began over twenty-five years ago, in a house packed full of detective novels, to the unmistakeable melody of the opening sequence of ITV’s Poirot. My interest in these novels is built on a fascination with the detective narrative and a passion for golden age storytelling. I hope this passion is palpable to the reader, and that I will be forgiven for the unavoidable crime of having given away the endings to so many of the novels that have thrilled and mystified me. Writing a book of this kind is by nature a solitary activity, but I would certainly not have been able to bring the project to fruition without the kindness and companionship of my friends or the support of colleagues in the Department of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. I am especially grateful to Aileen Christianson for her encouragement and advice, as well as her constructive querying of my research from its earliest stages. Her ruthless proofreading taught me to respect my sentences, and her friendship and humour supported me at those challenging times that beset all large projects of this kind. My special thanks are due to Greg Walker for the close attention he paid to this book, and his invaluable support and kindness in giving me confidence in this work and bringing it to publication. Aiding me in the task of not filling the book with obvious errors was my partner Jow, whose tireless copyediting, intellectual engagement with these ideas, and hilarious sidebar commentary sustained me in the latter stages of preparing the manuscript for publication, and indeed whose patience and willingness to see everything as a detective novel cheered me throughout the longer and more arduous process of writing it. Any flaws in my text that I do not quite manage to sneak past the reader are, of course, my own. Finally, this book is dedicated to my parents, Yvonne and Jeff, to whose support and love I owe everything.