Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple in the 1960s
How do you define a crime story?
One answer might be any novel subject to the tyranny of plot, including spy stories and thrillers both genres examined in Martin Edwards’s magisterial survey, The Life of (Collins Crime Club, 736pp, £14.99), the first of its kind since ‘Bloody Murder’ by Julian Symons. Edwards quotes Raymond Chandler, who said ‘the form …. is too various for easy classification.’ A bit like Chandler’s plots, in fact. So, let’s leave it at that.
