Required Texts

• Mystery Fiction Reader (copies of short stories and essays)
• Bones and Silence (1990), by Reginald Hill
• The Maltese Falcon (1929), by Dashiell Hammett
• Indemnity Only (1982), by Sara Paretsky
• A Murder Is Announced (1942), by Agatha Christie
• The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982), by P. D. James

The reader and the required texts are available from the online bookstore.

Required Online Reading

"The Final Problem" (1893), by A. Conan Doyle, in Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Films/Video

• Double Indemnity (1944), directed by Billy Wilder
• Dragnet (1954), directed by Jack Webb
• V.I. Warshawski (1991), directed by Jeff Kanew [optional]

Online Lecture

Each unit's lecture consists of my commentary on the assigned readings and issues related to them.

Internet Resources and Further Readings

In addition to the required readings, each unit will include other recommended extracurricular readings or viewings that are pertinent (texts available on the Internet that are a part of the same subgenre, or written by the same author, novels, films, and so on). A "Webliography" of Web sites will provide links to related materials. You and I will annotate both the Webliography and the "Recommended Reading" list.

Quizzes

You will complete the short quizzes that follow each unit as one of the requirements for this course. Before you start having performance anxiety about tests, hear me out.

The scores you receive on these quizzes are your own business. I only need to know that you've completed them and the details of any particular problems you might have had in completing them correctly. They are designed as interactive study aids; in other words, they are designed for you, not me. You're shaking your head.

Well, incredible as it may sound, you'll find that these quizzes are

The lecture notes are extensive, abstract, and sometimes difficult, and it's important to test your active comprehension of them before you go on to the next unit and before we get to the final examination. Quizzes represent good opportunities for you to sit back and actively review the material, and they also present good openings for you to engage me in dialogues about murky or inspiring moments in the lectures.

Take advantage of those benefits, and take these quizzes. Enjoy!

Final Project

You are required to complete a research project. It's not too early to start thinking about your topic, and you should be working on the project throughout the course. In some of the later units I will be asking for information from your "investigative logs," the form we'll use for tracking down useful informants and tips.

Final Examination

When you have finished all of the assignments in this course, including the final project, you can take the final examination. Two to four weeks before you wish to take the exam, please fill out and submit the final exam request form.

The final is made up of the following two parts:

• Identifications. I will give you an important passage from one of the novels or other texts featured in the lecture notes and ask you to identify it and its significance. The best way to prepare for these identifications is to look over the lecture notes and the quizzes.

• Essay. I will ask you to write an essay in which you consider the literary value of mystery fiction. The best way to prepare for this essay is to consider which twentieth-century mystery novels you've read, either in the course or outside of it, that you feel stand up as genuine literary achievements. Think of the criteria that ought to apply to such a judgment, and adduce examples from your reading that will act as evidence for that judgment. You may very well decide there are no mystery novels that represent literary achievements; in that case, prepare evidence that proves that point of view. You'll have to carry the evidence in your head to the final, as the exam will be closed-book.

Good luck!

Grading

Course grades are based on the following:

• Final project -- 30%
• Final project progress reports -- 15%
• Other written assignments and classroom interaction -- 25%
• Final examination -- 30%

You must receive passing grades on both the final project and the final examination to pass the course.