Leading critic S.T. Joshi reviews surveys the work of 13 mystery and crime writers, ranging from the Golden Age, Hardboiled school, the Psychological Mystery, and Contemporary Writers.

The Golden Age

Dorothy L. Sayers: Lords and Servants
John Dickson Carr: Puzzlemeister
Margery Allingham: Murder, Gangs, and Spies
Philip MacDonald: Expanding the "Cosy" Mystery

II. The Hard-Boiled School
Dashiell Hammett: Sam Spade and Others
Raymond Chandler: Mean Streets
Ross Macdonald: Family Affairs
III. The Psychological Mystery

Margaret Millar: Scars of the Psyche
Patricia Highsmith: Guilt and Innocence
L. P. Davies: The Workings of the Mind

Some Contemporaries
P. D. James: The Empress's New Clothes
Ruth Rendell: The Psychology of Murder
Sue Grafton: Hard-Boiled Female