Under Soviet power there were essentially only two modern foreign writers of detective literature given the official blessing. Other than half-a-dozen classics by Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle and the occasional novel by James Hadley Chase or Ellery Queen in some provincial literary monthly, the only available foreign writers in the detective genre were Agatha Christie and Georges Simenon. The situation has changed dramatically. We now have Russian-language editions of complete works by Chase by different publishers in 30 volumes, a 20-volume hardcover set of Christie, five unfinished collected works by Earl Stanley Gardner and scores of books by other mystery writers. Most appear dated to English-language readers as Russian publishers prefer "pre-convention" books -- those published in English before 1973 when the Soviet Union signed the Geneva copyright convention The list of such novels published in Russia in one week in April exceeds 50 titles. Among the English and American authors are: John Dickson Carr (volume with two novels); Gregory McDonald (three novels in one hardcover); Dick Francis (two books with five novels); James Hadley Chase (two hardcovers with six novels); Earl Stanley Gardner (four novels in one hardcover); Peter Cheyney (two novels in one book); Edgar Wallace (three novels); and Rex Stout (three volumes with five novels and some short stories). Also published in the same week were books by Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, Len Deighton, Robert van Gulik, Richard Pratter, Eric Ambler and Carter Brown.
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