"This book begins with a history of the detective genre, coextensive with the novel itself, identifying the attitudes and institutions…
needed for the genre to emerge in its mature form around 1880. The theory of the genre is laid out along with its central theme of the getting and deployment of knowledge. Sherlock Holmes, the English Classic stories and their inheritors are examined in light of this theme and the balance of two forms of knowledge used in fictional detection--cool or rational, and warm or emotional. The evolution of the genre formula is driven by changes in the social climate in which it is embedded. These changes explain the decay of the English Classic and its replacement by noir, hardboiled and spy stories, to end in the cul-de-sac of the thriller and the nostalgic Neo-Classic. Possible new forms of the detective story are suggested." -- Provided by publisher
Dans les années 40, Francis P. Bacon, enrôlé dans les services secrets américains, se retrouve à Nuremberg, sur les traces…
du mystérieux Klingsor, conseiller scientifique d'Hitler. L'enquête qui se déroule dans les milieux scientifiques allemands tourne peu à peu au piège, où se prennent autant le héros que le lecteur. Un roman historico-policier sur le mal et l'illusion de la vérité.