I just realised that my previous post: By way of Introduction to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, only referred to British authors and therefore it was incomplete without a reference to their American counterparts. For this reason I would suggest you a visit to Golden Age Mystery: 30 Titles by Notable American Crime Writers at The Passing Tramp.
Moreover in the same ways as Ronald Knox laid out in 1928-29 the “ten rules” that guided detective fiction in the Golden Age, the “Detective Story Decalogue”, S.S. Van Dine felt also compelled to share with the world at large, his rules for writing detective fiction, “Twenty rules for writing detective stories” (1928).
A Crime is Afoot 