Course Description

The lectures will examine crime and mystery fiction, primarily in the Anglo-American tradition, beginning with works by Edgar Allen Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, and closing with a novel hot off the 2025 press. The focus will be on each writer’s style, themes and preoccupations, as well as conventions of the genre. The majority of materials discussed will be from the 20th century.

Course Director

Dale Churchward
Dale Churchward received his PhD from University of Western Ontario, where he taught Honours courses on the works of Shakespeare and other early-modern playwrights in addition to non-dramatic works of the Renaissance. He taught senior English Literature and Drama at Upper Canada College for 25 years. He’s presently a freelance writer, based in Toronto.

photo of Dale Churchward and dog

Dale Churchward

Term and Time

Fall 2025 – starting September
9:50 am on Friday morning
Room TBA in York Hall

Course Outline

Two weeks before the course starts, you can download a printable PDF giving the 10-week detailed course outline.

NOTE: The course outline opens in a new browser tab where you cannot see the LLIR page header and menu. You can download the outline for future reading and printing. When you are finished, return to our website as follows:
— On a large screen, click the X on the right side of the browser tab to close it.
— On a smartphone, click the back button displayed as a back arrowhead ( < ) .

Lecture Notes

Links to resources such as additional reading or play lists are provided here as the Course Director makes them available during term. Like the course outline, lecture notes open in a new browser tab so that you can download and print them.


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