《侦探小说——作品与评论》共收入16篇“侦探小说”，主要为短篇和篇幅较短的中篇侦探小说，还收录8篇批评文章，编者袁洪庚等选择作品的标准是兼顾经典性、趣味性，绝大多数作品出自名家之手，使学生知晓侦探小说的文体要素、特征和演变过程固然是主要宗旨，同时编者亦希冀学生通过或借助文学学习英文、了解其所承载的文化。此外，书中还提供术语汇编、侦探小说年表以及100部犯罪及神秘小说名录等附录。

现代侦探小说的起源与演变

Part One Prototypes of the Detective StoryCain and Abel(c950 BC)

Solomon'S Wisdom in Judgment(c625 BC) Susanna(692)

The Dog and the Horse(1747)

Part Two Works

The Murders in the Rue Morgue(1 841)，Edgar Allan Poe

The Adventure ofthe Speckled Band(1892)，Arthur Conan Doyle

Cheating the Gallows(1 893)，Israel Zangwill

The Hammer ofGod(191 1)，G．K Chesterton

The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker(1 926)，Dorothy L．Sayers

A Premeditated Crime(1933)，Witold Gombrowicz

Tape-Measure Murder(1941)，Agatha Christie

Death and the Compass(1942)，Jorge Luis Borges

Ruffian’S Wife(1946)．Dashiell Hammett

“My Queer Dean!”(1953)．Ellery Queen

Murder，1990(1960)，C B．Gilford

Lady PaRerly’S Lover(1965)，Charlotte MacLeod

Galton and the Yelling Boys (1970), Hillary Waugh

The Most Dangerous Man Alive (1980), EdwardD. Hoch

Going through the Motions (1981), Lawrence Block

Under Suspicion (2000), Clark Howard

Part Three Se|ected Criticism

On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (Excerpt, 1827), Thomas De Quincey

A Defense of Detective Stories (1901), G. K. Chesterton

The Art of the Detective Story (1924), Richard Austin Freeman

Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories (1928), S. S. Van Dine

A Response to Edmund Wilson (1944), Bernard DeVoto

Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? (1945)Edmund Wilson

The Guilty Vicarage (1948), W. H. Auden

Murder in Jest: Serial Killing in the Post-Modern Detective Story (1989),

David Richter

Appendix I Glossary

Appendix II References and Further Reading

Appendix III Chronology of Detective Fiction (1748-2000)

Appendix IV Top 100 Crime Novels & Mystery Novels of All Time