'Classic' Detective Stories you have enjoyed.

[umslopogaas]

Does Le Carre really count as "classic detective"? I have always thought of George Smiley and co. as spies rather than detectives. I'd go for Sherlock Holmes (Conan Doyle) and Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler). The Sherlock Holmes stories become something of a parody - we know Conan Doyle got so fed up with him that he tried to kill him off, but the outcry was so great he had to bring him back again. And I just love Chandler's hard-boiled style spiced with humour. My favourite line is in the film of 'The Big Sleep':

Bacall to Bogart: "You go too far, Marlowe."
Bogart to Bacall: "Those are hard words to throw at a man, especially when he's walking out of your bedroom."

I read a very entertaining article on this film, which maintains that it is a spoof and not to be taken seriously. In particular, the plot is deliberately so convoluted and complicated that it becomes incomprehensible. William Faulkner worked on the script and apparently at one point someone asked Howard Hawks, who was directing, who had committed one of the many murders. Hawks wasnt sure, so he asked Faulkner. Faulkner was'nt sure either, so they asked Chandler. "The butler did it" said Chandler. "Are you crazy?" said Hawks, "the butler was in the beach house."

But if you like the stories but not the humour, try Dashiell Hammett: same tough-guy plots, but without the wisecracks.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I remember half scaring myself to death by reading Conan-Doyle's "The Speckled Band" at the age of about nine.

Me too! - "My God Ellen, it was the band, the speckled band!"

(Will now look that quote up and see how close I am after 40+ years...)

[Anna]

I had never read any Sherlock Holmes but chanced upon a compendium in a charity shop recently (I think I only bought it because 'Sherlock' had been on televsion - Benedict Cumberbatch) I think they are brilliant stories.

[salymap]

I remember in this country wartime books were printed on very inferior paper but I don't remember a reduction in size in paperbacks. My copy of 'And then there were none' was printed in the US as a 'Wartime issue' and is only 4 by 6 inches. There are pages of requests to save paper at the beginning although the book was complete and unabridged. There is a large 'cartoon' of an American eagle with a banner in its mouth saying 'Books are Weapons in the war of ideas'

Iam interested as I worked with books as well as music. Does anyone remember this US war effort and is it worth alot of money as a curiosity? The paper is the worst I have ever seen.

[salymap]

I had never read any Sherlock Holmes but chanced upon a compendium in a charity shop recently (I think I only bought it because 'Sherlock' had been on televsion - Benedict Cumberbatch) I think they are brilliant stories.

Anna I hope it was the book club edition I still have. All the stories and the wonderful original illustrations from the Strand Magazine by Sidney Paget.

[Anna]

Anna I hope it was the book club edition I still have. All the stories and the wonderful original illustrations from the Strand Magazine by Sidney Paget.

No, sorry saly, just pulled it from the bookcase, published in 1960 by John Murray from the original 1927, I would have liked it if it had illustrations but it just has one on the dust cover.

[Ferretfancy]

One of my prize possessions is a large 2 volume collection called The Annotated Sherlock Holmes,published in 1968 and beautifully produced on quality paper with all the original illustrations. The editor had the resounding name of William S Baring-Gould, I think he was the brother of the man who wrote the words to Land of Hope and Glory.
There are marginal notes alongside the text, and numerous additional photographs of the period.
Any Sherlockian who wishes to know if Holmes and Watson could really have travelled to Leatherhead by the 2.43, or whatever, need only look within.
I expect it's out of print long since, but it might show up secondhand.

[StephenO]

Has anyone mentioned the Father Brown stories yet? Second only to Sherlock Holmes IMO.

[vinteuil]

One of my prize possessions is a large 2 volume collection called The Annotated Sherlock Holmes,published in 1968 and beautifully produced on quality paper with all the original illustrations. The editor had the resounding name of William S Baring-Gould, I think he was the brother of the man who wrote the words to Land of Hope and Glory.
There are marginal notes alongside the text, and numerous additional photographs of the period.
Any Sherlockian who wishes to know if Holmes and Watson could really have travelled to Leatherhead by the 2.43, or whatever, need only look within.
I expect it's out of print long since, but it might show up secondhand.

The Baring Gould is a good thing to have; it's fairly easy to find second hand by websites such as abebooks - but it has now been superseded by an even better "New Annotated Sherlock Holmes", three vols ed Leslie Klinger, publ Norton 2005.

For me the classics were and are Holmes and the Father Brown stories of Chesterton.
To which I wd add particular faves - the Max Carrados stories by Ernest Bramah (tho' they're not as magical as Bramah's Kai Lung tales... );
the Nestor Burma stories by Léo Malet.

But the absolute addictive master for me - because the writing is so good, the descriptions of place so compelling, the psychology so penetrating, the existential despair so total - is Simenon...

[Petrushka]

William S Baring-Gould, I think he was the brother of the man who wrote the words to Land of Hope and Glory.

A C Benson wrote the words to Land of Hope and Glory. You might be thinking of WSB-G's grandfather, Sabine Baring-Gould, who penned the words to Onward Christian Soldiers.

[Ferretfancy]

Petrushka

Ah yes ! I thought I might have been wrong even as I wrote it. I always rather enjoyed Onward Christian Soldiers, or at least the tune! ( Atheism slipping? )

Bws.
Ferret

[vinteuil]

For me the classics were and are Holmes and the Father Brown stories of Chesterton.
...

... and, of course, but in a different style, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett...

[Don Basilio]

One of the brothers of the man who wrote the words to Land of Hope and Glory was E F Benson, who is best known for the Mapp and Lucia books. He did write at least one whodunnit, which I have read and forgotten in detail.

Bleak House is technically a whodunnit, although as usual with Dickens the plot doesn't matter that much: Mr Tulkinghorn is murdered with even less motive than Quilp persecutes Nell.

[Petrushka]

Mention of E F Benson penning a whodunit reminds me that the Poet Laureate, Cecil Day-Lewis wrote one of the classic detective stories of all time under the pen-name of Nicholas Blake entitled, if memory serves me correctly, A Question of Proof.

Written in 1935 I read it in the mid-'60's and it's one of those books once read that haunts you for ages.

Another one I never forget is Green for Danger by Christiana Brand and, incidentally, filmed starring Alastair Sim and set in the London Blitz.

[Petrushka]

Thanks to Ferret for alerting me to the Murder One website. Here's the link: http://www.murderone.co.uk/crime-8-c.asp