A story turning on the committing of a crime (usually a murder) and the discovery by a detective of the culprit. It is this element of mystery which makes it distinct from the crime novel. Although Voltaire's Zadig (1747) and Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794) contain precursive elements, the first true detective stories were Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) and The Purloined Letter (1845), featuring the detective Dupin. These were followed by Emile Gaboriau's full-length detective novels, and then Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1868). The popularity of the genre was assured after the introduction of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle (in A Study in Scarlet, 1887), and the next 50 years were a golden age, with authors such as Austin Freeman, A E W Mason, E C Bentley (Trent's Last Case, 1913), and G K Chesterton (The Father Brown Stories, appearing 191135). Maurice Leblanc created a French rival to Holmes in Arsène Lupin. The US had its private-eye school, with the creations of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, with their moralistic police procedural stories. Between the wars, Agatha Christie (Poirot), Dorothy L Sayers (Peter Wimsey), and Georges Simenon (Maigret) wrote to the same classic formula, which still survives in such writers as Dick Francis, Ruth Rendell, and P D James, though more cynical crime and spy fiction is now in fashion.
Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction that centers upon the investigation of a crime, usually murder, by a detective, either professional or amateur.
A common feature of detective fiction is an investigator who is unmarried, with some source of income other than a regular job, and who generally has some pleasing eccentricities or striking characteristics.
The Whodunit
The most widespread subgenre of the detective novel is the whodunit (or whodunnit), where great ingenuity may be exercised in narrating the events of the crime, usually a homicide, and of the subsequent investigation in such a manner as to conceal the identity of the criminal from the reader until the end of the book, when the method and culprit are revealed.
Dickens's protégé, Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) — sometimes referred to as the "grandfather of English detective fiction" — is credited with the first great mystery novel, The Woman in White. Although technically preceded by Charles Felix's The Notting Hill Mystery (1865), The Moonstone can claim to have established the genre with several classic features of the twentieth-century detective story:
A country house robbery An "inside job" A celebrated investigator Bungling local constabulary Detective enquiries False suspects The "least likely suspect" A rudimentary "locked room" murder A reconstruction of the crime A final twist in the plotSome readers have suggested even earlier prototypes for the whodunit, most notably the Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders (Daniel 13;
The private eye novel
Private eye Martin Hewitt, created by British author Arthur Morrison, is perhaps the first example of the modern style of fictional private detective.
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 Hammett's distant, third-person viewpoint.
Ross Macdonald, pseudonym of Kenneth Millar, updated the form again with his detective Lew Archer, while still writing in what is considered the PI's Golden Age of Detective Fiction, begun by Hammett.
English Golden Age detective novels
English readers, in their own Golden Age of Detective Fiction between the wars generally preferred a different, but equally implausible, type of detective story in which an outsider - sometimes a salaried investigator or a police officer, but more often a gifted amateur - investigates a murder committed in a closed environment by one of a limited number of suspects.
Police procedural
Many detective stories have police officers as the main characters.
Some typical features of these are:
The detective is rarely the first on the crime scene - it will be milling with uniform, paramedics and possibly members of the public. Political pressure when the suspects are prominent figures Internal hostility from comrades when the suspects are fellow police officers Pressure from the media (tv, newspapers) to come up with an answer Interesting and unusual cars driven by the principal detectiveOther subgenres
There is also a subgenre of historical detectives.
Suspense — the core tenet of detective fiction
A beginner to detective fiction would generally be advised against reading anything about a piece of detective fiction (such as a blurb or an introduction) before reading the text itself. According to "Twenty rules for writing detective stories," by Van Dine, "The detective story is a kind of intellectual game.
Famous fictional detectives
The full list of fictional detectives would be immense.
Notable fictional detectives and their creators include:
Amateur detectives
Miss Marple — Agatha Christie Jessica Fletcher — Murder, She Wrote Lord Peter Wimsey — Dorothy L. SayersPrivate eyes
Sherlock Holmes — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Hercule Poirot — Agatha Christie Philip Marlowe — Raymond ChandlerPolice detectives
Inspector Morse — Colin Dexter Kojak — Kojak & James Inspector Clouseau — Pink PantherGovernment agents
Jack Bauer — 24 James Bond — Ian Fleming Fox Mulder — The X-FilesMedical examiners
Dr. Kay Scarpetta — Patricia Cornwell Gil Grissom, Ph.D. RowlingOther notable authors
Leigh Brackett Alan Gordon Jack VanceDetective debuts and swansongs
Many detectives appear in more than one novel or story. Here is a list of a few debut and swansong stories:
| Detective | Author | Debut | Swansong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roderick Alleyn | Ngaio Marsh | A Man Lay Dead | |
| Owen Archer | Candace M. Robb | The Apothecary Rose | |
| Father Brown | G. Chesterton | The Blue Cross | |
| Guido Brunetti | Donna Leon | Death at La Fenice | |
| Brother Cadfael | Ellis Peters | A Morbid Taste for Bones | Brother Cadfael's Penance |
| Elvis Cole | Robert Crais | The Monkey's Raincoat | |
| Dr. Phil D'Amato | Paul Levinson | "The Chronology Protection Case" | |
| Peter Decker | Faye Kellerman | The Ritual Bath | |
| Alex Delaware | Jonathan Kellerman | When the Bough Breaks | Gone |
| Kate Fansler | Carolyn Gold Heilbrun/Amanda Cross | In the Last Analysis | |
| Dr. Gideon Fell | John Dickson Carr | Hag's Nook | Dark of the Moon |
| Sir John Fielding and Jeremy Proctor | Bruce Alexander | Blind Justice | |
| Gordianus the Finder | Steven Saylor | Roman Blood | |
| Heiji Hattori | Gosho Aoyama | Detective Conan | |
| Sherlock Holmes | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | A Study in Scarlet (in Beeton's Christmas Annual) | His Last Bow (see also "The Final Problem") |
| Shin'ichi Kudo / Conan Edogawa | Gosho Aoyama | Detective Conan | |
| Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers | Elizabeth George | A Great Deliverance | |
| Miss Marple | Agatha Christie | Murder at the Vicarage | Sleeping Murder |
| Jasi McLellan | Cheryl Kaye Tardif | Divine Intervention | |
| Sharon McCone | Marcia Muller | Edwin of the Iron Shoes | |
| Travis McGee | John D. MacDonald | The Deep Blue Good-by | The Lonely Silver Rain |
| Sir Henry Merrivale | Carter Dickson | The Plague Court Murders | The Cavalier's Cup |
| Kinsey Millhone | Sue Grafton | 'A' is for Alibi | |
| Inspector Morse | Colin Dexter | Last Bus to Woodstock | Remorseful Day |
| Nick Naught | John E. Stith | Naught for Hire | |
| Thursday Next | Jasper Fforde | The Eyre Affair | |
| Stephanie Plum | Janet Evanovich | One for the Money | |
| Hercule Poirot | Agatha Christie | The Mysterious Affair at Styles | Curtain |
| Dave Robicheaux | James Lee Burke | Neon Rain | |
| Spenser | Robert B. Parker | The Godwulf Manuscript | |
| V.I. Warshawski | Sara Paretsky | Indemnity Only | |
| Audrey Wilson | Cora (C. M.) Miller | Death, Taxes, & Trouble | |
| Lord Peter Wimsey | Dorothy Sayers | Whose Body | Busman's Honeymoon |
| Nero Wolfe | Rex Stout | Fer-De-Lance | A Family Affair |
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