We must have certainty

"We Must Have Certainty surveys 160 years of the development of the genre (1841-2001) and then suggests some ways in which the genre and its development reflect some of the issues that have concerned writers and readers in America and Europe during that period. In particular, it examines the special nature of the world in which the fictional detective operates: a world constructed always to yield certain truth to the person who can read its signs correctly. The nature of these signs evolves with the genre, but while the surfaces of the world may change (from, for example, the Arcadian rhythms of a country house to the cacophony of the mean streets), what really happens in the world is always detectable."--Jacket.