Sign-In
Cart
Double Crossing Van Dine
Paperback
Mystery & ThrillerFiction Anthologies
Publisher Price: $22.00
ISBN13: 9781936363964
Publisher: Crippen & Landru Publishers
Published: Aug 19 2025
Pages: 310
Weight: 0.92
Height: 0.70 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!
As the Golden Age of Mystery began to flourish, the books spread their wings and, in some cases, stretched believability. These authors sometimes shocked the readers, but at other times, the books seemed to be oh-so-similar to other mysteries.
Of course, Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd fell into the former category. A hundred years later, readers are still fascinated by the solution to the story. At the time, people were up in arms about the trick in the story.
To prevent another Ackroyd, authors began to develop a code of fair play. What should the author do - and not do-to give the reader a shot at solving the crime? Ellery Queen issued a Challenge to the Reader, which informed them that all the clues had been presented.
Writers have never been ones to color inside the lines, and being told not to do something brought out their creative ideas. Crippen & Landru presented School of Hard Knox in 2023, breaking all of Father Knox's rules, and we're publishing a second, similar volume this year.
In the 1920s S.S. Van Dine wrote a list of twenty rules that must be followed. We've broken each of them. Willard Huntington Wright, who wrote as Van Dine, was not the usual mystery writer. He had written for literary magazines and lectured on philosophy before he had a breakdown in 1923. While he recovered, Wright completed the synopses for six novels featuring a dilettante sleuth, Philo Vance. Scribner was interested and thus began his twelve-novel career. The twenty rules were written in 1928, the same year as his third novel, The Greene Murder Case. The article was published by American Magazine.
Also in
Fiction Anthologies
On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Pirsig, Robert M.
Pirsig, Wendy K.
Hardcover
James Weldon Johnson: Writings (Loa #145): The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man / Along This Way / Essays and Editorials / Selected Poems
Johnson, James Weldon
Hardcover
Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stoker, Bram
Shelley, Mary
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
Sez I to Myself: The Collected Essays of Frank and Malachy McCourt
McCourt, Frank
McCourt, Malachy
Hardcover
Here in New England: Unforgettable Stories of People, Places, and Memories That Connect Us All.
Allen, Mel
Paperback
The Greek Tragedies: Seventeen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
Euripides
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Paperback
Learn Russian with Beginner Stories: Interlinear Russian to English
Van Den End, Kees
Hyplern, Bermuda Word
Gettys, Serafima
Paperback
Obvious Adams -- The Story of a Successful Businessman: New Business Edition
Updegraff, Robert R.
Paperback
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings: Poems, Tales, Essays, and Reviews
Poe, Edgar Allan
Hardcover
Bookin' in the Big House: What I Learned Leading a Women's Prison Book Club
Devoto, Pat Cunningham
Paperback
Japanese Folktales for Language Learners: Bilingual Legends and Fables in Japanese and English (Free Online Audio Recording)
Sato, Anna
Sato, Eriko
Paperback
The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, volume 1
Pedraza, Pilar
Fager, Anders
Cubas, Cristina Fernández
Paperback
The Serpent Mound, Adams County, Ohio (Facsimile Reprint)
Randall, Emilius Oviatt
Randall, E. O.
Paperback