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Long before the advent of true crime podcasts, 17th-century murder pamphlets sold like hotcakes in England, and dubious criminal \u201cautobiographies\u201d were sold at executions. On the eve of the 19th century, William Godwin published Things as They Are; or the Adventures of Caleb Williams, identified by this week\u2019s guest, Martin Edwards, as the \u201cfirst thriller about a manhunt\u201d\u2014and a blueprint for how detective novelists would go on to construct the whodunnit. Edwards should know. He\u2019s the eighth president of the Detection Club and the author of dozens of crime novels (and about a thousand articles about other people\u2019s mysteries). Now he has written A Life of Crime, the first major history of the genre in more than 50 years, distilling two centuries of crime fiction from around the world, from the Golden Age of Agatha Christie and company to the realm of contemporary Japan.

Go beyond the episode:

• Martin Edwards\u2019s The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators
• Read an excerpt here
• We dare you not to snap up the entire collection of the British Library\u2019s editions of Crime Classics, edited by Edwards, based on the covers alone
• Three women stars of early crime fiction: Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835\u20131915; her 1862 book Lady Audley\u2019s Secret was a \u201csensation novel\u201d in every sense), Anna Katharine Green (1846\u20131935; her reputation as the \u201cmother of the detective novel\u201d began with The Leavenworth Case in 1878), and Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868\u20131947; Alfred Hitchcock famously adopted her 1913 novel The Lodger to the screen)
• Find a full suite of reading recommendations on our episode page
• Further evidence that our host has a crime show problem

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

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Have suggestions for projects you\u2019d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.

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