Nearly Half a Century at the Top of Her Game

Driving into work this morning I heard P.D. James being interviewed on NPR--I couldn't believe that her first detective novel, Cover Her Face, came out in 1962! I am a big fan of her Adam Dalgliesh series, and so it was interesting to hear her talk about the character, her take on what makes a good mystery novel, and authors who have influenced her. She believes the the "golden age" of detective fiction was in the time between the World Wars. She mentions four authors, who wrote during this "golden age", who she believes helped to "[lift] a rather despised genre into a form which could be taken seriously": Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. She has just released a book Talking About Detective Fiction that examines the craft of the genre from top to bottom. If you have any interest in writing detective fiction this book would definitely be worth a look.