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 crime fiction, detective stories, mysteries, thrillers, and spy novels….

In his history of the genre [Mortal Consequences] Julian Symons traces its development from Poe's time to ours. All the major names are there, from Poe and his contemporaries—William Godwin, the first to delve into the psychological aspects of crime, and Eugene Vidocq, himself both criminal and Julian (Gustave) Symons 1912– © Thomas Victor 1984detective—to such current authors as John Le Carré, Patricia Highsmith and Stanley Ellin. (p. 35)

The basic thesis of the book is that we have seen a change in the development of the mystery story from the intricate detective story with its emphasis on plot, which reached its peak in the Golden Age of the twenties and thirties, to the...