title: The American Private Eye: The Image in Fiction
author:  David Geherin 
description: David Geherin traces the history of private eye (not detective) fiction in the United States by profiling the private eyes themselves, from their dime novel beginnings, their pulp magazine adolescence and their modern maturity. Although he mentions Poe's C. Auguste Dupin as being the first real detective created by an America, he correctly assigns him to the European school of detective fiction, for Dupin was the role model of the more famous Sherlock Holmes, who himself inspired the likes of Philo Vance, Ellery Queen and Nero Wolfe...being detectives, they are in a different class than the American tough-guy/hard-boiled private eye, although Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's legman, has more in common with the two-fisted fast-talking wise-cracking private eye than he does the eccentric detective for whom he works; likewise, Perry Mason has much in common with the private eye archetype, but he is ultimately an attorney who flexes his muscles in the courtroom. Geherin credits pulp magazines for creating the private eye with which we are familiar, but it was (and still is) the novel which causes the private eye to endure and evolve. Actually, since the pulp magazine is long dead and the mystery magazine is nearly dead, the novel format assumes a greater importance and is the birthplace of all the private eyes in Geherin's book, from Phillip Marlowe forward. The value of a book like this is that rescues from ill-deserved obscurity some important private eyes and gives the reader a starting point for further reading. Fortunately, many of the early private eyes and pulpsters are again available in book collections, thanks to POD technology. If there is a weakness in the book, it is that only series characters are examined (and not all of them at that) and some minor private eyes are left out as are one-shot detectives such as Sam Spade. All in all, though, the book is an excellent reference for fans of the private eye genre, mystery readers in general, and literary scholars.
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  Behind His Lens
  
  
  Copyright © 2013 R.S. Grey
  
  
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  Published: R.S. Grey 2013
  
  
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