TWENTY DETECTIVE NOVELS BY LITERARY AUTHORS — A LIST

by Josef Hoffmann

   Of course Hammett, Chandler, Simenon and other crime writers are authors with a literary quality, but they are classified as mystery writers whose work is typical of the genre. The literary authors I refer to have written detective novels as an exception to their work which is considered as literature. Some of these detective novels are rather unusual and not typical of the genre, some are rather conventional.

   The following list is not complete.

Auster, Paul: City of Glass, Sun & Moon 1985 (in The New York Trilogy)

      – : Ghosts, Sun & Moon 1986 (in The New York Trilogy)

      – (as Paul Benjamin): Squeeze Play, Alpha-Omega 1982

Butor, Michel: Passing Time, Calder 1960, Simon 1960 (Translation of L’Emploi du Temps, 1956)

Chekhov, Anton: The Shooting Party, Paul 1926 (Translation of Drama na ochote, 1884)

Doderer, Heimito von: Every Man a Murderer, Knopf 1964 (Translation of Ein Mord, den jeder begeht, 1938)

Dürrenmatt, Friedrich: The Judge and His Hangman, Jenkins 1954 (Translation of Der Richter und sein Henker, 1952)

      – : The Pledge, Cape 1959 (Translation of Das Versprechen, 1958)

      – : The Quarry, Cape 1962 (Translation of Der Verdacht, 1959)

Fonseca, Rubem: Bufo & Spallanzini, Dutton 1990 (Translation of Bufo & Spallanzini, 1985)

      – : Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts, Ecco Press 1998 (Translation of Vastas emocoes e pensamentos imperfeitos, 1988)

Gadda, Carlo Emilio: That Awful Mess on Via Merulana, Braziller 1965 (Translation of Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, 1957)

Handke, Peter: Der Hausierer, Suhrkamp 1967 (as far as I know, not translated)

Hjortsberg, William: Falling Angel, Harcourt 1978

Kertész, Imre: Detective Story, Knopf 2008 (Translation of Detektivtörténet, 2001)

Pynchon, Thomas: Inherent Vice, Penguin Press 2009

Robbe-Grillet, Alain: The Erasers, Calder 1963 (Translation of Les Gommes, 1962)

Tabucchi, Antonio: The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro, New Directions 1999 (Translation of La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro, 1997)

Vargas Llosa, Mario: Who Killed Palomino Molero?, Farrar 1987 (Translation of Quien mato a Palomino Molero?, 1986)

      – : Death in the Andes, Farrar 1996 (Translation of Lituma en los Andes, 1993)

    Further Reading:

Detecting Texts. The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism, edited by Patricia Merivale, Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, PENN 1999