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104-614: Blood Hunt is a 1995 crime novel by Ian Rankin , under the pseudonym "Jack Harvey". It is the third novel he wrote under this name. Gordon Reeve, a former SAS soldier, receives a phone call in his home in Scotland, informing him that his brother Jim has been found dead in a car in San Diego - the car being locked from the inside, and the gun still in Jim's hand. While in the USA to identify

208-519: A climax where the titular detective protagonist Ali Khwaja presents evidence from expert witnesses in a court. Gong'an fiction ( 公案小说 , literally："case records of a public law court") is an early genre of Chinese detective fiction. Some well-known stories include the Yuan dynasty story Circle of Chalk (Chinese: 灰 闌 記 ), the Ming dynasty story collection Bao Gong An (Chinese: 包 公 案 ) and

312-457: A thriller novel of the 1990s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . Crime novel It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction and science fiction , but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has several subgenres , including detective fiction (such as

416-401: A "plot formula that's been successful ever since, give or take a few shifting variables." Poe followed with further Auguste Dupin tales: " The Mystery of Marie Rogêt " in 1842 and " The Purloined Letter " in 1844. Poe referred to his stories as "tales of ratiocination ". In stories such as these, the primary concern of the plot is ascertaining truth, and the usual means of obtaining the truth

520-470: A Policeman . Twelve stories were then collated into a volume entitled Recollections of a Detective Police-Officer , published in London in 1856. Literary critic Catherine Ross Nickerson credits Louisa May Alcott with creating the second-oldest work of modern detective fiction, after Poe's Dupin stories, with the 1865 thriller "V.V., or Plots and Counterplots." A short story published anonymously by Alcott,

624-561: A change in American crime fiction. There was a shift into hard-boiled novels and their depictions of realism. Dashiell Hammett and his work, including Red Harvest (1929), offered a more realistic social perspective to crime fiction, referencing events such as the Great Depression . James M. Cain contributed The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934). This novel includes a married woman trying to murder her own husband with

728-709: A clerk at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary . Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing large conclusions from the smallest observations. A brilliant London-based "consulting detective" residing at 221B Baker Street , Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess and is renowned for his skillful use of astute observation , deductive reasoning , and forensic skills to solve difficult cases . Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Holmes, and all but four stories are narrated by Holmes's friend, assistant, and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson . The interwar period (the 1920s and 1930s)

832-399: A closed environment by one of a limited number of suspects. The most widespread subgenre of the detective novel became the whodunit (or whodunnit, short for "who done it?"). In this subgenre, great ingenuity may be exercised in narrating the crime, usually a homicide, and the subsequent investigation. This objective was to conceal the identity of the criminal from the reader until the end of

936-653: A crime, often murder . The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin , Sherlock Holmes , Kogoro Akechi , and Hercule Poirot . Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys , Nancy Drew , and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades. Some scholars, such as R. H. Pfeiffer, have suggested that certain ancient and religious texts bear similarities to what would later be called detective fiction. In

1040-419: A crime. Readers speak of crime fiction as a mode of escapism to cope with other aspects of their lives. Crime fiction provides distraction from readers' personal lives through a strong narrative at a comfortable distance. Forensic crime novels have been referred to as "distraction therapy", proposing that crime fiction can improve mental health and be considered as a form of treatment to prevent depression. In

1144-497: A criminal, with the story unfolding in normal chronology and the criminal already being known to the audience. The latter involves a climax where titular detective protagonist Ali Khwaja presents evidence from expert witnesses in a court. " The Hunchback's Tale " is another early courtroom drama , presented as a suspenseful comedy. The earliest known modern crime fiction is E. T. A. Hoffmann 's 1819 novella "Mademoiselle de Scudéri". Also, Thomas Skinner Surr 's anonymous Richmond

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1248-529: A detective, Dr. Priestley , who specialised in elaborate technical devices. In the United States, the whodunit subgenre was adopted and extended by Rex Stout and Ellery Queen , along with others. The emphasis on formal rules during the Golden Age produced great works, albeit with highly standardized form. The most successful novels of this time included “an original and exciting plot; distinction in

1352-604: A forerunner of Arthur Conan Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes , appeared in works such as " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " (1841), " The Mystery of Marie Rogêt " (1842), and " The Purloined Letter " (1844). With his Dupin stories, Poe provided the framework for the classic detective story. The detective's unnamed companion is the narrator of the stories and a prototype for the character of Dr. Watson in later Sherlock Holmes stories. Wilkie Collins ' epistolary novel The Woman in White

1456-465: A much-loved movie entitled The Lady Vanishes (1938), and Ira Levin 's (born 1929) science-fiction thriller The Boys from Brazil (1976), which was filmed in 1978 . Older novels can often be retrieved from the ever-growing Project Gutenberg database. Detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective —whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates

1560-464: A new type of narrative style. Western detective fiction that was translated often emphasized “individuality, equality, and the importance of knowledge”, appealing to China that it was the time for opening their eyes to the rest of the world. This style began China's interest in popular crime fiction , and is what drove Cheng Xiaoqing to write his own crime fiction novel, Sherlock in Shanghai . In

1664-422: A number of ideas that have established in the genre several classic features of the 20th century detective story: Although The Moonstone is usually seen as the first detective novel, there are other contenders for the honor. A number of critics suggest that the lesser known Notting Hill Mystery (1862–63), written by the pseudonymous "Charles Felix" (later identified as Charles Warren Adams ), preceded it by

1768-478: A number of years and first used techniques that would come to define the genre. Literary critics Chris Willis and Kate Watson consider Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's first book, the even earlier The Trail of the Serpent (1861), to be the first British detective novel. The Trail of the Serpent "features an innovative detective figure, Mr. Peters, who is lower class and mute, and who is initially dismissed both by

1872-528: A police target. Gordon decides to return to the USA, where he infiltrates the investigation corporation, and learns more about the history of the case. Then he travels to San Diego, to collect more evidence, and eventually returns to England, deliberately leaving a trail for Jay. Their long enmity leads Jay to follow Gordon to Scotland, where Gordon kills him and his team in a final showdown. Gordon manages to locate Jim's hidden journalistic material, hopefully clearing Jim's and his own name. This article about

1976-473: A relative, he determines to take on his enemy on his own. There are two parties after him: The multinational corporation, represented by "Jay", a renegade SAS member, and an international investigation corporation, somehow connected with the case. Travelling to France, in order to find out more from a journalist colleague of Jim's, they are attacked by a group of professional killers under orders from Jay, resulting in multiple deaths, and leading to Gordon becoming

2080-442: A series in 1999 entitled "Pan Classic Crime", which includes a handful of novels by Eric Ambler , but also American Hillary Waugh 's Last Seen Wearing ... . In 2000, Edinburgh -based Canongate Books started a series called "Canongate Crime Classics" —both whodunnits and roman noir about amnesia and insanity —and other novels. However, books brought out by smaller publishers such as Canongate Books are usually not stocked by

2184-465: A steamy sex scene between Sharon Stone and William Baldwin straight from the 1993 movie , and again, Bret Easton Ellis 's American Psycho (1991). Bloomsbury Publishing PLC , though, have launched what they call "Bloomsbury Film Classics"—a series of original novels on which feature films were based. This series includes, for example, Ethel Lina White 's novel The Wheel Spins (1936), which Alfred Hitchcock —before he went to Hollywood—turned into

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2288-412: A still from the movie on the front cover and the film credits on the back cover of the book—yet another marketing strategy aimed at those cinemagoers who may want to do both: first read the book and then watch the film (or vice versa). Recent examples include Patricia Highsmith 's The Talented Mr. Ripley (originally published in 1955), Ira Levin 's Sliver (1991), with the cover photograph depicting

2392-513: A story forward in order to unravel mysteries. Likewise, the feature of detectives was popularized by Edgar Allan Poe and Conan Doyle . Hard-boiled detective stories attracted a decent amount of attention to the genre in America and France as well. Within crime fiction, it can also be common to use dark themes from real life, such as slavery , organized crime , and more. Aside from general themes, referencing instances of crime in real life

2496-645: A story of this genre is the medieval Arabic tale of " The Three Apples ", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights . In this tale, a fisherman discovers a heavy locked chest along the Tigris River, and he sells it to the Abbasid Caliph , Harun al-Rashid , who then has the chest broken open, only to find inside it the dead body of a young woman who was cut into pieces. Harun orders his vizier , Ja'far ibn Yahya , to solve

2600-535: Is Agatha Christie , whose texts, originally published between 1920 and her death in 1976, are available in UK and US editions in all English-speaking nations. Christie's works, particularly featuring detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple , have given her the title the Queen of Crime, and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre. Her most famous novels include Murder on

2704-491: Is Florida -based author Carl Hiaasen , who has been publishing books since 1981, all of which are readily available. From time to time, publishing houses decide, for commercial purposes, to revive long-forgotten authors, and reprint one or two of their more commercially successful novels. Apart from Penguin Books , which for this purpose have resorted to their old green cover and dug out some of their vintage authors. Pan started

2808-541: Is 'The Secret Cell', a short story published in September 1837 by William Evans Burton . It has been suggested that this story may have been known to Poe, who worked for Burton in 1839. The story was about a London policeman who solves the mystery of a kidnapped girl. Burton's fictional detective relied on practical methods such as dogged legwork, knowledge of the underworld and undercover surveillance, rather than brilliance of imagination or intellect. Detective fiction in

2912-485: Is a celebrated Bengali detective character who first appeared in the 1965 story Feludar Goyendagiri . His full name is Pradosh Chandra Mitra, and he is often referred to affectionately as Feluda . Feluda is characterized by his keen observational skills, sharp intellect, and a flair for deduction, which he employs to solve intricate mysteries. Feluda is often accompanied by his cousin, who is also his assistant, Tapesh Ranjan Mitter (affectionately called Topshe), who serves as

3016-427: Is a complex and mysterious process combining intuitive logic, astute observation, and perspicacious inference. "Early detective stories tended to follow an investigating protagonist from the first scene to the last, making the unravelling a practical rather than emotional matter." "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" is particularly interesting because it is a barely fictionalized account based on Poe's theory of what happened to

3120-450: Is a famous Russian writer of historical detective fiction in modern-day Russia. In the United States, detective fiction emerged in the 1920s, and flourished with stories in pulp magazines. The genre gained prominence in later decades, as the detective character was refined, and became familiar through movies. Detective fiction was also a way for authors to bring stories about various subcultures to mainstream audiences. One scholar wrote about

3224-406: Is a fictional Bengali female detective character created by Suchitra Bhattacharya . Colonel Niladri Sarkar is a fictional detective character created by Bengali novelist Syed Mustafa Siraj . Kottayam Pushpanath , a prolific writer, brought to life a vivid array of characters and mysteries. Pushpanath practiced teaching history for several years before becoming a full time writer. It

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3328-514: Is also common in several works of crime fiction. These reflections of reality can be expressed in many ways. For instance, crime fiction in Spain expressed grievances with authority, which was opposite to the instances in Japan that credited the government's functionality. Espionage is another prominent inclusion in many works of crime fiction. It includes the use of political intrigue, morality, and

3432-479: Is described as an "' Everyman ' detective meant to challenge the detective-as-superman that Holmes represented." By the late 1920s, Al Capone and the American mafia inspired not only fear, but piqued mainstream curiosity about the American criminal underworld . Popular pulp fiction magazines like Black Mask capitalized on this, as authors such as Carrol John Daly published violent stories that focused on

3536-529: Is from 1827 ; another early full-length short story in the genre is The Rector of Veilbye by Danish author Steen Steensen Blicher , published in 1829. A further example of crime detection can be found in Letitia Elizabeth Landon 's story The Knife , published in 1832, although here the truth remains in doubt at the end. Better known are the earlier dark works of Edgar Allan Poe . His brilliant and eccentric detective C. Auguste Dupin ,

3640-584: Is generally referred to as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction . During this period, a number of very popular writers emerged, including mostly British but also a notable subset of American and New Zealand writers. Female writers constituted a major portion of notable Golden Age writers. Agatha Christie , Dorothy L. Sayers , Josephine Tey , Margery Allingham , and Ngaio Marsh were particularly famous female writers of this time. Apart from Marsh (a New Zealander), they were all British. Various conventions of

3744-476: Is generated through multiple plot twists that occur as the story progressed. With these characteristics this may be considered an archetype for detective fiction. It anticipates the use of reverse chronology in modern detective fiction, where the story begins with a crime before presenting a gradual reconstruction of the past. The main difference between Ja'far ("The Three Apples") and later fictional detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot ,

3848-528: Is investigated by Inspector Bucket of the Metropolitan police force. Numerous characters appeared on the staircase leading to Tulkinghorn's office that night, some of them in disguise, and Inspector Bucket must penetrate these mysteries to identify the murderer. Dickens also left a novel unfinished at his death, The Mystery of Edwin Drood . Dickens's protégé, Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)—sometimes called

3952-493: Is one of the most iconic characters in Indian detective fiction. First appearing in the story Pother Kanta in 1932, Byomkesh, who refers to himself as a "truth-seeker" or Satyanweshi, is known for his acute observational skills and logical reasoning abilities. His adventures typically unfold against the backdrop of Calcutta , tackling a range of crimes, from intricate murder mysteries to drug trafficking, reflecting societal issues of

4056-412: Is that Ja'far has no desire to solve the case. The whodunit mystery is solved when the murderer himself confessed his crime. This in turn leads to another assignment in which Ja'far has to find the culprit who instigated the murder within three days or else be executed. Ja'far again fails to find the culprit before the deadline, but owing to chance, he discovers a key item. In the end, he manages to solve

4160-531: Is the first major detective fiction in Persian , written by Kazim Musta'an al-Sultan (Houshi Daryan). It was first published in 1925. There was no biographical account of the author of the book for over 70 years until being identified after the book was reprinted in 2017. Edogawa Rampo is the first major Japanese modern mystery writer and the founder of the Detective Story Club in Japan . Rampo

4264-590: The One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights ). In this story, a fisherman discovers a heavy, locked chest along the Tigris river, which he then sells to the Abbasid Caliph , Harun al-Rashid . When Harun breaks open the chest, he discovers the body of a young woman who has been cut into pieces. Harun then orders his vizier , Ja'far ibn Yahya , to solve the crime and to find the murderer within three days, or be executed if he fails in his assignment. Suspense

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4368-628: The Conservative Jewish community of Massachusetts ; Walter Mosley , whose Easy Rawlins books are set in the African American community of 1950s Los Angeles ; and Sara Paretsky , whose V. I. Warshawski books have explored the various subcultures of Chicago . Martin Hewitt, created by British author Arthur Morrison in 1894, is one of the first examples of the modern style of fictional private detective . This character

4472-599: The Father Brown short stories, and Henry Christopher Bailey . The Golden Age also had roots in the US. As used by S. S. Van Dine , fictional character Philo Vance also took advantage of an inflated personality and a high-class background in a plethora of novels. In 1929, Father Ronald Knox wrote the ‘Detective Story Decalogue,’ mentioning some conditions of the era. Early foreshadowing and functioning roles for characters were discussed, as well as other items. Ellery Queen

4576-615: The Literary Inquisitions and the wars in ancient China. In traditional Chinese culture, this genre was not prestigious, and was therefore considered less worthy of preservation than works of philosophy or poetry. One of the earliest examples of detective fiction in Western literature is Voltaire 's Zadig (1748), which features a main character who performs feats of analysis. Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) by William Godwin portrays

4680-589: The whodunit ), courtroom drama , hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers . Proto-science and crime fictions have been composed across history, and in this category can be placed texts as varied as the Epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia , the Mahabharata from ancient India , the Book of Tobit , Urashima Tarō from ancient Japan , the One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights ), and more. One example of

4784-596: The "Grand Master" of 20th-century Chinese detective fiction, translated Sherlock Holmes into classical and vernacular Chinese. In the late 1910s, Cheng began writing his own detective fiction series, Sherlock in Shanghai , mimicking Conan Doyle's style, but relating better to a Chinese audience. During the Mao era , crime fiction was suppressed and mainly Soviet-styled and anticapitalist. In the post-Mao era, crime fiction in China focused on corruption and harsh living conditions during

4888-422: The "grandfather of English detective fiction"—is credited with the first great mystery novel, The Woman in White . T. S. Eliot called Collins's novel The Moonstone (1868) "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels... in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe", and Dorothy L. Sayers called it "probably the very finest detective story ever written". The Moonstone contains

4992-637: The "social school" (社会派 shakai ha ) within the genre, which emphasized social realism , described crimes in an ordinary setting and sets motives within a wider context of social injustice and political corruption. Since the 1980s, a " new orthodox school " (新本格派 shin honkaku ha ) has surfaced. It demands restoration of the classic rules of detective fiction and the use of more self-reflective elements. Famous authors of this movement include Soji Shimada , Yukito Ayatsuji , Rintaro Norizuki , Alice Arisugawa , Kaoru Kitamura and Taku Ashibe . Created by famous Bengali novelist Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay , Byomkesh

5096-463: The 18th century Di Gong An (Chinese: 狄 公 案 ) story collection. The latter was translated into English as Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Dutch sinologist Robert Van Gulik , who then used the style and characters to write the original Judge Dee series. The hero/detective of these novels was typically a traditional judge or similar official based on historical personages such as Judge Bao ( Bao Qingtian ) or Judge Dee ( Di Renjie ). Although

5200-555: The 19th century was crucial in popularising crime fiction and related genres. Literary 'variety' magazines, such as Strand , McClure's , and Harper's , quickly became central to the overall structure and function of popular fiction in society, providing a mass-produced medium that offered cheap, illustrated publications that were essentially disposable. Like the works of many other important fiction writers of his day—e.g. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens —Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared in serial form in

5304-526: The Detective . In short, it is difficult to establish who was the first to write the English-language detective novel, as various authors were exploring the theme simultaneously. Anna Katharine Green , in her 1878 debut The Leavenworth Case and other works, popularized the genre among middle-class readers and helped to shape the genre into its classic form as well as developed the concept of

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5408-472: The English-language literature is considered to have begun in 1841 with the publication of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", featuring "the first fictional detective, the eccentric and brilliant C. Auguste Dupin ". When the character first appeared, the word detective had not yet been used in English; however, the character's name, "Dupin", originated from the English word dupe or deception. Poe devised

5512-481: The Golden Age were written by Agatha Christie. She produced long series of books featuring detective characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple , among others. Her use of basing her stories on complex puzzles, “combined with her stereotyped characters and picturesque middle-class settings”, is credited for her success. Christie's best-known works include Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on

5616-575: The Mao era (such as the Cultural Revolution ). The Golden Age, which spanned from the 1920s to 1954, was a period of time featuring the creation of renowned works by several authors. Many of these authors were British. Agatha Christie wrote The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and The Murder at the Vicarage (1930). These novels commonly prioritized the allure of exploring mysteries in

5720-604: The Nile (1937), Three Blind Mice (1950) and And Then There Were None (1939). Through China's Golden Age of crime fiction (1900–1949), translations of Western classics, and native Chinese detective fictions circulated within the country. Cheng Xiaoqing had first encountered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's highly popular stories as an adolescent. In the ensuing years, he played a major role in rendering them first into classical and later into vernacular Chinese . Cheng Xiaoqing's translated works from Conan Doyle introduced China to

5824-643: The Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders (the Protestant Bible locates this story within the apocrypha ), the account told by two witnesses broke down when Daniel cross-examines them. In response, author Julian Symons has argued that "those who search for fragments of detection in the Bible and Herodotus are looking only for puzzles" and that these puzzles are not detective stories. In

5928-409: The Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937), and the world's best-selling mystery And Then There Were None (1939). Other less successful, contemporary authors who are still writing have seen reprints of their earlier works, due to current overwhelming popularity of crime fiction texts among audiences. One example is Val McDermid , whose first book appeared as far back as 1987; another

6032-576: The assistance of a potential suitor. This theme extends to his other work, Double Indemnity (1934). Such elements of the book were a reference to the Gray and Snyder trial. Raymond Chandler was a significant author who managed to see some works made into films. In 1944, he argued for the genre to be seen critically in his essay from ‘ The Simple Art of Murder .’ Crime fiction provides unique psychological impacts on readers and enables them to become mediated witnesses through identifying with eyewitnesses of

6136-631: The body, Gordon realises that his brother was murdered, and that the police are more than reluctant to follow any lead. Retracing Jim's final hours, he connects Jim's death with his work as a journalist, investigating a multinational chemical corporation. Gordon soon discovers that he is being watched, so he decides to ask Jim's friends back in Europe for further information. In London, he finds more hints, but no evidence for his brother's sources. After returning to his wife and son, he finds that his home has been bugged by professionals. Sending his wife and son to

6240-585: The book, when the method and culprit are both revealed. According to scholars Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman , "The golden age of detective fiction began with high-class amateur detectives sniffing out murderers lurking in rose gardens, down country lanes, and in picturesque villages. Many conventions of the detective-fiction genre evolved in this era, as numerous writers—from populist entertainers to respected poets—tried their hands at mystery stories." John Dickson Carr —who also wrote as Carter Dickson—used

6344-481: The case through reasoning in order to prevent his own execution. On the other hand, two other Arabian Nights stories, "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja", contain two of the earliest fictional detectives , who uncover clues and present evidence to catch or convict a criminal known to the audience, with the story unfolding in normal chronology and the criminal already known to the audience. The latter involves

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6448-434: The central characteristics and formal elements of the detective story, including a mystery surrounding a murder, a closed circle of suspects, and the gradual uncovering of a hidden past." One Thousand and One Nights contains several of the earliest detective stories, anticipating modern detective fiction. The oldest known example of a detective story was " The Three Apples ", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in

6552-461: The chief of secret service and his companions. After his death many other writers accepted Ali Imran character and wrote spy novels. Another popular spy novel writer was Ishtiaq Ahmad who wrote Inspector Jamsheed, Inspector Kamran Mirza and Shooki brother's series of spy novels. Stories about robbers and detectives were very popular in Russia since old times. A famous hero in the eighteenth century

6656-465: The country. The Spanish writers emphasized the corruption and ineptitude of the police, and depicted the authorities and the wealthy in very negative terms. In China, crime fiction is a major literary tradition, with works dating to the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. Modern Chinese crime fiction emerged from the 1890s, and was also influenced by translations of foreign works. Cheng Xiaoqing , considered

6760-428: The crime and find the murderer within three days, or be executed if he fails his assignment. The story has been described as a " whodunit " murder mystery with multiple plot twists . The story has detective fiction elements. Two other Arabian Nights stories, "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja", contain two of the earliest fictional detectives , who uncover clues and present evidence to catch or convict

6864-470: The crimes are usually unsolved, and clues are left for the reader to decipher. Famous writers include Leonardo Sciascia , Umberto Eco , and Carlo Emilio Gadda . In Spain, The Nail and Other Tales of Mystery and Crime was published by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón in 1853. Crime fiction in Spain (also curtailed in Francoist Spain ) took on some special characteristics that reflected the culture of

6968-476: The detective genre were standardized during the Golden Age, and in 1929, some of them were codified by the English Catholic priest and author of detective stories Ronald Knox in his 'Decalogue' of rules for detective fiction. One of his rules was to avoid supernatural elements so that the focus remained on the mystery itself. Knox has contended that a detective story "must have as its main interest

7072-482: The detective novels of Tony Hillerman , set among the Native American population around New Mexico , "many American readers have probably gotten more insight into traditional Navajo culture from his detective stories than from any other recent books." Other notable writers who have explored regional and ethnic communities in their detective novels are Harry Kemelman , whose Rabbi Small series were set in

7176-542: The existence of spies. Prior media used the Cold War for inspiration and provided commentary on such events. Examples include numerous works by John le Carré and Gorky Park (1981), which was written by Martin Cruz Smith . Inspiration can be drawn from the legal system around the world, with varying degrees of realism. In these cases, a sense of morality and the more dubious parts of society are explored based on

7280-542: The genre is significant, as he represents a sophisticated blend of intellect and charm, setting a high standard for detective fiction in India. Hemendra Kumar Roy was an Indian Bengali writer noted for his contribution to the early development of the genre with his ' Jayanta-Manik ' and adventurist ' Bimal-Kumar ' stories, dealing with the exploits of Jayanta, his assistant Manik, and police inspector Sunderbabu. Mitin Masi

7384-460: The genre was baptized with the term libri gialli or yellow books. The genre was outlawed by the Fascists during WWII , but exploded in popularity after the war, especially influenced by the American hard-boiled school of crime fiction. A group of mainstream Italian writers emerged, who used the detective format to create an antidetective or postmodern novel in which the detectives are imperfect,

7488-478: The genre were women, inventing a subgenre of domestic detective fiction that flourished for several generations. These included Metta Fuller Victor 's two detective novels The Dead Letter (1867) and The Figure Eight (1869). The Dead Letter is noteworthy as the first full-length work of American crime fiction. Émile Gaboriau was a pioneer of the detective fiction genre in France. In Monsieur Lecoq (1868),

7592-458: The genre. Many stories often begin when the crime has already occurred. Such fiction also tends to draw from the cultural aspects in which the work originated, whether from recent events or from a general consensus and viewpoints. The use of serial killers and unreliable narrators exists in a decent variety of crime fiction as well. The plot-puzzle formula, which was frequent in the Golden Age, makes use of potential hints and solutions to drive

7696-545: The historical characters may have lived in an earlier period (such as the Song or Tang dynasty ) most stories are written in the later Ming or Qing dynasty period. These novels differ from the Western tradition in several points as described by Van Gulik: Van Gulik chose Di Gong An to translate because in his view it was closer to the Western literary style and more likely to appeal to non-Chinese readers. A number of Gong An works may have been lost or destroyed during

7800-425: The history of crime fiction, some authors have been reluctant to publish their novels under their real names. More recently, some publish pseudonymously because of the belief that since the large booksellers are aware of their historical sales figures, and command a certain degree of influence over publishers, the only way to "break out" of their current advance numbers is to publish as someone with no track record. In

7904-538: The huge popularity of this genre. A precursor was Paul Féval , whose series Les Habits Noirs (1862–67) features Scotland Yard detectives and criminal conspiracies. The best-selling crime novel of the 19th century was Fergus Hume 's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), set in Melbourne, Australia. The evolution of the print mass media in the United Kingdom and the United States in the latter half of

8008-437: The larger bookshops and overseas booksellers. The British Library has also (since 2012) started republishing "lost" crime classics, with the collection referred to on their website as the "British Library Crime Classics series". Sometimes, older crime novels are revived by screenwriters and directors rather than publishing houses. In many such cases, publishers then follow suit and release a so-called "film tie-in" edition showing

8112-478: The late 1910s, Cheng began writing detective fiction inspired by Conan Doyle's style, with Bao as the Watson-like narrator; a rare instance of such a direct appropriation from foreign fiction. Famed as the “Oriental Sherlock Holmes”, the duo Huo Sang and Bao Lang become counterparts to Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson characters. "Sadiq Mamquli, The Sherlock Holmes of Iran, The Sherriff of Isfahan"

8216-608: The late 1930s and 1940s, British County Court Judge Arthur Alexander Gordon Clark (1900–1958) published a number of detective novels under the alias Cyril Hare , in which he made use of his profoundly extensive knowledge of the English legal system. When he was still young and unknown, award-winning British novelist Julian Barnes (born 1946) published some crime novels under the alias Dan Kavanagh. Other authors take delight in cherishing their alter egos ; Ruth Rendell (1930–2015) wrote one sort of crime novels as Ruth Rendell and another type as Barbara Vine ; John Dickson Carr also used

8320-523: The law as protecting the murderer and destroying the innocent. Thomas Skinner Sturr 's anonymous Richmond, or stories in the life of a Bow Street officer was published in London in 1827; the Danish crime story The Rector of Veilbye by Steen Steensen Blicher was written in 1829; and the Norwegian crime novel Mordet paa Maskinbygger Roolfsen ("The Murder of Engine Maker Roolfsen") by Maurits Hansen

8424-400: The mayhem and injustice surrounding the criminals, not the circumstances behind the crime. Very often, no actual mystery even existed: the books simply revolved around justice being served to those who deserved harsh treatment, which was described in explicit detail." The overall theme these writers portrayed reflected "the changing face of America itself." In the 1930s, the private eye genre

8528-514: The monthly Strand in the United Kingdom. The series quickly attracted a wide and passionate following on both sides of the Atlantic, and when Doyle killed off Holmes in " The Final Problem ", the public outcry was so great, and the publishing offers for more stories so attractive, that he was reluctantly forced to resurrect him. In Italy, early translations of English and American stories and local works were published in cheap yellow covers, thus

8632-477: The narrator of the stories and his friend Jatayu . , The trio embarks on various adventures that blend mystery with elements of Bengali culture and tradition. The stories often include a touch of humor, engaging dialogues, and philosophical musings, making them appealing to a wide audience. Ray's Feluda series not only captivated readers in literary form but also inspired numerous adaptations in film and television, showcasing Ray’s cinematic genius. Feluda’s impact on

8736-460: The play Oedipus Rex by Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles , Oedipus investigates the unsolved murder of King Laius and discovers the truth after questioning various witnesses that he himself is the culprit. Although "Oedipus's enquiry is based on supernatural, pre-rational methods that are evident in most narratives of crime until the development of Enlightenment thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries", this narrative has "all of

8840-574: The plot over in-depth character development. Dorothy L. Sayers contributed the Wimsey novels. Her work focused on the spectacle of crime deduction. She also displayed an exaggerated form of aristocratic society, straying from a more realistic story. Other novelists tapped into this setting, such as Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh ; Allingham, Christie, Marsh and Sayers are known as the Queens of Crime . Other British authors are G. K. Chesterton with

8944-446: The pseudonym Carter Dickson . Author Evan Hunter (which itself was a pseudonym) wrote his crime fiction under the name of Ed McBain. As crime fiction has expanded, there have been many common tropes that emerge from this category of fiction. Such occurrences can appear in a variety of subgenres and media. While the format may vary across different forms of crime fiction, there are many elements that are generally consistent throughout

9048-464: The real-life Mary Cecilia Rogers . William Russell (1806–1876) was among the first English authors to write fictitious 'police memoirs', contributing an irregular series of stories (under the pseudonym 'Waters') to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal between 1849 and 1852. Unauthorised collections of his stories were published in New York City in 1852 and 1853, entitled The Recollections of

9152-493: The rules that the work provides. Melville Davisson Post ’s Rudolph Mason: The Strange Schemes (1896) and Harper Lee ’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) are notable examples. Additionally, stories like Double Indemnity (1934) are based on cases from reality. Only a select few authors have achieved the status of "classics" for their published works. A classic is any text that can be received and accepted universally, because they transcend context. A popular, well-known example

9256-416: The series detective. In 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes , arguably the most famous of all fictional detectives. Although Sherlock Holmes is not the first fictional detective (he was influenced by Poe's Dupin and Gaboriau's Lecoq ), his name has become synonymous for the part. Conan Doyle stated that the character of Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell , for whom Doyle had worked as

9360-419: The story concerns a Scottish aristocrat who tries to prove that a mysterious woman has killed his fiancée and cousin. The detective on the case, Antoine Dupres, is a parody of Auguste Dupin who is less concerned with solving the crime than he is in setting up a way to reveal the solution with a dramatic flourish. Ross Nickerson notes that many of the American writers who experimented with Poe's established rules of

9464-402: The text and its characters." Braddon's later and better-remembered work, Aurora Floyd (printed in 1863 novel form, but serialized in 1862–63 ), also features a compelling detective in the person of Detective Grimstone of Scotland Yard. Tom Taylor 's melodrama The Ticket-of-Leave Man , an adaptation of Léonard by Édouard Brisbarre and Eugène Nus, appeared in 1863, introducing Hawkshaw

9568-413: The time. Accompanied by his loyal friend and chronicler, Ajit Kumar Banerjee, the stories are written in a blend of formal and colloquial Bengali, making them accessible to a wide audience. The character's legacy continues to influence contemporary detective fiction in India, highlighting the genre's evolution and its cultural significance. Feluda , created by renowned filmmaker and author Satyajit Ray ,

9672-401: The title character is adept at disguise, a key characteristic of detectives. Gaboriau's writing is also considered to contain the first example of a detective minutely examining a crime scene for clues. Another early example of a whodunit is a subplot in the novel Bleak House (1853) by Charles Dickens . The conniving lawyer Tulkinghorn is killed in his office late one night, and the crime

9776-548: The unemotional eyes of new hero-detectives, these stories were an American phenomenon." In the late 1930s, Raymond Chandler updated the form with his private detective Philip Marlowe , who brought a more intimate voice to the detective than the more distanced "operative's report" style of Hammett's Continental Op stories. Chandler's stories were noted for their evokations of the American criminal underworld, including dark alleys and tough thugs, rich women and powerful men. Several feature and television movies have been made about

9880-419: The unravelling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end." Another common convention in Golden Age detective stories involved an outsider–sometimes a salaried investigator or a police officer, but often a gifted amateur—investigating a murder committed in

9984-418: The writing, a vivid sense of place, a memorable and compelling hero and the ability to draw the reader into their comforting and highly individual world.” Agatha Christie is not only the most famous Golden Age writer, but also considered one of the most famous authors of all genres of all time. At the time of her death in 1976, “she was the best-selling novelist in history.” Many of the most popular books of

10088-414: The “puzzle” approach in his writing which was characterized by including a complex puzzle for the reader to try to unravel. He created ingenious and seemingly impossible plots and is regarded as the master of the " locked room mystery ". Two of Carr's most famous works are The Case of Constant Suicides (1941) and The Hollow Man (1935). Another author, Cecil Street —who also wrote as John Rhode—wrote of

10192-701: Was Ivan Osipov (1718–after 1756), nicknamed Ivan Kain. Other examples of early Russian detective stories include: "Bitter Fate" (1789) by M. D. Chulkov (1743–1792), "The Finger Ring" (1831) by Yevgeny Baratynsky , "The White Ghost" (1834) by Mikhail Zagoskin , Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoevsky . Detective fiction in modern Russian literature with clear detective plots started with The Garin Death Ray (1926–1927) and The Black Gold (1931) by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy , Mess-Mend by Marietta Shaginyan , The Investigator's Notes by Lev Sheinin . Boris Akunin

10296-434: Was adopted wholeheartedly by American writers. One of the primary contributors to this style was Dashiell Hammett with his famous private investigator character, Sam Spade . His style of crime fiction came to be known as " hardboiled ", a genre that "usually deals with criminal activity in a modern urban environment, a world of disconnected signs and anonymous strangers." "Told in stark and sometimes elegant language through

10400-468: Was an admirer of western mystery writers. He gained his fame in the early 1920s, when he began to bring to the genre many bizarre, erotic and even fantastic elements. This is partly because of the social tension before World War II . In 1957, Seicho Matsumoto received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his short story The Face ( 顔 kao ). The Face and Matsumoto's subsequent works began

10504-410: Was featured in several novels written by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee , serving as both a character and pen name. In such novels, clues may be analyzed by the protagonist in tandem with the viewer, generating the possibility of understanding the narrative before it is revealed in the book. Past the Golden Age, events such as the Great Depression and the transition between World Wars ushered in

10608-412: Was in the last 1960s that he made his literary debut with Chuvanna Manushyan . Pushpanath authored more than 350 detective novels. Ibn-e-Safi is the most popular Urdo detective fiction writer. He started writing his famous Jasoosi Dunya Series spy stories in 1952 with Col. Fareedi & Captain. Hameed as main characters. In 1955 he started writing Imran Series spy novels with Ali Imran as X2

10712-419: Was published in 1860, while The Moonstone (1868) is often thought to be his masterpiece. French author Émile Gaboriau 's Monsieur Lecoq (1868) laid the groundwork for the methodical, scientifically minded detective. The evolution of locked-room mysteries was one of the landmarks in the history of crime fiction. The Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Doyle's are said to have been singularly responsible for

10816-475: Was published in December 1839. " Das Fräulein von Scuderi " is an 1819 short story by E. T. A. Hoffmann , in which Mlle de Scudery establishes the innocence of the police's favorite suspect in the murder of a jeweller. This story is sometimes cited as the first detective story and as a direct influence on Edgar Allan Poe 's " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " (1841). Also suggested as a possible influence on Poe

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