Tough Guys, Honest Opinions

Most readers in the 1920s thought that detective fiction meant cozy drawing rooms, antique dueling pistols, and the cool fields of England. It belonged mostly to female writers such as Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, and Dorothy L. Sayers. These women all came from comfortable middle-class backgrounds. Sayers herself doubled as an academic who translated Dante’s Divine Comedy into English during the height of her fiction career.

Stirring Up Black Hatred