Detective Fiction Collection
The Detective Fiction Collection is housed in the Law Library.
Jean Racine (1639-99)
Origin
The collection was gifted to the University in 1998 from the estate of Marion Steven. Marion enrolled as a student at University of Canterbury College in 1938 to study Greek and Classics. She also worked part time in the Library and, from 1942, lectured in Classics. By the time she retired in 1976, she was a much-loved Reader in the Department of Classics.
Her great interest was Greek art, particularly pottery. She married James Logie in 1950 and, after his death, set up the renowned James Logie Memorial Collection (still found in the Classics Department) of vases and pottery from Greek and Roman antiquities.
Marion Steven's leisure interests centred on theatre and detective novels. She methodically and painstakingly built up her collection to 1,600 volumes. Featured in the collection are such well-known classics as those of Agatha Christie, Norman Berrow, Anne Perry, Ngaio Marsh, Ruth Rendell and P.D. James, among others. The collection continues to grow through donations.
Browse the Collection
Books can be found by using the Title or Author indexes in the Library Catalogue. You can also search the Subject Alphabetical index for the "chief detective" e.g. Poirot, Hercule
The novels are shelved in the Law Library (Level 3) by call number, which is the first 3 letters of the author's name, e.g. CHR