The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives

Description

The great recurring characters in the mystery series we love become like old friends. Our favourite cops and sleuths earn our respect and we follow their antics with baited breath from one instalment to the next. But where do some of the most fascinating detectives in the mystery and thriller world really come from? What was the real-life location that inspired Michael Connelly to make Harry Bosch a former Vietnam tunnel rat? Why is Jack Reacher such a giant of a guy, and why did Lee Child make him a drifter? How did a brief encounter in Botswana inspire Alexander McCall Smith to create the kind but no-nonsense Precious Ramotswe? In The Lineup, some of today's top mystery writers reveal the genesis of their unforgettable characters. For crime fiction fans everywhere, this is a unique and highly entertaining volume to read and relish again and again. Find out about your favourite characters, and maybe discover some new ones too.

Otto Penzler is the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, the editor of many mystery anthologies, and coauthor of the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, for which he won an Edgar Award. He lives in New York.

'An all-star cast' Kirkus Reviews. * Kirkus * 'An exciting omnibus volume that has widespread appeal and adds up to much, much more than the sum of its parts ... the best book of its kind' New York Times. * New York Times *