Colin Wilson, The Janus Murder Case

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1984

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Crime and Detective
Novel

Resources

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The Janus Murder Case

(1984) is Colin Wilson’s fourteenth novel and the second, and last, in what had originally been a projected series of twelve police detective novels.

Janus

employs some elements of the police procedural genre, but these are largely subordinated to its psychological and philosophical aspects. Wilson took the basic plot of the novel from his play about multiple personality,

Mysteries

(related to, but not to be confused with, his nonfiction book

Mysteries: An Investigation into the Occult, the Paranormal and the Supernatural

(1978)). The play, begun in 1979, was never produced, but it was finally published in

The Death of God and Other Plays

(2008).

The protagonist of Janus, as of its predecessor, The Schoolgirl Murder Case (1974), is Chief Superintendent Gregory

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1070 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Janus Murder Case". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 October 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23975, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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