David Bordwell. Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder

DavidBordwell's study of the development of popular storytelling in Anglo-American crime fiction, at first glance, seems overly ambitious and redundant, as multiple genre histories and companions focused on the last century already exist.Yet, upon closer examination, it is evident Bordwell crafted an accessible, multi-purpose monograph that presents a significant amount of information that fills a gap in the scholarly literature for both early career and experienced researchers.Contrary to other examinations of the genre that adhere to a strictly chronological approach to tracing Poe's C. Auguste Dupin to twenty-first-century detectives like Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope, Perplexing Plots focuses on the development, adaptation, and revision of narrative schemas and highlights major and nuanced shifts in pivotal periods like the 1940s.Along the way, Bordwell highlights the growing focus on technique evidenced by the proliferation of manuals and guides published in the early twentieth century and demonstrates how readers have acquired the skills needed to interpret recurring schemas to navigate and appreciate 'the relentless, exhilarating churn of popular storytelling' (404).Central to Bordwell's argument is the adage that everything old is new again.For example, he identifies that narrative strategies appearing in mystery stories have been informed by those found in nineteenth-century and modernist works; however, he also points out the