This critical work, submitted as part of the requirements for the Doctorate of Creative Arts, University of Technology, Sydney, includes discussion of publishing and the book trade (how decisions to publish are made; history of publishing in Australia), censorship, and explores some issues in narrative theory. A significant section is devoted to G. M. Glaskin and his work No End to the Way, and a concluding section examines the works of Joseph Hansen, the American writer of detective novels.