A real Thursday Murder Club? How a team of crime fiction writers tried to save the genre (and solve crimes)
Led by figures such as Agatha Christie, this is how a group of the world's most celebrated writers of crime fiction formed a clandestine group to collectively improve their field while taking inspiration from real crimes
Imagine a secret society where the finest and most famous crime fiction writers of the 20th century – figures like Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and GK Chesterton – dined together, swapped clues and plotted murders (at least on paper). It might sound like a premise from crime fiction itself. But it was, and remains, very real.
In 1930, a number of Britain’s most celebrated crime writers founded what became known as the Detection Club: a dining society with a mission. Their goal was to unite the brightest talents of the ‘Golden Age’ of detective fiction, raise the quality of the genre, and – occasionally – collaborate on stories inspired by real-life crimes.
A real Thursday Murder Club?
Today, crime writers regularly meet at book festivals, through literary societies and on social media. But in the 1920s, they usually worked in isolation.
“The Detection Club grew out of an idea that Anthony Berkeley [author of the famous Roger Sheringham mysteries] came up with in 1928 of inviting a few fellow authors to dinner at his home in Watford,” explains historian and crime novelist Martin Edwards, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast.
“By and large crime writers did not know each other. They were working individually … people were not in touch with each other, even when they shared the same passion, in the way that we are so easily today,” says Edwards.
Berkeley decided to change that. His informal dinners with fellow authors proved so enjoyable that he soon proposed a permanent club.
The idea was to form a new, professional fellowship for writers who wanted detective fiction to be treated seriously as literature, not just mass-market entertainment.
What was the Golden Age of crime fiction?
The 1920s and 30s are often called the Golden Age of detective fiction. After the trauma of the First World War, readers devoured intricate puzzles where chaos was returned to order.
This was the age of country house murders, locked-room mysteries and brilliant detectives – from Hercule Poirot to Lord Peter Wimsey.
But with popularity came problems for the genre. Alongside masterpieces, publishers churned out hastily written thrillers, sensationalist crime tales and formulaic plots. For writers like Sayers and Christie, the genre risked losing credibility. The Detection Club set out to guard against that decline.
“They were trying to upgrade the quality of detective fiction [and] exclude the mass producers of what they saw as poorly written crime fiction, in particular thrillers,” Edwards explains.
At dinners and debates, members informally agreed on rules for “fair play” – the principle that readers should be given enough clues to solve the mystery themselves, rather than being tricked by last-minute revelations. Dorothy L Sayers and Ronald Knox even helped codify these principles into a tongue-in-cheek set of rules, forbidding solutions that relied on doubles, identical twins or sudden acts of the supernatural.
The club was part social gathering, part literary gatekeeping.
Founding the 'murder club'
Berkeley’s first choice for president was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. But Doyle, by then elderly and in poor health, declined. He died just months later. Berkeley then approached GK Chesterton, the genial creator of Father Brown, who accepted.
“Chesterton had written possibly the first significant essay on detective fiction … absolutely the ideal man for the role,” Edwards notes.
With Chesterton as president, the club had instant prestige. Membership was by secret ballot, and only the most respected writers were admitted. This exclusivity quickly made the club synonymous with the very best of the genre.
When crime writers played detective
Almost immediately, its members began experimenting with collaborative writing projects that showcased their collective talent.
The first of these was Behind the Screen, a serialised mystery created by a roster of leading authors including Berkeley, Sayers, and Christie. Each wrote a section in turn, handing the story on like a baton. The tale was first broadcast on BBC radio and then published in The Listener, a weekly magazine launched by the BBC in 1929 to bring radio programmes to print. Readers were invited to act as detectives themselves, piecing together the clues before the solution was revealed.
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The experiment proved so popular that the BBC quickly asked for another. In 1931 the Club produced The Scoop, a mystery set in a newspaper office and loosely inspired by a real-life Fleet Street killing. It was again co-written by Berkeley, Sayers, Christie and several others, and readers were encouraged to pit their wits against the professionals.
But the Detection Club’s fascination with crime went beyond fiction. At their dinners, Sayers, for example, took a close interest in the notorious ‘Blazing Car Murder’ of 1930, in which a charred body was discovered in a burned-out Morris Minor on a Surrey lane.
The case became front-page news when Alfred Rouse, a travelling salesman, was accused of killing an unknown man to fake his own death and escape financial troubles. Sayers followed the trial closely, discussing its details with fellow writers and later weaving elements of forensic detection into her own fiction.
This habit of mining contemporary crimes for inspiration was common in the Club. Members clipped stories from the press, debated the evidence over dinner and in some cases even exchanged letters with Scotland Yard detectives.
Agatha Christie and the women of crime
Women were at the heart of the Detection Club from the start. Dorothy L Sayers, creator of Lord Peter Wimsey, was among its founders. Agatha Christie – famously shy in public – also threw herself into its work.
“Agatha Christie actually joined the committee [and] later became its president. To this day, she’s the longest-serving president,” Edwards says.
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Christie presided over the club for years, her authority a reminder of how central women were to shaping detective fiction.
In a literary world still dominated by men, the Detection Club offered a space where women’s leadership and creativity defined the rules of the game.
The legacy of the club
The Detection Club's collaborative novels, strict ballot system and star power made it something of a legend in literary circles.
“Although it’s a small and odd little grouping, it achieved a reputation that was quite disproportionate in many ways to its size and scale,” Edwards reflects.
Amazingly, it still exists. Nearly a century on, the club continues to meet three times a year. Martin Edwards himself is its eighth president, following in the footsteps of many crime fiction greats.
“Founded in 1930, it’s now a sprightly 95-year-old. My predecessors have included, not just Chesterton, but Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie.”
The Avengers of crime fiction?
The Detection Club was never a real detective agency, but it was a firm fellowship of writers who defended their genre, sharpened its standards and sometimes drew inspiration directly from real crimes.
Like a team of literary Avengers, they combined forces to elevate the art of the whodunnit. In doing so, they ensured that detective fiction didn’t fade as a passing fad of the 1920s but remained a cornerstone of popular literature – still one of the most beloved and commercially successful genres today.
This article is based on an interview with Martin Edwards, speaking to Isabel King on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full conversation.
Authors
James Osborne is a digital content producer at HistoryExtra where he writes, researches, and edits articles, while also conducting the occasional interview