The simple art of murder
by Raymond Chandler · first published 1950
6mentions
2recommended by
6HN commenters
2019–2024first – last mentioned
33% recommend67% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Also worth reading in this genre is Raymond Chandler’s The Simple Art of Murder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simple_Art_of_Murder https://www.fadedpage.com/books/20140930/html.php#Page_1
on “The Ten Commandments for Detective Fiction (2017)” ↗I'd recommend starting with some of his collections of short stories, like 'The Simple Art of Murder' - https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20140930 or 'Trouble is My Business' - https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20150520
on “Raymond Chandler’s guide to street, hoodlum, and prison lingo” ↗…good to have at least some vague indication of the worth of a work. Also writers of crime fiction often have themselves question ed the worth of much of the production, see Raymond Chandler's Essay "The Simple Art of Murder'. Why should we read Christie when we could rather read Graham Greene sounds like an interesting question to me
on “Killing time with Agatha Christie” ↗…Fleming Explains How to Write a Thriller (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25181256 - Nov 2020 (18 comments) and for that matter, here's Raymond Chandler explaining how to write a murder: The Simple Art of Murder (1944) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33888453 - Dec 2022 (3 comments)
on “Ian Fleming Explains How to Write a Thriller” ↗…numbers filed off. Hammett himself worked as a Pinkerton, among other things, before he got into writing. I got into his writing because Raymond Chandler was such a big fan as I learned from his essay The Simple Art of Murder[1] [1] https://archive.is/fi4Wz
on “True Crime: Allan Pinkerton's Thirty Years a Detective (1884)” ↗…but in general I strongly prefer Chandler's approach over other mystery authors of the time. [1]"Ten Commandments for the Detective Novel" http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv116.html [2]"The Simple Art of Murder" http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/scans/chandlerar...
on “Rules for Writing Detective Stories by S.S. Van Dine (1928)” ↗