If you have a passing interest in learning a bit about the detective story without having actually to read one, [Mortal Consequences: A History From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel] is just the book for you. Mr. Symons, with a good deal of critical insight and a pinch of condescension, tells us in his opening chapter what detective stories are ("part of the hybrid creature we call sensational literature") and why we read them (to exorcise "the guilt of the individual or the group through ritual and symbolic sacrifices"), then launches into a chronicle of the genre from the Godwin-Vidocq-Poe era to the present, gradually shedding enroute his academic regalia in favor of the fighting trunks of the professional reviewer cum literary critic.

When he analyzes, Mr. Symons is occasionally superb; when he opines, frequently silly. For instance, immediately after he has pointed out to us...