The ‘English Tradition’ in Contemporary American Crime Fiction

Abstract

When in 1962 P.D. James published her first novel, Cover Her Face, few readers will have suspected that James’s work would give a new lease on life to the, at that point, moribund genre of the classic English mystery novel. Cover Her Face is not exceptional, and neither is its police protagonist, Adam Dalgliesh. That is to say, he is rather exceptional — tall, dark, moody, a published poet — but not compared to most Golden Age detectives created by the women writers who in this first novel are clearly James’s inspiration. Reminiscent of Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn, Dalgliesh does as far as exceptionality goes not particularly stand out in the company of Dorothy Sayers’ Peter Wimsey, Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion, or, for that matter, Alleyn himself. As we can see now, however, James’s mysteries developed into complex meditations on deception, guilt, and retribution — occasionally at the expense of their mystery element — while Dalgliesh became more enigmatic and reminded us less and less of his Golden Age precursors.