From Booklist
Mystery writer Hillerman and critic Herbert (aided and abetted by Sue Grafton and Jeffery Deaver as contributing editors) draw a vivid chalk outline of the body of crime fiction since Dorothy Sayers published her overview of the genre,
The Omnibus of Crime, in 1929. The goal of this anthology is to demonstrate the ways in which crime fiction has changed since Sayers' collection. The editors include mystery fiction from the 1930s through the 1970s that they consider groundbreaking (so we find Sayers herself, as well as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ed McBain as representative crime-fiction revolutionaries). The editors also take on the range of mystery writing since 1980, including stories by Hillerman, Ian Rankin, and Alexander McCall Smith. There are 26 stories in all, from authors around the globe, and each story is accompanied by an introduction that explains the author's style and how he or she influenced mystery writing. Catch this omnibus.
Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"The collection provides a good picture of the genre as it developed during the twentieth-century." Natasha Cooper, TLS "This goody-bag, an ideal last minute Christmas present, proves that writers and readers are still, and always will be, in Sayers's debt." Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard
