBee @Mitch I would be interested too 😊 2y
Mitch @kwmg40 will do! 👍🏼 2y
Mitch @batsy Absolutely fine. Join us when you can 👍🏼 2y
Mitch @Gissy 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2y
Mitch @Larkken superb. Glad to have you on board 2y
Mitch @CBee Yeah! 😘 2y
JuniperWilde I‘m game 📚 2y
Blueroseis On another page I asked how to join and how to share. I guess you just Tag people although I am not too certain on that. I'd like to join. @Blueroseis 2y
Mitch @Blueroseis hi - I‘ll add you to the list - don‘t worry. To share this - you just need to screen shot my post and then use the photo for your own post. But don‘t worry - ive got you down. 2y
Jess_Read_This I‘ll join in when I can! 🔦🔍 2y
majkia I've got a few classic mysteries to read, so I'll join too. 2y
DGRachel Oooh, I just saw this! I would love to participate! 2y
Mitch @Jess_Read_This 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2y
Mitch @majkia 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2y
Mitch @DGRachel yeah! 👍🏼 2y
Gissy Is there a book assigned for January? 2y
Mitch @Gissy yep - I‘ll sort it all out on Monday - sorry family festivities still in full swing! 2y
kspenmoll Me too! 2y
Gissy @Mitch Yes I understand. I asked because I didn‘t know if I missed the announcement. But thank you, continue enjoying the festivities, I love them to have these moments to share with family and friends🤗❤️...and reading, like today📖👌 2y
FromMyLectory @Mitch oh gosh not sure how I missed this post! Can I join in or is it too late ? All time fan of the genre 😁 2y
67 likes79 comments
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WildQuibble
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Me: I need to stop doing book buying bans; I keep failing them.
Also me: I need to keep doing book buying bans; the universe keeps breaking them by dropping things like a signed copy of a wishlist book into discount shops.

batsy You had to have it! Great cover too 😍 5y
WildQuibble @batsy absolutely 😄😄 5y
9 likes2 comments
review
veritysalter
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Pickpick

A history of The Detection Club and the authors that founded and joined; most prominently Anthony Berkeley/Frances Ilses, Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie. My TBR pile is now even more enormous.

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veritysalter
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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A book about all my favourite authors - a fabulous recommendation from the Shedunnit Podcast.

emtobiasz I‘ve been really enjoying that podcast too! 🎧 5y
11 likes1 comment
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jenniferw88
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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#auguststats Just the top 4 for this month.

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jenniferw88
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Pickpick

4 1/2 ⭐

It's an interesting book and has increased my TBR massively! However the introduction is a bit misleading as it suggests that the book will focus on the mysteries in the lives of Christie, Berkeley & Sayers, but it only does so in the concluding chapter.

Also read for 2 and 3/4 hours for #reversereadathon

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jenniferw88
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards

"He gave his address as 25 Menlove Gardens East, Mossley Hill."

@TrishB it's about the William Wallace case!

TrishB Literally a couple of roads away 😁 but much bigger and posher houses!! 5y
41 likes1 comment
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jenniferw88
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Post it notes mark books that I want to read/get!

Also @JaneyWaneyB your #sits package arrived today! @Chrissyreadit

JaneyWaneyB Glad it arrived safely 📦🚚😁 5y
Chrissyreadit 🎉🙌👏🥰❤️😍 5y
73 likes2 comments
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jenniferw88
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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It's normally women who #crymeariver due to our lack of representation, however in the Golden Age of Murder (late Victorian - 1940s-ish), male writers are under-represented! #ayupaugust @Cinfhen @squirrelbrain

Book is good but adding to my TBR massively! (Photo to come)

squirrelbrain How interesting! 😁 5y
Cinfhen Well done 🙌🏻 5y
63 likes2 comments
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jenniferw88
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Cathythoughts These look good! The Ducks seems unavailable on kindle just now 🤷🏻‍♀️... it‘s on my August TBR too 👍🏻 5y
jenniferw88 @Cathythoughts that's weird because I've started Ducks on Kindle - may be because you're in Ireland? 5y
Cathythoughts Maybe! Or maybe it‘s in demand 🤷🏻‍♀️I‘ll keep trying. Are you liking it ? 5y
jenniferw88 @Cathythoughts from what I've read (2% in!), yes although anything with 🐈 is bound to be a hit with me! 5y
70 likes4 comments
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Moray_Reads
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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It has to be a Golden Age #mysterynovel for my taste. Three of the best with their ever-eccentric detectives (Dorothy L Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Margery Allingham with Lord Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot and Albert Campion) #readingwomenmonth @thereadingwomen

erzascarletbookgasm 🙌😍 Yes, Yes & Yes! 6y
LeahBergen Yes! ❤️❤️ 6y
Andrew65 Some great classics! 6y
jenniferw88 Hi, just had message from Mum that a parcel I sent to Edinburgh has been returned as it wasn't collected. I strongly suspect that it's your #ConanDoyleSwap package so will send it again in a few weeks' time! 6y
Moray_Reads @jenniferw88 ah, I wonder whether the delivery note went astray then. That would explain it! 6y
52 likes5 comments
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LeahBergen
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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This book very nicely covers two of today‘s photo challenges: 🔪 for #EmojiMadness and #Mystery for #ReadingResolutions. 😄

106 likes1 stack add
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jenniferw88
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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I've taken advantage of the 2 for £7 deal on paperbacks from Amazon! I've read the McDermid one already on Kindle, but have decided that as I want to write crime stories it would be helpful to have a paperback version too. As I'm not sure my books are going to be entirely crime related (I'm thinking a fantasy element) I bought Match Up too to inspire me.

Bonus book is the tagged one as his The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books was very useful⬇️

jenniferw88 and this is kind of a companion book to that one. 7y
75 likes1 comment
review
shanaqui
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
Pickpick

So many new books on my mental wishlist, aaah! I found this a little bit scattered at times as it jumped between members of the Detection Club, the plots of their books and real life crimes that gave them inspiration, but it was fascinating nonetheless.

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shanaqui
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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I've mostly been crocheting the last few days (one of the results pictured with #bunniesofLitsy star Breakfast), while listening to radio 4, but when I have been reading this has been riveting. So much I didn't know about Sayers! So many books I'm tempted to add to my TBR.

GondorGirl 🐇❤ 7y
16 likes1 comment
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Verity
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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Mehso-so

Didn't really do what I was hoping: I finished with neither a reading list of books to go look for, nor a massively increased understanding of the authors involved.

It's clearly very well researched, but there's a lot of people to try and keep track of and I think the author got too caught up in not giving away the plots of the various books that he ended up not telling us a lot at all.

11 likes1 stack add
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MrBook
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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#TBRtemptation post! This is a bit of a predecessor to "The Inklings" in that it looks at a pivotal group of authors whose enduring interactions aren't well-known by most people. The Detection Club had members including Agatha Christie & Dorothy Sayers, & it reinvented the detective story. Between the World Wars, they were young, original, & cutting-edge. They laid the groundwork for everything from CSI to Jack Reacher. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook ?

valeriegeary I'm intrigued! 8y
LitsyGoesPostal 😊👍🏻 8y
86 likes11 stack adds2 comments
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Sarrie
The Golden Age of Murder | Martin Edwards
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I love Agatha Christie, and everytime I see her pic I giggle. She has that look, she knows her books are like a drug. She is a lady well aware of her particular skills, hahaha.