Poet, biographer, historian, novelist, criminologist, and critic, Julian Symons, president of the Detection Club since 1976, is heir to the kingdom of crime literature previously presided over by G. K...
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Julian Symons cheerfully accepted being recognized primarily as a writer of crime fiction, indeed as one of a small group of writers who definitively established the claim of crime fiction to a place ...
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Critical Essay by Christopher Pym
It is difficult to fault [The Progress of a Crime, a] shrewd, sardonic account of how, in our time, murder quite easily gets done; how a case is handled in the cells...
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Critical Essay by Anthony Boucher
Julian Symons seems to be deliberately trying, in ["The Belting Inheritance"],… to see to what extent a first-rate professional can animate such...
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Critical Essay by Patrick Cosgrave
[A three pipe Problem] is historically based … in a contemporary sense: the action takes place today. But the detective is Sherlock Holmes! Rather, he is an ...
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Critical Essay by Allen J. Hubin
Julian Symons does not repeat himself: each novel stands alone on its own credentials, which are usually impressive. Thus The Blackheath Poisonings …, "...
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Critical Essay by Steven R. Carter
Julian Symons has helped to increase the range and worth of crime fiction in many ways. For example, his crime novels, like Ross Macdonald's, combine ingenio...
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Critical Essay by Jack Sullivan
In "Mortal Consequences," his distinguished study of detective fiction, Julian Symons states that the best Victorian mysteries were those that assumed me...
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Critical Essay by William R. Evans
Almost everyone likes a good mystery. Approximately one fourth of all fiction published in the United States and Great Britain falls into the category that includes...
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Critical Essay by Paul Gray
[Julian Symons] has been putting together intricately crafted and plotted novels for roughly four decades, earning along the way more respect from peers than public fame&#...
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Critical Essay by Mary Cantwell
Julian Symons is mystery fiction's grand old man. Novelist, historian of the genre and student of true crime as well, he has brought all three passions together...
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Critical Essay by Meredith Tax
Dudley Potter [the protagonist of The Name of Annabel Lee] is a bit of a nerd…. Dudley's soul lies dormant until a traveling avant-garde theater group inv...
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Critical Essay by The New Yorker
Mr. Symons has always given full measure. That is to say, he has never chosen to stand by ingenuity of plot alone; he also gives his attention to character, setting, ...
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Critical Essay by Robert Harrison
If you have a passing interest in learning a bit about the detective story without having actually to read one, [Mortal Consequences: A History From the Detective St...
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Critical Essay by The Spectator
The Plot Against Roger Rider [is] by Julian Symons …, who is probably the foremost scholar of crime and thriller fiction now writing. Actually, there are two ov...
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Critical Essay by Newgate Callendar
Leave it to Julian Symons. When he writes a mystery, you can be assured that this urbane stylist, this master of the traditional detective story, will have a puzzl...
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Critical Essay by The New Yorker
Mr. Symons is always an enjoyably sly and deceiving writer, and he has seldom been trickier than in [The Plot Against Roger Rider]…. It is not, however, among ...
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Critical Essay by The Spectator
I have to say that Julian Symons's Bloody Murder … ("heartily recommended" in these columns by Kingsley Amis when it appeared in hardback; ...
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Critical Essay by Daniel Hoffmann
Julian Symons' "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a … dependable guide to Poe's life. This book makes no claim to original research but offe...
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Critical Essay by Megan Marshall
Julian Symons, himself a writer of detective stories, gives a straightforward, knowledgeable account of Poe's life in The Tell Tale Heart. This in itself is no...
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Critical Essay by Benny Green
In going over ground likely to be familiar to the general reader, biographers often feel the need to buttress their presumption with a theory; if that theory can hint, n...
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Julian (Gustave) Symons
Critical Essay by Christopher Pym
