Andrew Taylor

Why are crime writers so weird?

As well as entertaining, the best detective stories deal with life and death, good and evil and the quest for truth

‘The British Character: Love of Detective Fiction’, by Pont. [Bridgeman Images]

What a weird lot crime writers are. I don’t come to this conclusion lightly, since I’m a crime writer myself, but on the evidence of this magisterial but wickedly entertaining book the conclusion is inescapable.

As you turn the pages, the evidence mounts up. One crime writer has been considered a serious candidate for sainthood and another has been convicted of murder.

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