Overview

From Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith to Val McDermid and JK Rowling, After Agatha is an indispensable guide to women's crime writing over the last century and an exploration of why women read crime Spanning the 1930s to present day, After Agatha charts the explosion in women's crime writing and examines key developments on both sides of the Atlantic: from the women writers at the helm of the UK Golden Age and their American and Canadian counterparts fighting to be heard, to the 1980s experimental trio, Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton, who created the first female PIs, and the more recent emergence of forensic crime writing and domestic noir thrillers such as Gone Girl and Apple Tree Yard. After Agatha examines the diversification of crime writing and highlights landmark women's novels which featured the marginalised in society as centralised characters. Cline also explores why women readers are drawn to the genre and seek out justice in crime fiction, in a world where violent crimes against women rarely have such resolution. The book includes interviews with dozens of contemporary authors such as Ann Cleeves, Sophie Hannah, Tess Gerritsen and Kathy Reichs and features the work of hundreds of women crime and mystery writers. It is an essential read for crime fiction lovers. Praise for Sally Cline: 'Impressively researched and imaginatively written' - Sunday Times 'Cline gives depth and a dark edge to the familiar story of the Fitzgeralds that began stylishly in hope and ended in despair' - Times 'Fascinating, wide-ranging, hugely knowledgeable an indispensable guide and a beguiling education' - William Boyd 'Her biography is enjoyable and even gripping' - Sunday Telegraph 'Cline's clear-headed and careful study should make clear that [the Fitzgeralds'] relationship can no longer be regarded as a great love story ... [and] demonstrates the terrible danger of such romantic fairytales' - Guardian 'For anyone who has ever read a biography or memoir, or thought of writing one this book of advice from the best writers in the UK is an instant classic' - Elaine Showalter

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9780857302328

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Reviews

Praise for Sally Cline's previous works: Wrapped up in a thorough biography, a strong case for why the unfortunate Zelda Fitzgerald should be remembered as an artist foremost, not merely as a victim of mental illness. (Kirkus Reviews) on Zelda Fitzgerald Cline imbues her scenes with revelatory detail. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) on Zelda Fitzgerald Sally Cline succeeds in breathing fresh life into this jazz-age icon in her meticulously documented and eminently readable biography. (The Washington Post Book World) on Zelda Fitzgerald Man of Mystery delivers the goods on Hammett. . . . An entertaining and informative read. --Library Journalon Dashiell Hammett In Dashiell Hammett: Man of Mystery, Cline brilliantly captures the life and times of this often private, enigmatic, and talented man. . . . Five out of five stars for her first-rate, well-researched, and compelling biography on Dashiell Hammett. It is a gem of a book, very entertaining, and it belongs in the library of all lovers of American literature. --Baltimore Post-Examineron Dashiell Hammett Apart from its valuable contribution to the study of lesbian literature per se, this biography dramatizes through Hall's life the complex and still often surprising sexual politics of the early century. --Kirkus Reviews on Radclyffe Hall

Author Information

Sally Cline, author of 14 books, is an award-winning biographer and fiction writer. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Research Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and former Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. Her biography on Radclyffe Hall, now a classic, was shortlisted for the LAMBDA prize; Lifting the Taboo: Women, Death and Dying won the Arts Council Prize for non-fiction; and her landmark biographies on Zelda Fitzgerald and Dashiell Hammett were bestsellers in the UK and US. She is co- Series Editor for Bloomsbury\'s 9 volume Writers and Artists Companions. Formerly lecturing at Cambridge University, she has degrees and masters from Durham and Lancaster Universities and was awarded a D.Litt in International Writing.

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