Chris Chan's Nonfiction Mystery Criticism

Can you enjoy a crime television show if you already know whodunit? As Columbo proved, definitely! In nearly every episode, Lieutenant Columbo, played by Peter Falk, is paired off against a murderer who'd supposedly committed the perfect crime. Columbo would question, trick, and even befriend the very different killers in order to make an arrest. But despite the standard formula for the episodes, each guest murderer was very different. This book will explore the killers who believed they were too clever to be caught, only to be undone by a detective who kept asking about just one more thing...

It's the world's bestselling mystery novel and one of the most popular books of all time. But despite its fame, the complex history and cultural impact of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is largely unknown to most readers. Absolute Justice analyzes the book's characters and hidden clues, describes the novel's many stage, screen, and other media adaptations, and explores how And Then There Were None became a cultural phenomenon, reshaping not just the crime genre, but the horror genre as well, inspired fans all over the world, and even raised the spirits of WWII prisoners of war.