Overview

Rational Scrutiny: Paradoxes and Contradictions in Detective Fiction, discusses why Chess Hanrahan and Cyrus Skeen, the author's premier heroes and the chief subjects of this volume, are not only extraordinary men of action, but intellectuals of the first rank, as well. As Cline writes in the Preface, detective fiction, as a rule, employs both intellectuals and doers. Detectives solve problems; detectives usually do something about them. Problems cannot be solved until they are grasped, understood, and counter actions are identified. In the mystery and detective fiction genres, detectives solve problems that are criminal in nature. Crimes are a consequence of human volition; it is the detective's task to solve them. The problems must first arise before the detective can act. He does not act in a vacuum. He cannot prevent problems caused by others, or of which he is not yet aware, because they are products of human volition. Hanrahan, operating in our own time, and Skeen, acting in the third decade of the 20th century, have their own unique way of approaching crime-solving. Paradoxes do not exist in nature, they observe, nor should they exist in men's lives, values, and actions. Along the way, Cline refutes the common literary notion that some of the best fictional detectives in the past were not intellectuals in his essay, The Wizards of Disambiguation, a critique of the post-modern, deconstructionist school of criticism. He concludes that Skeen and Hanrahan only partly conform to Raymond Chandler's description of an ideal detective, except that each abhors 'a lively sense of the grotesque, ' can express a quick but not necessarily 'rude' wit, and harbors a disgust for sham and a contempt for pettiness. And neither is tarnished nor afraid.

Full Product Details

9781500848903

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Edward Cline: His first detective novel, First Prize, was published in 1988 by Mysterious Press/Warner Books, and republished by Perfect Crime Books in 2009. His first suspense novel, Whisper the Guns, was published in 1992 by The Atlantean Press. His Roaring Twenties detective series is published by the Patrick Henry Press. The Pickwick Affair is the seventh in that series. The Sparrowhawk series of historical novels has garnered critical acclaim and universal appreciation from the reading public. He writes regularly for such political and cultural blog sites as Rule of Reason, Capitalism Magazine, Family Security Matters, and numerous other print and Internet publications. Rational Scrutiny is his seventh nonfiction book.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available