Diese Autoren, Mitglieder des neu gegründeten Detection Club, arbeiteten 1931 gemeinsam an einem Roman, wobei jeder ein Kapitel beisteuerte und andere den Prolog und Epilog schrieben. Ihr gemeinsames Ziel war es, eine originelle Kriminalhandlung zu entwickeln, die die Grenzen des Genres auslotet. Diese Zusammenarbeit spiegelt das Streben nach kollektiver Innovation und Meisterschaft in der Kunst des Mysteriösen wider. Werke von Autoren wie G.K. Chesterton und Agatha Christie gelten bis heute als Klassiker des Kriminalgenres.
The Floating Admiral was the first of the Detection Club's collaborative novels, in which twelve of its members wrote a single novel. Eighty-five years later, fourteen members of the club have once again collaborated to produce The Sinking Admiral.
Ten years since it was first published in hardback, and now for the first time in mass market paperback, this volume of short stories by the cream of British crime writing talent celebrates 75 years of the quintessential Detection Club.
This classic crime novel by six different authors is introduced by Martin Edwards, archivist of the Detection Club, and includes a never-before- published Preface by Agatha Christie, `Detective Writers in England', in which she discusses her approach to writing and her fellow writers in the Detection Club.
In the quiet seaside town of Whynmouth, Inspector Rudge seldom faces murder cases. However, his routine is shattered when an old sailor arrives with a rowing boat carrying a fresh corpse, stabbed in the chest. The investigation reveals multiple challenges; the vicar, owner of the boat, seems to be hiding crucial information, and the victim's niece has mysteriously vanished. The case grows increasingly complex, raising doubts about the victim's identity and the number of people involved in this extraordinary crime. Inspector Rudge grapples with the intricacies of the situation, questioning whether he will ever uncover the truth. In 1931, a group of crime writers, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, collaborated on a unique literary project under the Detection Club. Each author contributed a chapter in a game of literary consequences, with G.K. Chesterton providing a paradoxical prologue and Anthony Berkeley resolving the story. The authors also submitted their own solutions in sealed envelopes, revealed at the book's conclusion, with Agatha Christie's clever resolution noted as particularly outstanding. The contributors included notable figures such as Canon Victor Whitechurch, G.D.H. Cole, and Ronald Knox, among others.
Dorothy L. Sayers, 1893 - 1957, legte als eine der ersten Frauen an der Universität ihres Geburtsortes Oxford ihr Examen ab. Mit ihren mehr als zwanzig Detektivromanen schrieb sie Literaturgeschichte, und sie gehört neben Agatha Christie und P. D. James zur Trias der großen englischen «Ladies of Crime». Schon in ihrem 1923 erschienenen Erstling «Ein Toter zu wenig» führte sie die Figur des eleganten, finanziell unabhängigen Lord Peter Wimsey ein, der aus moralischen Motiven Verbrechen aufklärt. Dieser äußerst scharfsinnige Amateurdetektiv avancierte zu einem der populärsten Krimihelden des Jahrhunderts.