View source for Detective fiction

{{short description|Subgenre of crime and mystery fiction}}
{{Redirect|Detective story|other uses|Detective Story (disambiguation){{!}}Detective Story}}
[[File:Sidney Paget - The Boscombe Valley Mystery 02.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Consulting detective [[Sherlock Holmes]] examines a suspect's boots in an illustration to the 1891 story "[[The Boscombe Valley Mystery]]"]]
'''Detective fiction''' is a subgenre of [[crime fiction]] and [[mystery fiction]] in which an [[criminal investigation|investigator]] or a [[detective]]—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Victorian Tales of Mystery and Detection: An Oxford Anthology|last=Michael|first=Cox|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0192123084|url=https://archive.org/details/victoriantalesof00coxm}}</ref> Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include [[C. Auguste Dupin]], [[Sherlock Holmes]], [[Kogoro Akechi]], [[Miss Marple]] and [[Hercule Poirot]]. Juvenile stories featuring [[The Hardy Boys]], [[Nancy Drew]], and [[The Boxcar Children]] have also remained in print for several decades.

==History==
===Ancient===
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 the Old Testament story of [[Susanna (Book of Daniel: 13)|Susanna and the Elders]] (the [[Protestant]] [[Bible]] locates this story within the [[apocrypha]]), the account told by two witnesses broke down when [[Daniel (biblical figure)|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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Scaggs|first=John|title=Crime Fiction (The New Critical Idiom)|url=https://archive.org/details/crimefiction00scag_758|url-access=limited|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415318259|page=[https://archive.org/details/crimefiction00scag_758/page/n8 8]}}</ref>

===Early Arabic===
''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' contains several of the earliest detective stories, anticipating modern detective fiction.<ref name="Gerhardi">{{cite book |last1=Gerhardi |first1=Mia I. |title=The Art of Story-Telling |date=1963 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill Archive]] |pages=169–170 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f88UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA169}}</ref> The oldest known example of a detective story was "[[The Three Apples]]", one of the tales narrated by [[Scheherazade]] in 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 Caliphate|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.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|pages=86–91}}</ref> [[Suspense]] is generated through multiple [[plot twist]]s that occur as the story progresses.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|pages=93, 95, 97}}</ref> With these characteristics this may be considered an [[archetype]] for detective fiction.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|page=91}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Gerhardi"/>

The main difference between Ja'far ("The Three Apples") and later fictional detectives, such as [[Sherlock Holmes]] and [[Hercule Poirot]], is that Ja'far has no desire to solve the case. The [[whodunit]] mystery is solved when the murderer himself confesses his crime.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|pages=91–92}}</ref> 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 the case through reasoning in order to prevent his own execution.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=978-90-04-09530-4|pages=96–97}}</ref>

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 a [[Climax (narrative)|climax]] where the titular detective protagonist Ali Khwaja presents evidence from [[expert witness]]es in a court.<ref name="Gerhardi"/>

===Early Chinese===
[[Gong'an fiction]] ([[:zh:公案小说|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: [[wikt:灰|灰]][[wikt:闌|闌]][[wikt:記|記]]), the [[Ming dynasty]] story collection ''[[Bao Gong An]]'' (Chinese: [[wikt:包|包]][[wikt:公|公]][[wikt:案|案]]) and the 18th century ''[[Di Gong An]]'' (Chinese: [[wikt:狄|狄]][[wikt:公|公]][[wikt:案|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 Zheng|Bao Qingtian]]) or Judge Dee ([[Di Renjie]]). Although the historical characters may have lived in an earlier period (such as the [[Song dynasty|Song]] or [[Tang dynasty]]) most stories are written in the later [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] or [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] dynasty period.

These novels differ from the Western tradition in several points as described by Van Gulik:<ref>{{Cite book|title=Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee|last=Gulik|first=Van|publisher=Dover Publications|year=1976|isbn=978-0486233376|pages=[https://archive.org/details/celebratedcaseso00guli/page/1 1–237]|url=https://archive.org/details/celebratedcaseso00guli/page/1}}</ref>
* The detective is the local magistrate who is usually involved in several unrelated cases simultaneously;
* The criminal is introduced at the very beginning of the story and his crime and reasons are carefully explained, thus constituting an [[inverted detective story]] rather than a "puzzle";
* The stories have a supernatural element with ghosts telling people about their death and even accusing the criminal;
* The stories are filled with digressions into philosophy, the complete texts of official documents, and much more, resulting in long books; and
* The novels tend to have a huge cast of characters, typically in the hundreds, all described with their relation to the various main actors in the story.

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 story|Gong An]] works may have been [[Lost literary work|lost]] or destroyed during the [[Literary Inquisition]]s and the [[List of Chinese battles|wars]] in ancient China.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/62103/1/MPRA_paper_62103.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218202726/http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/62103/1/MPRA_paper_62103.pdf |archive-date=2015-02-18 |url-status=live|title=The Literary Inquisition: The Persecution of Intellectuals and Human Capital Accumulation in China|last=Koyama|first=Mark|date=February 11, 2015}}</ref> In traditional Chinese culture, this genre was not prestigious, and was therefore considered less worthy of preservation than works of philosophy or poetry.

===Early Western===
[[File:Edgar Allen Poe 1898.jpg|thumb|[[Edgar Allan Poe]] (1809–1849)]]

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.<ref name=Silverman171/> ''[[Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams]]'' (1794) by [[William Godwin]] portrays the law as protecting the murderer and destroying the innocent.<ref>{{cite journal|first =Gay|last =Clifford|date =1977|title =''1Caleb Williams'' and ''Frankenstein'': First-Person Narratives and "Things as They Are"|journal =Genre|number =10|pages =601–617|url =http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/clifford.html|access-date =2013-12-10|archive-date =2014-11-03|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20141103113438/http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/clifford.html|url-status =live}}</ref> [[Thomas Skinner Surr|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]] was published in December 1839.

"[[Mademoiselle de Scuderi|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).<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Seven Basic Plots|last=Booker|first=Christopher|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|year=2004|isbn=978-0826480378|page=[https://archive.org/details/sevenbasicplotsw0000book/page/507 507]|url=https://archive.org/details/sevenbasicplotsw0000book/page/507}}</ref> Also suggested as a possible influence on Poe 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Dead Witness: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Detective Stories|last=Sims|first=Michael|publisher=Walker Books|year=2011|isbn=978-0802779182|pages=2–3}}</ref> 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.

===English genre establishment===
Detective fiction in the English-language literature is considered to have begun in 1841 with the publication of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue",<ref name=Silverman171>{{Citation | title=Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance | last=Silverman | first=Kenneth | author-link=Kenneth Silverman | publisher=Harper Perennial | location=New York | edition=Paperback | year=1991 | page=[https://archive.org/details/edgarpoe00kenn/page/171 171] | isbn=978-0-06-092331-0 | url=https://archive.org/details/edgarpoe00kenn/page/171 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.librarypoint.org/detective_fiction_origins|title=A History of Detective Fiction: Literary Origins|website=www.librarypoint.org|language=en|access-date=2018-03-29|archive-date=2018-04-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401033508/http://www.librarypoint.org/detective_fiction_origins|url-status=live}}</ref> Poe devised a "plot formula that's been successful ever since, give or take a few shifting variables."<ref name="NDHB">Kismaric, Carole and Heiferman, Marvin. ''The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. p. 56. {{ISBN|0-684-84689-6}}</ref> 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 [[wikt:ratiocination|ratiocination]]".<ref name=Silverman171/> In stories such as these, the primary concern of the plot is ascertaining truth, and the usual means of obtaining the truth 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."<ref name="NDHB" /> "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" is particularly interesting because it is a barely fictionalized account based on Poe's theory of what happened to the real-life [[Mary Rogers|Mary Cecilia Rogers]].

[[William Russell (fiction writer)|William Russell]] (1806–1876) was among the first English authors to write fictitious 'police memoirs',<ref name="Saunders">{{cite journal |last1=Saunders |first1=Samuel |title='To Pry Unnecessarily into Other Men's Secrets': Crime Writing, Private Spaces and the Mid-Victorian Police Memoir |journal=Law, Crime and History |date=2018 |volume=1 |url=https://www.academia.edu/35910203 |access-date=4 May 2021 |archive-date=29 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220829201450/https://www.academia.edu/35910203 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 a Policeman''.<ref name="Circulating">{{cite web |title=Author Information: William Russell |url=http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=2566 |website=At the Circulating Library: A database of Victorian fiction |access-date=4 May 2021 |archive-date=4 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210504074135/http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=2566 |url-status=live }}</ref> Twelve stories were then collated into a volume entitled ''Recollections of a Detective Police-Officer'', published in London in 1856.<ref name="Bookhunter">{{cite web |title=Mysterious Waters |url=https://ashrarebooks.com/2015/06/04/mysterious-waters/ |website=The Bookhunter on Safari |date=4 June 2015 |access-date=4 May 2021 |archive-date=4 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210504075505/https://ashrarebooks.com/2015/06/04/mysterious-waters/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Dickens by Watkins 1858.png|thumb|left|[[Charles Dickens]] (1812–1870). Photo from 1858|196x196px]]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, 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 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).<ref name="Nickerson2010">{{cite book|last=Ross Nickerson|first=Catherine|editor=Catherine Ross Nickerson|title=The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HlkUqB7wYpsC|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-13606-8|pages=29–41|chapter=4: Women Writers Before 1960}}</ref> ''The Dead Letter'' is noteworthy as the first full-length work of American crime fiction.<ref name=pabook>{{cite web|first=Miranda|last=Orso|year=2002|title=Victor, Metta Victoria Fuller|url=http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Victor__Metta_Fuller.html|access-date=2013-11-04|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515194856/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Victor__Metta_Fuller.html|archive-date=2013-05-15}}</ref>

[[Émile Gaboriau]] was a pioneer of the detective fiction genre in France. In ''[[Monsieur Lecoq (novel)|Monsieur Lecoq]]'' (1868), the title character is adept at disguise, a key characteristic of detectives.<ref>Bonnoit, R: ''[[Émile Gaboriau]] ou la Naissance du Roman Policier'', Paris: Librairie Philosophique J Vrin, 1985, p. 198</ref> Gaboriau's writing is also considered to contain the first example of a detective minutely examining a crime scene for clues.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gunning |first1=Tom |title=Lynx-Eyed Detectives and Shadow Bandits: Visuality and Eclipse in French Detective Stories and Films before WWI |journal=Yale French Studies |date=2005 |issue=108 |pages=74–88 |doi=10.2307/4149299 |jstor=4149299 }}</ref>

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 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]]''.<ref>[[Kate Dickens Perugini]] (1906), "''Edwin Drood'' and the Last Days of Charles Dickens", ''Pall Mall Magazine'', Vol. 37.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Dickens, Drood and the Detectives|last=Dubberke|first=Ray|publisher=Todd & Honeywell|year=1989|isbn=978-0899628264}}</ref>

[[File:Wilkie-Collins.jpg|thumb|[[Wilkie Collins]] (1824–1889)]]
Dickens's protégé, [[Wilkie Collins]] (1824–1889)—sometimes called the "grandfather of English detective fiction"—is credited with the first great mystery novel, ''[[The Woman in White (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",<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel|last=David|first=Deirdre|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0521182157|page=179}}</ref> and [[Dorothy L. Sayers]] called it "probably the very finest detective story ever written".<ref>Hall, Sharon K (1979). ''Twentieth century literary criticism''. p. 531. University of Michigan</ref> ''The Moonstone'' contains a number of ideas that have established in the genre several classic features of the 20th century detective story:

* [[English country house]] robbery
* An "[[wikt:inside job|inside job]]"
* [[Red herring (plot device)|red herrings]]
* A celebrated, skilled, professional investigator
* Bungling local constabulary
* Detective inquiries
* Large number of false suspects
* The "least likely suspect"
* A rudimentary "[[Locked room mystery|locked room]]" murder
* A reconstruction of the crime
* A final twist in the plot

[[File:Conan doyle.jpg|thumb|[[Arthur Conan Doyle]] (1859–1930)]]
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 ''[[The Notting Hill Mystery|Notting Hill Mystery]]'' (1862–63), written by the pseudonymous "Charles Felix" (later identified as [[Charles Warren Adams]]<ref name=collins/><ref name=buckler>{{cite journal |last1=Buckler |first1=William E. |title=Once a Week under Samuel Lucas, 1859–65 |journal=PMLA |date=1952 |volume=67 |issue=7 |pages=924–941 |doi=10.2307/459949 |jstor=459949 }}</ref>), preceded it by a number of years and first used techniques that would come to define the genre.<ref name=collins>[[Paul Collins (American writer)|Paul Collins]]. [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/books/review/Collins-t.html "The Case of the First Mystery Novelist"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616150018/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/books/review/Collins-t.html |date=2022-06-16 }}, in-print as "Before Hercule or Sherlock, There Was Ralph", ''[[New York Times Book Review]]'', January 7, 2011, p. 46</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History|last=Symons|first=Julian|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd|year=1974|isbn=978-0140037944|page=51}}</ref>

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.<ref name=Watson>{{cite book |last=Watson |first=Kate |date=2012 |title=Women Writing Crime Fiction, 1860–1880: Fourteen American, British and Australian Authors |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZQrQAx7BvgC |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |isbn=978-0-7864-6782-2}}</ref> ''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 the text and its characters."<ref name="Watson"/> Braddon's later and better-remembered work, ''[[Aurora Floyd]]'' (printed in 1863 novel form, but serialized in 1862–63<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.broadviewpress.com/product.php?productid=95 |title=Broadview Press: "Aurora Floyd" |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=www.broadviewpress.com |publisher=Broadview Press |access-date=27 February 2014 |archive-date=28 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228121521/https://www.broadviewpress.com/product.php?productid=95 |url-status=live }}</ref>), also features a compelling detective in the person of Detective Grimstone of Scotland Yard.

[[Tom Taylor]]'s melodrama ''[[The Ticket-of-Leave Man (play)|The Ticket-of-Leave Man]]'', an adaptation of ''Léonard'' by Édouard Brisbarre and Eugène Nus,<ref>"The Ticket-of-Leave Man" in ''Dictionary Central'' http://www.dictionarycentral.com/definition/the-ticket-of-leave-man.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212084002/http://www.dictionarycentral.com/definition/the-ticket-of-leave-man.html |date=2013-12-12 }} . Accessed 2013.12.10.</ref> appeared in 1863, introducing [[Hawkshaw 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 the series detective.<ref name="Nickerson2010"/><ref>{{cite news |last= Grondahl |first= Paul |title= Secret to longevity? Elementary, for Holmes while the Master happily tends bees in the Sussex countryside, his fans each January 6 fete him on his birthday|work= [[Times Union (Albany)|The Times Union]] |location= Colonie, New York |publisher= [[George Randolph Hearst III]] |date= January 15, 1995|url= http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=0FB5F01E4F4C41D5&p_docnum=2&p_queryname=1 |access-date= January 8, 2013}}</ref>

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 [[C. Auguste Dupin|Dupin]] and Gaboriau's [[Monsieur Lecoq|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 a clerk at the [[Edinburgh Royal Infirmary]]. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing large conclusions from the smallest observations.<ref>{{Citation |last=Lycett |first=Andrew |title=The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |publisher=Free Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7432-7523-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/manwhocreatedshe00lyce/page/53 53–54, 190] |url=https://archive.org/details/manwhocreatedshe00lyce/page/53 }}</ref> A brilliant London-based "consulting detective" residing at [[221B Baker Street]], Holmes is famous for his [[intelligence|intellectual prowess]] and is renowned for his skillful use of astute [[observation]], [[deductive reasoning]], and [[forensic]] skills to solve difficult [[legal case|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. Watson|Dr. John H. Watson]].

==Detective Fiction in Boys Story Papers==
Detective fiction aimed at young male readers emerged as a distinct and highly popular subgenre in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, particularly in British and American boys' weekly magazines. While school stories remained the dominant form of boys' fiction, detective narratives claimed a strong second place in popularity from the 1890s onward. The American market pioneered serial detective characters, with publications like the "Old Sleuth Library" (1872) and stories featuring Nick Carter establishing the format. In Britain, the genre gained prominence through publishers like James Henderson and Sons and the Aldine Publishing Company, which initially reprinted American detective stories before developing their own characters. The [[Amalgamated Press]] with its numerous story papers played a prominent part in the spreading and popularizations of the genre.<ref name="Leckenby, Herbert 46–51">{{cite news|author=Leckenby, Herbert| title=Detectives in Boy's Literature|publisher=Collectors' Digest Christmas Annual|date= December 1952|pages=46–51}}</ref>

The most enduring figure in boys' detective fiction was [[Sexton Blake]], who first appeared in 1893 and featured in over 3,000 stories spanning nearly six decades. Blake's longevity was matched by a period of intense creativity in the genre, which saw the creation of numerous competing detective characters. Notable among these was [[Nelson Lee (detective)|Nelson Lee]], created by [[John William Staniforth]] (writing as Maxwell Scott), who shared Blake's penchant for globe-trotting adventures and narrow escapes.<ref name="Leckenby, Herbert 46–51"/>

The genre was characterized by several consistent features: most detectives had young assistants (like Blake's aide Tinker), operated from London addresses, and engaged in both domestic and international pursuits. These stories typically emphasized action and adventure over the cerebral puzzle-solving that characterized adult detective fiction. From the late Edwardian era onwards these detective tales often featured recurring master criminals and criminal organizations providing ongoing antagonists.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://friardale.co.uk/Collectors%20Digest/1952-Xmas-CollectorsDigest-ChristmasAnnual-06.pdf|title=Detectives in Boy's Literature, Collectors' Digest Christmas Annual, December 1952|website=The Friardale Website}}</ref>

==Golden Age novels==
{{Main|Golden Age of Detective Fiction}}
[[File:Agatha Christie.png|thumb| [[Agatha Christie]] (1890–1976)]]
[[File:Mika Waltari.jpg|thumb|[[Mika Waltari]] (1908–1979), better known for his [[historical novel]]s, also wrote crime novels such as [[Inspector Palmu]]s.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.bonnierrights.fi/books/who-murdered-mrs-skrof/| title = Who Murdered Mrs. Skrof? - Bonnier Rights Finland| access-date = 2020-08-01| archive-date = 2020-10-26| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201026095849/https://www.bonnierrights.fi/books/who-murdered-mrs-skrof/| url-status = live}}</ref>]]
The [[interwar period]] (the 1920s and 1930s) is generally referred to as the [[Golden Age of Detective Fiction]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/12/a-nice-gentle-murder/|title=P.D. James: Who killed the golden age of crime?|date=2013-12-14|work=The Spectator|access-date=2018-03-29|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-03-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330082433/https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/12/a-nice-gentle-murder/|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /> Apart from Marsh (a New Zealander), they were all British.

Various conventions of 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 [[Ronald Knox#Knox's Ten Rules for Detective Fiction|'Decalogue']] of rules for detective fiction. One of his rules was to avoid [[supernatural]] elements so that the focus remained on the mystery itself.<ref name=":1" /> Knox has contended that a detective story "must have as its main interest 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."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYL2DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA4|title=Queering Agatha Christie: Revisiting the Golden Age of Detective Fiction|last=Bernthal|first=J. C.|date=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-33533-9|pages=1–24|language=en}}</ref> 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 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 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."<ref name="NDHB" />

[[John Dickson Carr]]—who also wrote as Carter Dickson—used 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 (Carr novel)|The Hollow Man]]'' (1935).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/29/top-10-locked-room-mysteries-adrian-mckinty|title=The top 10 locked-room mysteries|last=McKinty|first=Adrian|date=2014-01-29|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-03-29|archive-date=2017-04-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424180807/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/29/top-10-locked-room-mysteries-adrian-mckinty|url-status=live}}</ref> Another author, [[Cecil Street]]—who also wrote as John Rhode—wrote of 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 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.”<ref name=":1" />

=== Agatha Christie ===
{{Main|Agatha Christie|Agatha Christie bibliography}}
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.”<ref name=":2" />

Many of the most popular books of 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.<ref name=":2" /> Christie's best-known works include ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'' (1934), ''[[Death on the Nile]]'' (1937), ''[[Three Blind Mice and Other Stories|Three Blind Mice]]'' (1950) and ''[[And Then There Were None]]'' (1939).

== By country ==

=== China ===
In 1896, a significant literary phenomenon unfolded in China with the rapid translation and serialization of four Sherlock Holmes stories in Shiwu bao (The Progress), a periodical established by the prominent reformist Liang Qichao. These translations, undertaken by Zhang Kunde, marked an early introduction of Western detective fiction to Chinese readers, reflecting the broader intellectual currents of the time. The first of these stories, The Naval Treaty, was published in three installments between August and September 1896. Notably, the story was given a culturally adapted title, The English Bao and the Case of the Stolen Secret Treaty (Ying Bao tankan daomi yuean), which reimagined Sherlock Holmes as a "pure magistrate," a figure deeply rooted in Chinese tradition. This transformation not only localized the character for Chinese audiences but also signaled the translators' intent to align the narrative with indigenous cultural and ideological frameworks.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Storia del Giallo in Cina. Dai casi giudiziari al romanzo di crimine.|last=Benedetti|first=Lavinia|publisher=Aracne Press|year=2017|isbn=978-88-255-0687-7}}</ref>

Following The Naval Treaty, other Sherlock Holmes stories were similarly translated and serialized. The Crooked Man appeared between October and November 1896, A Case of Identity was published from March to April 1897, and The Final Problem was serialized between April and May of the same year. These translations were part of a broader effort to introduce Western literary works to China, often with a focus on themes that resonated with the reformist agenda of the period. The popularity of Sherlock Holmes paved the way for the translation of other seminal works of Western detective fiction. Among these were L’affaire Lerouge by Émile Gaboriau (1832–1873), published in 1903, John Thorndyke's Cases by Richard Austin Freeman (1862–1943), which appeared in 1911, and Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc (1864–1941), translated in 1914. These works collectively contributed to the growing interest in detective fiction as a genre that could both entertain and provoke critical reflection on societal issues<ref name=":7"/>..

Among the translators of this era, Zhou Guisheng (1863–1926) stands out as a pivotal figure. Specializing in detective and science fiction, Zhou partially translated the French novel Margot la Balafrée by Fortuné du Boisgobey (1821–1891). In 1906, he founded the first Chinese Translators' Association (Yishu jiaotong gonghui) in Shanghai, an institution that played a crucial role in fostering literary exchange. Zhou's translation of Margot la Balafrée was notable for its extensive annotations and commentaries, which were appended to most chapters. These commentaries, following a tradition cherished by Chinese literati, sought to elucidate the moral and social implications of the narrative. However, unlike earlier practices that emphasized Confucian virtues, Zhou's commentaries critiqued the contemporary political system, often employing biting irony to mock the "antiquated" customs of imperial China. It is also noteworthy that among the commentators on Zhou's translation was Wu Jianren (1866–1910), better known by his pseudonym Wu Woyao, a celebrated writer of the time. Wu's involvement underscores the collaborative nature of this intellectual endeavor and highlights the role of detective fiction as a medium for social and political critique. Through their translations and commentaries, figures like Zhou Guisheng and Wu Jianren not only introduced Chinese readers to Western literary traditions but also used these works as a lens to examine and challenge the pressing issues of their own society.<ref name=":7"/>

Through China's Golden Age of [[crime fiction]] (1900–1949), translations of Western classics, and native Chinese detective fictions<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=Chinese Justice, the Fiction: Law and Literature in Modern China|last=Kinkley|first=Jeffrey C.|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0804734431}}</ref> 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, who had been self-taught in English from the age of 16, collaborated with a group of friends to translate the complete series of Sherlock Holmes stories into Chinese. Published in 1916 under the title Fuermosi tan’an (The Investigative Cases of Sherlock Holmes) by the Zhonghua shuju publishing house, this translation marked a significant milestone in the introduction of Western detective fiction to Chinese readers.<ref name=":7"/>

Cheng Xiaoqing's translated works from Conan Doyle introduced China to a new type of narrative style. Western detective fiction that was translated often emphasized “individuality, equality, and the importance of knowledge”,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ping |first=Zhang |date=2005-10-13 |title=Sherlock Holmes in China |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09076760508668979 |journal=Perspectives |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=106–114 |doi=10.1080/09076760508668979 |s2cid=144094471 |issn=0907-676X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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''.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Sherlock in Shanghai : stories of crime and detection|last1=Cheng|first1=Xiaoqing|date=2007|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|translator-last=Wong|translator-first=Timothy C.|isbn=978-0824864286|location=Honolulu|oclc=256676525}}</ref> In 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.<ref name=":3" /> Famed as the “Oriental Sherlock Holmes”,<ref name=":6" /> the duo Huo Sang and Bao Lang become counterparts to [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] and [[Dr. Watson]] characters.

His 1914 short story Dengguang renying (灯光人影), published in the journal Xinwen bao (新闻报), is often credited as the first true Chinese detective story. This work laid the foundation for a series of stories centered on the character Huo Sang, a detective whose brilliance and methods bore a striking resemblance to those of Sherlock Holmes. Indeed, the parallels between the two detectives are unmistakable: not only do their names share the same initials, but both characters are defined by their extraordinary intellect, their reliance on abductive reasoning, and their unwavering skepticism toward seemingly supernatural phenomena. Huo Sang, much like his Western counterpart, became a cultural icon, embodying the rational, analytical spirit of the modern detective. Cheng Xiaoqing's creation of Huo Sang not only signaled the birth of a distinctly Chinese detective genre but also reflected the broader intellectual currents of the time, as Chinese writers sought to adapt Western literary forms to address local concerns and sensibilities.<ref name=":7"/>

=== Iran ===
"Sadiq Mamquli, The Sherlock Holmes of Iran, The Sherriff of Isfahan" is the first major detective fiction in [[Persian literature|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.<ref>Ganjavi, Mahdi. sarnakhhayi tazi az khaliq avalin roman polisi tarikh adabiayat farsi, ibna, 2019</ref>

=== Japan ===
[[Edogawa Rampo]] is the first major Japanese modern mystery writer and the founder of the [[Mystery Writers of Japan|Detective Story Club in Japan]].<ref>{{cite web|date=15 April 2021|title=Japan's first detective story was published in 1889|url=https://www.redcircleauthors.com/factbook/japans-first-detective-story-was-published-in-1889/|url-status=live|website=Red Circle Authors|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811105520/https://www.redcircleauthors.com/factbook/japans-first-detective-story-was-published-in-1889/ |archive-date=2020-08-11 }}</ref> Rampo 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]].<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |id={{ProQuest|1304283380}} |last1=Manji |first1=Gonda |date=1 April 1993 |title=Crime Fiction with a Social Consciousness |journal=Japan Quarterly |volume=40 |issue=2 |page=157 }}</ref> In 1957, [[Seichō Matsumoto|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 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.<ref name=":5" /> Since the 1980s, a "[[Golden Age of Detective Fiction#The "new traditionalist" movement in Japanese mystery writing|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]].

=== India ===

====Byomkesh Bakshi (Character)====
{{Main articles|Byomkesh Bakshi}}
Created by famous [[Bengali language|Bengali]] novelist [[Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay]], '''Byomkesh''' 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 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.<ref name= dey>{{Cite book |last=Dey |first=Anindita |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hYBTEAAAQBAJ |title=Sherlock Holmes, Byomkesh Bakshi, and Feluda: Negotiating the Center and the Periphery |date=2021-12-27 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4985-1211-4 |language=en}}</ref>

====Feluda (Character)====

{{Main articles|Feluda}}
'''Feluda''', created by renowned filmmaker and author [[Satyajit Ray]], 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 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 the genre is significant, as he represents a sophisticated blend of intellect and charm, setting a high standard for detective fiction in India.<ref name= dey />

====Other Bengali detectives====

[[Hemendra Kumar Roy]] was an Indian [[Bengali language|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]]''' is a fictional Bengali female detective character created by [[Suchitra Bhattacharya]].

'''[[Colonel Niladri Sarkar]]''' is a [[Fictional detectives|fictional detective]] character created by [[Bengali language|Bengali]] novelist [[Syed Mustafa Siraj]].

====Malayalam====
[[Kottayam Pushpanath]], a prolific writer,<ref name="newindian">{{cite web|title=Malayalam detective fiction writer Kottayam Pushpanath passes away|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2018/may/02/malayalam-detective-fiction-writer-kottayam-pushpanath-passes-away-1809160.html|website=[[New Indian Express]]|date=May 2, 2018|access-date=September 26, 2023}}</ref> brought to life a vivid array of characters and mysteries. Pushpanath practiced teaching history for several years before becoming a full time writer.<ref name="newindian" /> It was in the last 1960s that he made his literary debut with ''Chuvanna Manushyan''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Detective novelist Kottayam Pushpanath passes away|url=https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/kerala/kottayam-pushpanath-1.2780833|date=May 2, 2018|access-date=September 26, 2023}}</ref> Pushpanath authored more than 350 detective novels.<ref>{{cite web|title=Kottayam Pushpanath is dead|website=[[The Hindu]] |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/kottayam-pushpanath-is-dead/article23752830.ece|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720133435/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/kottayam-pushpanath-is-dead/article23752830.ece|archivedate=July 20, 2020|date=May 2, 2018|access-date=September 26, 2023}}</ref>

=== Pakistan ===
[[Ibn-e-Safi]] is the most popular [[Urdu|Urdo]] detective fiction writer.<ref>{{cite web|last=Alam|first=Mahtab|title=Remembering Ibn-e-Safi, Whose Books Are Bestsellers 40 Years After His Death|url=https://thewire.in/books/ibn-e-safi-urdu-writer-bestsellers|website=[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]]|date=26 July 2020|accessdate=10 January 2022|archive-date=10 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110222758/https://thewire.in/books/ibn-e-safi-urdu-writer-bestsellers|url-status=live}}</ref> He started writing his famous [[Jasoosi Dunya]] Series [[Spy fiction|spy stories]] in 1952 with Col. Fareedi & Captain. Hameed as main characters.
In 1955 he started writing [[Imran series|Imran Series]] spy novels with Ali Imran as X2 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 (fiction writer)|Ishtiaq Ahmad]] who wrote Inspector Jamsheed, Inspector Kamran Mirza and Shooki brother's series of spy novels.

===Russia===
Stories about robbers and detectives were very popular in Russia since old times. A famous hero in the eighteenth century 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),<ref>"Откуда есть пошёл детектив русский...", Константин Ситников, from "Наука и жизнь", 2011, № 6</ref> "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]].<ref>"Поэтика детектива", Пётр Моисеев, Moscow: Высшая школа экономики, 2017</ref> 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]].<ref>"Советский приключенческий детектив первой половины XX века", Булычева Вера Павловна, from "Гуманитарные, социально-экономические и общественные науки", 2014, p. 2</ref> [[Boris Akunin]] is a famous Russian writer of historical detective fiction in modern-day Russia.

===United States===
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 the detective novels of [[Tony Hillerman]], set among the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] population around [[New Mexico]], "many American readers have probably gotten more insight into traditional [[Navajo people|Navajo]] culture from his detective stories than from any other recent books."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UIrr2lOnkp8C&pg=PA8 "Canonization, Modern Literature, and the Detective Story], John G. Cawelti, from ''Theory and practice of classic detective fiction'', Jerome Delamater, etc., Hofstra University, 1997, p. 8</ref> Other notable writers who have explored regional and ethnic communities in their detective novels are [[Harry Kemelman]], whose [[Rabbi Small]] series were set in 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]].

== Subgenres ==

===Hardboiled===
{{Main|Hardboiled fiction}}

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 is described as an "'[[Everyman]]' detective meant to challenge the detective-as-superman that Holmes represented."<ref name="google2005">Rzepka, Charles J. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=iYq7D2VCmc0C ''Detective Fiction'']. Polity. {{ISBN|978-0745629421}}.</ref>

By the late 1920s, [[Al Capone]] and the [[American Mafia|American mafia]] inspired not only fear, but piqued mainstream curiosity about the American [[Organized crime|criminal underworld]]. Popular [[pulp fiction magazine]]s like ''[[Black Mask (magazine)|Black Mask]]'' capitalized on this, as authors such as [[Carroll John Daly|Carrol John Daly]] published violent stories that focused on 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."<ref name="NDHB" /> The overall theme these writers portrayed reflected "the changing face of America itself."<ref name="google2005" />

In the 1930s, the private eye genre 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]].<ref name="autogenerated2006">Messent, P. (2006). ''Introduction: From private eye to police procedural – the logic of contemporary crime fiction''</ref> 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."<ref name="autogenerated2006" /> "Told in stark and sometimes elegant language through the unemotional eyes of new hero-detectives, these stories were an American phenomenon."<ref name="NDHB" />

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 [[The Continental Op|Continental Op]] stories.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Beal |first1=Wesley |title=Philip Marlowe, Family Man |journal=College Literature |date=2014 |volume=2014 |issue=2 |pages=11–28 |doi=10.1353/lit.2014.0021 }}</ref> 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 the Philip Marlowe character. [[James Hadley Chase]] wrote a few novels with private eyes as the main heroes, including ''Blonde's Requiem'' (1945), ''Lay Her Among the Lilies'' (1950), and ''Figure It Out for Yourself'' (1950). The heroes of these novels are typical private eyes, very similar to or [[Plagiarism|plagiarizing]] Raymond Chandler's work.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pristed |first1=Birgitte Beck |title=Glasnost Noire: The Soviet and Post-Soviet Publication and Reception of James Hadley Chase |journal=Book History |date=2013 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=329–363 |doi=10.1353/bh.2013.0000 |s2cid=162401996 }}</ref>

[[Ross Macdonald]], pseudonym of [[Kenneth Millar]], updated the form again with his detective [[Lew Archer]]. Archer, like Hammett's fictional heroes, was a camera eye, with hardly any known past. "Turn Archer sideways, and he disappears," one reviewer wrote. Critics praised Macdonald's use of psychology and his prose, which was full of [[imagery]]. Like other 'hardboiled' writers, Macdonald aimed to give an impression of [[Literary realism|realism]] in his work through violence, sex and confrontation. The 1966 movie ''[[Harper (film)|Harper]]'' starring [[Paul Newman]] was based on the first Lew Archer story ''[[The Moving Target]]'' (1949). Newman reprised the role in ''[[The Drowning Pool]]'' in 1976.

[[Michael Collins (American author)|Michael Collins]], pseudonym of Dennis Lynds, is generally considered the author who led the form into the Modern Age. Like Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald, Collins' protagonist was a private investigator,  Dan Fortune. However, Collins stories also involved an element of [[Sociology|sociological]] reflection, exploring the meaning of his characters' places in society and the impact society had on people. Full of commentary and clipped prose, his books were more intimate than those of his predecessors, dramatizing that crime can happen in one's own living room.

The "hardboiled" novel was a male-dominated field in which female authors seldom found publication until [[Marcia Muller]], [[Sara Paretsky]], and [[Sue Grafton]] were finally published in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Each author's detective, also female, was brainy and physical and could hold her own.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Nora|first=Martin|title="In the business of believing women's stories": Feminism through detective fiction (Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton)|date=1996|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University|url=http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/3/|language=en|access-date=2011-10-04|archive-date=2012-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425045619/http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/3/|url-status=live}}</ref> Their acceptance, and success, caused publishers to seek out other female authors.

=== Inverted ===
{{Main|Inverted detective story}}

An [[inverted detective story]], also known as a "'''howcatchem'''", is a [[murder]] [[mystery fiction]] structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning,<ref name=":0" /> usually including the identity of the perpetrator.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dictionary of literary themes and motifs|date=1988|publisher=Greenwood Press|others=Seigneuret, Jean-Charles.|isbn=978-0313263965|location=New York|oclc=15696167|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoflite01seig}}</ref> The story then describes the detective's attempt to solve the mystery. There may also be subsidiary puzzles, such as why the crime was committed, and they are explained or resolved during the story. This format is the inversion of the more typical "[[whodunit]]", in which the perpetrator of the crime is not revealed until the story's climax.

===Police procedural===
{{Main|Police procedural}}

Many detective stories have [[police]] officers as the main characters. These stories may take a variety of forms, but many authors try to realistically depict the routine activities of a group of police officers who are frequently working on more than one case simultaneously. Some of these stories are whodunits; in others, the criminal is well known, and the detective must gather enough evidence to charge them with the crime.

In the 1940s the [[police procedural]] evolved as a new style of detective fiction. Unlike the heroes of Christie, Chandler, and Spillane, the police detective was subject to error and was constrained by rules and regulations. As Gary Huasladen writes in ''Places for Dead Bodies'', "not all the clients were insatiable [[Bombshell (slang)|bombshells]], and invariably there was life outside the job." The detective in the police procedural does the things police officers do to catch a criminal. Prominent writers in the genre include [[Ed McBain]], [[P. D. James]], and [[Bartholomew Gill]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://libguides.enc.edu/mysteryfiction/genres|title=LibGuides: Mystery Fiction and Film: Genres of Mystery and Crime Fiction|last=Hwang|first=Amy|website=libguides.enc.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-03-19|archive-date=2018-03-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320110032/http://libguides.enc.edu/mysteryfiction/genres|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Historical mystery===
[[File:Apteeker Melchior - 1 - Autor Robert Lang - 2728.jpg|thumb|Estonian writer [[Indrek Hargla]] is known for his [[Apothecary Melchior series|''Melchior the Apothecary'' series]], which takes place in medieval [[Tallinn]] and has also been adapted into films]]
{{Main|Historical mystery}}

[[Historical mystery]] is set in a time period considered historical from the author's perspective, and the central plot involves the solving of a mystery or crime (usually murder). Though works combining these genres have existed since at least the early 20th century, many credit [[Ellis Peters]]'s ''[[The Cadfael Chronicles|Cadfael Chronicles]]'' (1977–1994) for popularizing what would become known as the historical mystery.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704804204575069371115999474|title=Historical Mystery Novels|last=Rivkin|first=David B. Jr.|date=2010-02-27|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=2018-03-19|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660|archive-date=2018-03-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320171125/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704804204575069371115999474|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/43024-mysteries-of-history.html|title=Mysteries of History|work=PublishersWeekly.com|access-date=2018-03-19|language=en|archive-date=2020-01-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125143854/https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/43024-mysteries-of-history.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

A variation on this is [[Josephine Tey]]'s ''[[The Daughter of Time]]''. In it, Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant—who considers himself a good judge of faces—is surprised to find that what he considers to be the portrait of a sensitive man is in reality a portrait of [[Richard III of England|Richard III]], who murdered his brother's children in order to become king. The story details his attempt to get to the historical truth of whether Richard III is the villain he has been made out to be by history. The novel was awarded the top spot in the Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time by the UK Crime Writers' Association<ref>{{cite web |title=Book awards: Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time - UK Crime Writers' Association |url=http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Top+100+Crime+Novels+of+All+Time+-+UK+Crime+Writers%27+Association |website=LibraryThing |access-date=2021-02-01 |archive-date=2021-02-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206114937/http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Top+100+Crime+Novels+of+All+Time+-+UK+Crime+Writers%27+Association |url-status=live }}</ref> and the number 4 spot in The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time Mystery Writers of America<ref>{{cite web |title=The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time Mystery Writers of America. |url=http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/The+Top+100+Mystery+Novels+of+All+Time+Mystery+Writers+of+America |website=LibraryThing |access-date=2021-02-01 |archive-date=2020-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201220035429/http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/The+Top+100+Mystery+Novels+of+All+Time+Mystery+Writers+of+America |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Cozy mystery===
{{Main|Cozy mystery}}

Cozy mystery began in the late 20th century as a reinvention of the [[Golden Age of Detective Fiction|Golden Age]] whodunit; these novels generally shy away from violence and suspense and frequently feature female amateur detectives. Modern cozy mysteries are frequently, though not necessarily, humorous and thematic . Variations of the subgenre include culinary mystery, animal mystery, and quilting mystery, among others.

Cozy mysteries feature minimal violence, sex, and social relevance; a solution achieved by intellect or intuition rather than police procedure, with order restored in the end; honorable characters; and a setting in a closed community. Writers include [[Agatha Christie]], [[Dorothy L. Sayers]], and [[Elizabeth Daly]].<ref name=":0" />

===Serial killer mystery===
[[Serial killer]] mystery might be thought of as a variation of the police procedural. There are early mystery novels in which a police force attempts to contend with the type of criminal known in the 1920s as a homicidal maniac, such as a few of the early novels of [[Philip Macdonald]] and [[Ellery Queen]]'s ''[[Cat of Many Tails]]''. However, this sort of story became much more popular after the coining of the phrase "serial killer" in the 1970s and the publication of ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (novel)|The Silence of the Lambs]]'' in 1988. These stories frequently show the activities of many members of a police force or government agency in their efforts to apprehend a killer who is selecting victims on some obscure basis. They are also often much more violent and suspenseful than other mysteries.

===Legal thriller===
{{Main|Legal thriller}}

The legal thriller, or courtroom novel, is also related to detective fiction. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sauerberg |first1=Lars Ole |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-40730-6_1 |title=The legal thriller from Gardner to Grisham : see you in court! |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-137-40730-6 |location=London |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-40730-6_1 |access-date=}}</ref> In this way, the legal system provides the framework for the legal thriller as much as the system of modern police work does for the [[police procedural]]. The legal thriller usually begins with the court proceedings following the closure of an investigation, often resulting in a new angle on the investigation, so as to bring about an outcome different from the one originally devised by the investigators. In the legal thriller, court proceedings play a very active, if not to say decisive part in a case reaching its ultimate solution. [[Erle Stanley Gardner]] popularized the courtroom novel in the 20th century with his [[Perry Mason]] series. Contemporary authors of legal thrillers include [[Michael Connelly]], [[Linda Fairstein]], [[John Grisham]], [[John Lescroart]], [[Paul Levine]], [[Lisa Scottoline]], and [[Scott Turow]].

===Locked room mystery===
{{Main|Locked room mystery}}

The locked room mystery is a subgenre of detective fiction in which a [[crime]]—almost always [[murder]]—is committed under circumstances which it was seemingly impossible for the perpetrator to commit the crime and/or evade detection in the course of getting in and out of the crime scene. The genre was established in the 19th century. [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s "[[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]]" (1841) is considered the first locked-room mystery; since then, other authors have used the scheme. The crime in question typically involves a [[crime scene]] with no indication as to how the intruder could have entered or left, i.e., a locked room. Following other conventions of classic detective fiction, the reader is normally presented with the puzzle and all of the [[Evidence|clues]], and is encouraged to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed in a dramatic [[Climax (narrative)|climax]].

===Occult===
{{Main|Occult detective fiction}}

Occult detective fiction is a subgenre of detective fiction that combines the [[trope (literature)|tropes]] of detective fiction with those of [[supernatural fiction|supernatural]] [[horror fiction]].  Unlike the traditional [[detective]], the [[occult]] detective is employed in cases involving [[ghost]]s, [[demon]]s, [[curse]]s, [[Magic in fiction|magic]], [[monster]]s and other [[supernatural]] elements. Some occult detectives are portrayed as knowing magic or being themselves psychic or in possession of other paranormal powers.

==='Whodunit'===
{{Main|Whodunit|}}

A '''''whodunit''''' or '''''whodunnit''''' (a colloquial elision of "Who [has] done it?" or "Who did it?") is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of deduction as the protagonist throughout the investigation of a crime. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its [[Climax (narrative)|climax]]. The "whodunit" flourished during the so-called "[[Golden Age of Detective Fiction|Golden Age]]" of detective fiction, between 1920 and 1950, when it was the predominant mode of crime writing.

==Modern criticism==
===Preserving story secrets===
Even if they do not mean to, advertisers, reviewers, scholars and aficionados sometimes give away details or parts of the plot, and sometimes—for example in the case of [[Mickey Spillane]]'s novel ''[[I, the Jury]]''—even the solution. After the credits of [[Billy Wilder]]'s film ''[[Witness for the Prosecution (1957 film)|Witness for the Prosecution]]'', the cinemagoers are asked not to talk to anyone about the plot so that future viewers will also be able to fully enjoy the unravelling of the mystery. At the end of each performance of the play ''[[The Mousetrap]]'' by [[Agatha Christie]], audiences are asked not to reveal the identity of the murderer to anyone outside the theatre, so that the end of the play is not [[Spoiler (media)|spoiled]] for future audiences.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cohen |first=Noam |date=2010-09-18 |title=Spoiler Alert: Whodunit? Wikipedia Will Tell You |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/business/media/18spoiler.html |access-date=2025-03-23 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

===Plausibility and coincidence===
For series involving amateur detectives, their frequent encounters with crime often test the limits of plausibility. The character [[Miss Marple]] appears in twelve novels and twenty short stories,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Miss Marple - Characters |url=https://www.agathachristie.com/en/characters/miss-marple |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=www.agathachristie.com |language=en-US}}</ref> [[William L. DeAndrea|William L. De Andrea]] has described Marple's home town, the quiet little village of [[St. Mary Mead]], as having "put on a pageant of human depravity rivaled only by that of [[Sodom and Gomorrah]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=DeAndrea |first=William L. |title=Encyclopedia mysteriosa: a comprehensive guide to the art of detection in print, film, radio, and television |date=1994 |publisher=Prentice Hall General Reference |isbn=978-0-671-85025-8 |edition=1st |location=New York, NY}}</ref> Similarly, TV heroine [[Jessica Fletcher]] of ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' was confronted with bodies wherever she went, but most notably in her small hometown of [[Cabot Cove]], [[Maine]]; ''[[The New York Times]]'' estimated that, by the end of the series' 12-year run, nearly 2% of the town's residents had been killed.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/weekinreview/whodunit-that-under-40-crowd.html|title=Whodunit? That Under-40 Crowd|last=Barron|first=James|date=1996-04-14|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-29|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=2018-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129062218/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/weekinreview/whodunit-that-under-40-crowd.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It is arguably more convincing if police, [[forensics|forensic expert]]s or similar professionals are made the protagonist of a series of crime novels.

The television series ''[[Monk (TV series)|Monk]]'' has often made fun of this implausible frequency. The main character, [[Adrian Monk]], is frequently accused of being a "bad luck charm" and a "murder magnet" as the result of the frequency with which murder happens in his vicinity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mondayeveningclub.blogspot.ca/2009/02/butler-did-it-passion-for-mystery.html|title=The butler did it: A passion for mystery novels|website=mondayeveningclub.blogspot.ca|language=en|access-date=2018-03-22|date=2009-02-28|archive-date=2018-03-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322081851/http://mondayeveningclub.blogspot.ca/2009/02/butler-did-it-passion-for-mystery.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Likewise [[Kogoro Mori]] of the manga series ''[[Detective Conan]]'' earned a similar reputation. Although Mori is actually a [[private investigator]] with his own agency, the police never intentionally consult him as he stumbles from one crime scene to another.

The role and legitimacy of coincidence has frequently been the topic of heated arguments ever since [[Ronald A. Knox]] categorically stated that "no accident must ever help the detective" (Commandment No. 6 in his "Decalogue").<ref name=":4">{{cite web|url=http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv186.html|title=Father Knox's Decalogue: The Ten Rules of (Golden Age) Detective Fiction|website=www.thrillingdetective.com|access-date=2018-03-22|archive-date=2018-04-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401060245/http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv186.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Effects of technology===
Technological progress has also rendered many plots implausible and antiquated. For example, the predominance of [[mobile phone]]s, [[pager]]s, and [[Personal digital assistant|PDAs]] has significantly altered the previously dangerous situations in which investigators traditionally might have found themselves.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/stav-sherez-crime-fiction-and-technology/|title=Stav Sherez: crime fiction and technology – Dead Good|date=2017-01-29|work=Dead Good|access-date=2018-03-22|language=en-GB|archive-date=2018-03-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322142803/https://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/stav-sherez-crime-fiction-and-technology/|url-status=live}}</ref>

One tactic that avoids the issue of technology altogether is the [[Historical whodunnit|historical detective genre]]. As global interconnectedness makes legitimate suspense more difficult to achieve, several writers—including [[Elizabeth Peters]], [[P. C. Doherty]], [[Steven Saylor]], and [[Lindsey Davis]]—have eschewed fabricating convoluted plots in order to manufacture tension, instead opting to set their characters in some former period. Such a strategy forces the protagonist to rely on more inventive means of investigation, lacking as they do the technological tools available to modern detectives.

Conversely, some detective fiction embraces networked computer technology and deals in [[cybercrime]], like the ''[[Daemon (novel series)|Daemon]]'' novel series by [[Daniel Suarez (author)|Daniel Suarez]].

==Detective Commandments==
Several authors have attempted to set forth a sort of list of “Detective Commandments” for prospective authors of the genre.

According to "Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories," by [[Van Dine's Commandments|Van Dine]] in 1928: "The detective story is a kind of intellectual game. It is more—it is a sporting event. And for the writing of detective stories there are very definite laws—unwritten, perhaps, but nonetheless binding; and every respectable and self-respecting concocter of literary mysteries lives up to them. Herewith, then, is a sort of credo, based partly on the practice of all the great writers of detective stories, and partly on the promptings of the honest author's inner conscience."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/vandine.htm |title=Twenty rules for writing detective stories (1928) by S. S. Van Dine |publisher=Gaslight.mtroyal.ca |access-date=2013-02-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113070900/http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/vandine.htm |archive-date=2013-01-13 }}</ref> [[Ronald Knox]] wrote a set of ''Ten Commandments'' or ''Decalogue'' in 1929,<ref name=":4" /> see article on the [[Golden Age of Detective Fiction]].

A general consensus among crime fiction authors is there is a specific set of rules that must be applied for a novel to truly be considered part of the detective fiction genre. As noted in "Introduction to the Analysis of Crime Fiction",<ref>{{Cite book|last=Milda|first=Danytė|date=2011|title=Introduction to the analysis of crime fiction : a user-friendly guide|url=https://eltalpykla.vdu.lt/handle/1/225;jsessionid=0031AA6D5371C55A12C9211F3AD3D94E|language=en|isbn=9789955126980|publisher=Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas|access-date=2018-03-22|archive-date=2018-03-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322082209/https://eltalpykla.vdu.lt/handle/1/225;jsessionid=0031AA6D5371C55A12C9211F3AD3D94E|url-status=live}}</ref> crime fiction from the past 100 years has generally contained the following key rules to be a detective novel:
* A crime, most often murder, is committed early in the narrative
* There are a variety of suspects with different motives
* A central character formally or informally acts as a detective
* The detective collects evidence about the crimes and its victim
* Usually the detective interviews the suspects,  as well as the witnesses
* The detective solves the mystery and indicates the real criminal
* Usually this criminal is now arrested or otherwise punished

== Influential fictional detectives ==
{{main|Fictional detectives}}

===Sherlock Holmes===
{{Main|Sherlock Holmes}}
Sherlock Holmes is an English fictional detective created by [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]. After first appearing in ''[[A Study in Scarlet]]'', the [[Canon of Sherlock Holmes|Sherlock Holmes stories]] were not an immediate success. However, after being published in the [[The Strand Magazine|Strand Magazine]] in 1891, the detective became unquestionably popular.<ref name="Armstrong">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160106-how-sherlock-holmes-changed-the-world|title=How Sherlock Holmes changed the world|last=Armstrong|first=Jennifer Keishin|date=6 January 2016 |language=en|access-date=2018-03-22|archive-date=2018-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217093624/http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160106-how-sherlock-holmes-changed-the-world|url-status=live}}</ref> Following the success of Sherlock Holmes, many mystery writers imitated Conan Doyle's structure in their own detective stories and included aspects of Sherlock Holmes's personalities in their own detectives.

Sherlock Holmes as a series is perhaps the most popular form of detective fiction. Conan Doyle attempted to kill the character off after twenty-three stories, but after popular request, he continued to write stories featuring the character. The popularity of Sherlock Holmes extends beyond the written medium.<ref>{{cite web|last=Nathan|first=Richard|date=18 December 2020|title=Ultra-Influencers: The Two British Fictional Victorians that Changed Japan|url=https://www.redcircleauthors.com/news-and-views/ultra-influencers-the-two-british-fictional-victorians-that-changed-japan/|url-status=live|access-date=15 April 2021|website=Red Circle Authors|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218082150/https://www.redcircleauthors.com/news-and-views/ultra-influencers-the-two-british-fictional-victorians-that-changed-japan/ |archive-date=2020-12-18 }}</ref> For example, the BBC-produced TV series [[Sherlock (TV series)|''Sherlock'']] gained a very large following after first airing in 2010, imbuing a renewed interest in the character in the general public. Because of the popularity of Holmes, Conan Doyle was often regarded as being “as well known as [[Queen Victoria]]”.<ref name="Armstrong"/>

===Sexton Blake===
{{Main|Sexton Blake}}
'''Sexton Blake''' is a fictional British detective, whose adventures captivated readers for over eight decades from 1893 to 1978.<ref name="ox">{{cite book |title=Oxford Companion to Children's Literature |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199695140}}</ref> Blake featured in more than 4,000 stories by approximately 200 different authors, making him one of the most prolifically chronicled characters in English literature.<ref name="ox"/> The detective's adventures spanned multiple formats including comic strips, novels, radio serials, silent films, and a [[Sexton Blake (TV series)|1960s ITV television series]], reaching audiences across Britain and internationally in various languages.

Initially conceived as a Victorian gentleman detective, Blake evolved significantly over time, acquiring now-iconic elements like his Baker Street residence, his young assistant Tinker, his bloodhound Pedro, and his housekeeper Mrs. Bardell. While often compared to Sherlock Holmes, Blake's adventures typically featured more action-oriented plots and coloruful adversaries, many of whom were recurring master criminals. Blake had many rivals and imitators: [[Nelson Lee (detective)|Nelson Lee]], [[Dixon Hawke]], Carfax Baines, Kenyon Ford, Stanley Dare, Ferrers Locke, and many others now long forgotten.<ref name="Leckenby, Herbert 46–51"/> Blake reached his peak popularity during the 1920s and early 1930s, particularly through publications like [[Union Jack (magazine)|The Union Jack]] and [[The Sexton Blake Library]], which at its height published five times monthly.

===Hercule Poirot===
{{Main|Hercule Poirot}}
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian private detective, created by [[Agatha Christie]]. As one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, Poirot appeared in 33 novels, one play ([[Black Coffee (play)|''Black Coffee'']]), and more than 50 short stories, published between 1920 and 1975. Hercule Poirot first appeared in ''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]],'' published in 1920, and died in [[Curtain (novel)|''Curtain'']], published in 1975, which is Agatha Christie's last work. On August 6, 1975, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published the obituary of Poirot's death with the cover of the newly published novel on their front page.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uk.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/characters/poirot/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412131601/http://uk.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/characters/poirot/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2010-04-12|title=Agatha Christie: Characters – Poirot|date=2010-04-12|access-date=2018-03-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/06/archives/hercule-poirot-is-dead-famed-belgian-detective-hercule-poirot-the.html|title=Hercule Poirot Is Dead; Famed Belgian Detective|last=Lask|first=Thomas|date=1975-08-06|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-21|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=2017-11-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107112341/http://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/06/archives/hercule-poirot-is-dead-famed-belgian-detective-hercule-poirot-the.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===C. Auguste Dupin===
{{Main|C. Auguste Dupin}}
Le [[Knight|Chevalier]] C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional character created by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]. Dupin made his first appearance in Poe's "[[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]]" (1841), widely considered the first detective fiction story. He reappears in "[[The Mystery of Marie Rogêt]]" (1842) and "[[The Purloined Letter]]" (1844).

C. Auguste Dupin is generally acknowledged as the prototype for many fictional detectives that were created later, including [[Sherlock Holmes]] by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] and [[Hercule Poirot]] by [[Agatha Christie]]. Conan Doyle once wrote, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?"

===Ellery Queen===
{{Main|Ellery Queen}}
Ellery Queen is a fictional detective created by American writers [[Manfred Bennington Lee]] and [[Frederic Dannay]], as well as the joint [[pseudonym]] for the cousins Dannay and Lee. He first appeared in ''[[The Roman Hat Mystery]]''  (1929), and starred in more than 30 novels and several short story collections. During the 1930s and much of the 1940s, Ellery Queen was possibly the best known American fictional detective.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjgE_CRiIW4C&pg=PA161|title=Whodunit?: A Who's who in Crime & Mystery Writing|last=Herbert|first=Rosemary|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515761-1|page=161}}</ref>

==Detective debuts and swan songs==
Many detectives appear in more than one novel or story. Here is a list of a few [[wikt:debut|debut]] stories and final appearances.
<!-- please add alphabetically by detective name -->
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Detective
! Author
! Debut
! Final appearance
|-
| [[Misir Ali]]
| [[Humayun Ahmed]]
| ''Devi'' || ''Jakhan Namibe Andhar''
|-
| [[Roderick Alleyn]]
| [[Ngaio Marsh]]
| ''[[A Man Lay Dead]]'' || ''[[Light Thickens]]''
|-
| [[Lew Archer]]
| [[Ross Macdonald]]
| ''[[The Moving Target]]'' || ''The Blue Hammer'' 
|-
| [[Byomkesh Bakshi]]
| [[Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay]]
| ''[[Satyanweshi (novel)|Satyanweshi]]'' || ''Bishupal Badh''
|-
| [[Inspector Alan Banks|Alan Banks]]
| [[Peter Robinson (novelist)|Peter Robinson]]
| ''[[Gallows View]]''
|-
| [[Parashor Barma]]
| [[Premendra Mitra]]
| ''Goenda Kobi Parashar'' || ''Ghanada O Dui Doshor Mamababu O Parashar''
|-
| [[Tom Barnaby]]
| [[Caroline Graham (writer)|Caroline Graham]]
| ''[[The Killings at Badger's Drift]]''
| ''[[A Ghost in the Machine]]''
|-
| J. P. Beaumont
| [[J. A. Jance]]
| ''Until Proven Guilty''
|-
| [[Martin Beck]]
| [[Maj Sjöwall]] and [[Per Wahlöö]]
| ''[[Roseanna (novel)|Roseanna]]'' || ''[[The Terrorists]]''
|-
| [[Bimal]]
| [[Hemendra Kumar Roy]]
| ''[[Jakher Dhan]]''
|-
| [[Anita Blake]]
| [[Laurell K. Hamilton]]
| ''[[Guilty Pleasures (novel)|Guilty Pleasures]]''
|-
| [[Sexton Blake]]
| [[Harry Blyth]], [[George Hamilton Teed]], [[Edwy Searles Brooks]]
| ''The Missing Millionaire''
|-
| [[Harry Bosch]]
| [[Michael Connelly]]
| ''The Black Echo''
|-
| Joanna Brady
| [[J. A. Jance]]
| ''Desert Heat''
|-
| [[Jackson Brodie]]
| [[Kate Atkinson (writer)|Kate Atkinson]]
| ''[[Case Histories]]''
|-
| [[Father Brown]]
| [[G. K. Chesterton]]
| "[[The Blue Cross (short story)|The Blue Cross]]" || "The Mask of Midas"
|-
| [[Brother Cadfael]]
| [[Ellis Peters]]
| ''[[A Morbid Taste for Bones]]'' || ''[[Brother Cadfael's Penance]]''
|-
| Jack Caffery
| [[Mo Hayder]]
| ''[[Birdman (novel)|Birdman]]'' || ''Wolf''
|-
| [[Vincent Calvino]]
| [[Christopher G. Moore]]
| ''Spirit House''
|-
| rowspan="3" | [[Albert Campion]]
| rowspan="3" | [[Margery Allingham]]
| rowspan="3" | ''[[The Crime at Black Dudley]]''
| ''[[The Mind Readers]]'' (last story completed by Allingham)
|-
| ''Mr. Campion's Falcon'' (last story completed by [[Philip Youngman Carter]])
|-
| ''(Series continues written by [[Mike Ripley]])''
|-
| Georgia Cantini
| [[Grazia Verasani]]
| ''[http://www.italicapress.com/index488.html Quo Vadis, Baby?]''
|-
| [[Nick and Nora Charles]]
| [[Dashiell Hammett]]
| colspan="2" | ''[[The Thin Man]]'' 
|-
| Cao Chen
| [[Qiu Xiaolong|Xiaolong Qiu]]
| ''[[Death of a Red Heroine]]'' 
|-
| [[Elvis Cole]]
| [[Robert Crais]]
| ''[[The Monkey's Raincoat]]''
|-
| Quinn Colson
| [[Ace Atkins]]
| ''The Ranger''
|-
| [[The Continental Op]]
| [[Dashiell Hammett]]
| ''Arson Plus''
| ''[[The Dain Curse]]''
|-
| Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne
| [[David Roberts (novelist)|David Roberts]]
| ''Sweet Poison'' || ''Sweet Sorrow''
|-
| [[Jerry Cornelius]]
| [[Michael Moorcock]]
| ''[[The Final Programme]]''
|-
| [[Dr. Phil D'Amato]]
| [[Paul Levinson]]
| [[Phil D'Amato#The Novelettes|"The Chronology Protection Case"]]
|-
| [[Harry D'Amour]]
| [[Clive Barker]]
| [[Books of Blood|"The Last Illusion"]]
|-
| [[Adam Dalgliesh]]
| [[PD James]]
| ''[[Cover Her Face]]'' || ''[[The Private Patient]]''
|-
| [[Dalziel and Pascoe|Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe]]
| [[Reginald Hill]]
| ''[[A Clubbable Woman]]'' || ''Midnight Fugue''
|-
| [[Peter Decker]]
| [[Faye Kellerman]]
| ''The Ritual Bath''
|-
| [[Alex Delaware]]
| [[Jonathan Kellerman]]
| ''When the Bough Breaks'' ||
|-
| [[Harry Devlin (fictional detective)|Harry Devlin]]
| [[Martin Edwards (author)|Martin Edwards]]
| ''All the Lonely People''
|-
| Peter Diamond
| [[Peter Lovesey]]
| ''[[The Last Detective (book)|The Last Detective]]''
|-
| [[Harry Dresden]]
| [[Jim Butcher]]
| ''Storm Front''
|-
| [[Nancy Drew]]
| [[Carolyn Keene]]
| ''[[The Secret of the Old Clock]]''
|-
| [[Auguste Dupin]]
| [[Edgar Allan Poe]]
| ''[[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]]'' || ''[[The Purloined Letter]]''
|-
| [[Marcus Didius Falco]]
| [[Lindsey Davis]]
| ''[[The Silver Pigs]]''
|-
| [[Feluda]]
| [[Satyajit Ray]]
| ''[[Feludar Goendagiri]]'' || ''Robertson-er Ruby''
|-
| [[Erast Fandorin]]
| [[Boris Akunin]]
| ''[[The Winter Queen (novel)|The Winter Queen]]''
|-
| [[Kate Fansler]]
| [[Carolyn Gold Heilbrun|Amanda Cross]]
| ''In the Last Analysis''
| ''The Edge of Doom''
|-
| [[Dr. Gideon Fell]]
| [[John Dickson Carr]]
| ''Hag's Nook'' || ''Dark of the Moon''
|-
| [[John Fielding|Sir John Fielding]] and Jeremy Proctor
| [[Bruce Alexander Cook|Bruce Alexander]]
| ''[[Blind Justice (novel)|Blind Justice]]''
|-
| Tecumseh Fox
| [[Rex Stout]]
| ''Double for Death'' || ''The Broken Vase''
|-
| [[List of Case Closed characters#Rei Furuya|Rei Furuya]]
| [[Gosho Aoyama]]
| ''[[Detective Conan]]''
|-
| rowspan="2" | [[Dirk Gently|Dirk Gently (Svlad Cjelli)]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Douglas Adams]]
| rowspan="2" | ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' 
| ''[[The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul]]'' (last completed work)
|-
| ''[[The Salmon of Doubt]]'' (unfinished)
|- 
| [[Inspector Ghote|Ganesh Ghote]]
| [[H. R. F. Keating]]
| ''[[The Perfect Murder (novel)|The Perfect Murder]]'' || ''A Small Case for Inspector Ghote?''
|-
| [[George Gideon]]
| [[John Creasey]]
| ''[[Gideon's Day]]''
| ''Gideon's Drive''
|-
| [[Gordianus the Finder]]
| [[Steven Saylor]]
| ''Roman Blood''
|-
| [[Saguru Hakuba]]
| [[Gosho Aoyama]]
| ''[[Magic Kaito]]''
|-
| rowspan="2" | [[Mike Hammer (character)|Mike Hammer]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Mickey Spillane]]
| rowspan="2" | ''[[I, the Jury]]''
| ''[[Black Alley]]'' (last story completed by Spillane)
|-
| ''(Series continues from unfinished Spillane manuscripts completed by [[Max Allan Collins]])''
|-
| [[The Hardy Boys]]
| ([[Franklin W Dixon|ghostwriter]]s)
| ''[[The Tower Treasure]]''
|-
| [[Harley Hartwell|Heiji Hattori]]
| [[Gosho Aoyama]]
| ''[[Detective Conan]]''
|-
| [[Dixon Hawke]]
| Unknown author for DC Thomson 
| ''The Great Hotel Mystery''
|-
| [[Dr. Tony Hill|Tony Hill]]
| [[Val McDermid]]
| ''[[The Mermaids Singing]]''
|-
| Neil Hockaday
| [[Thomas Adcock]]
| ''Sea of Green''
| ''Grief Street''
|-
| [[Sherlock Holmes]]
| [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]
| ''[[A Study in Scarlet]]'' || ''[[The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place]]''
|-
| [[Jayanta]]
| [[Hemendra Kumar Roy]]
| ''Jayanter Keerti'' || 
|-
| Art Keller
| [[Don Winslow]]
| ''[[The Power of the Dog (Winslow novel)|The Power of the Dog]]''
|-
| [[Craig Kennedy]]
| [[Arthur B. Reeve]]
| ''The Silent Bullet'' || ''The Stars Scream Murder''
|-
| [[Sammy Keyes]]
| [[Wendelin Van Draanen]]
| Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief
|-
| [[Kikira]]
| [[Bimal Kar]]
| ''Kapalikera Ekhono Ache'' || ''Ekti Photo Churir Rahasya''
|-
| [[Shinichi Kudo]] / Conan Edogawa
| [[Gosho Aoyama]]
| ''[[Detective Conan]]''|| &nbsp;
|-
| [[Jake Lassiter]]
| [[Paul Levine]]
| "To Speak For The Dead"
|-
| Charles Latimer
| [[Eric Ambler]]
| ''[[The Mask of Dimitrios]]'' (AKA ''A Coffin for Dimitrios'')
| ''The Intercom Conspiracy''
|-
| [[Joe Leaphorn]]
| [[Tony Hillerman]]
| ''[[The Blessing Way]]''
|-
| [[Nelson Lee (detective)|Nelson Lee]]
| [[John William Staniforth|Maxwell Scott]]
| ''A Dead Man's Secret'' || ''Waldo, the Gang Buster''
|-
| Inspector Lund
| [[Willy Corsari]]
| ''Het Mysterie van de Mondscheinsonate'' (''The Mystery of the Moonlight Sonata'')
| ''Spelen met de Dood'' (''Playing with Death'')
|-
| [[Thomas Lynley]] and [[Barbara Havers]]
| [[Elizabeth George]]
| ''[[A Great Deliverance]]''
|-
| John Madden
| [[Rennie Airth]]
| ''River of Darkness''
|-
| [[Jules Maigret]]
| [[Georges Simenon]]
| ''[[The Strange Case of Peter the Lett]]'' || ''[[Maigret and Monsieur Charles]]''
|-
| [[Philip Marlowe]]
| [[Raymond Chandler]]
| ''[[The Big Sleep]]'' || ''[[Playback (novel)|Playback]]''
|-
| [[Miss Marple]]
| [[Agatha Christie]]
| ''[[The Murder at the Vicarage]]'' || ''[[Sleeping Murder]]''
|-
| Darren Matthews
| [[Attica Locke]]
| ''[[Bluebird, Bluebird]]''
|-
| [[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]]''
| ''[["Y" Is for Yesterday]]''
|-
| Kiyoshi Mitarai
| [[Soji Shimada]]
| ''[[The Tokyo Zodiac Murders]]''
| ''Final Pitch''
|-
| [[Kogoro Mouri|Kogoro Mori]]
| [[Gosho Aoyama]]
| ''[[Detective Conan]]''
|-
| [[Inspector Morse]]
| [[Colin Dexter]]
| ''Last Bus to Woodstock'' || ''Remorseful Day''
|-
| [[Thursday Next]]
| [[Jasper Fforde]]
| ''[[The Eyre Affair]]''
|-
| Gideon Oliver
| [[Aaron Elkins]]
| ''Fellowship of Fear''
|-
| Jimmy Perez
| [[Ann Cleeves]]
| ''[[Raven Black]]''
|-
| [[Stephanie Plum]]
| [[Janet Evanovich]]
| ''One for the Money''
|-
| [[Hercule Poirot]]
| [[Agatha Christie]]
| ''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]]'' || ''[[Curtain (novel)|Curtain]]''
|-
| [[Ellery Queen]]
| [[Ellery Queen]]
| ''[[The Roman Hat Mystery]]'' || ''A Fine and Private Place''
|-
| [[Jack Reacher]]
| [[Lee Child]]
| ''[[Killing Floor (novel)|Killing Floor]]''
|-
| [[Precious Ramotswe]]
| [[Alexander McCall Smith]]
| ''[[The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency]]''
|-
| [[Detective Inspector John Rebus|John Rebus]]
| [[Ian Rankin]]
| ''[[Knots and Crosses]]''
|-
| [[Dave Robicheaux]]
| [[James Lee Burke]]
| ''The Neon Rain''
|-
| [[Kiriti Roy]]
| [[Nihar Ranjan Gupta]]
| ''[[Kalo Bhramar]]'' || ''Avagunthita''
|-
| [[Lincoln Rhyme]]
| [[Jeffery Deaver]]
| ''[[The Bone Collector (novel)|The Bone Collector]]''
|-
|Huo Sang 
|[[:zh:程小青|Chen Xiaoqing]]
|''The Shadow in the Lamplight''
|-
| [[Matthew Scudder]]
| [[Lawrence Block]]
| The Sins of the Fathers
|-
| [[List of Case Closed characters#Masumi Sera|Masumi Sera]]
| [[Gosho Aoyama]]
| ''[[Detective Conan]]''
|-
| Dan Shepherd
| [[Stephen Leather]]
| ''True Colours'' 
|-
| [[Miss Silver]]
| [[Patricia Wentworth]]
| ''Grey Mask''
| ''The Girl in the Cellar''
|-
| Arthur Simpson
| [[Eric Ambler]]
| ''[[The Light of Day (Eric Ambler novel)|The Light of Day]]'' || ''Dirty Story''
|-
| Rabbi David Small
| [[Harry Kemelman]]
| ''[[Friday the Rabbi Slept Late]]'' || ''That Day the Rabbi Left Town''
|-
| [[Sam Spade]]
| [[Dashiell Hammett]]
| [[The Maltese Falcon (novel)|''The Maltese Falcon'']]
| ''They Can Only Hang You Once''
|-
| rowspan="2" | [[Spenser (fictional detective)|Spenser]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Robert B. Parker]]
| rowspan="2" | ''The Godwulf Manuscript''
| ''[[Sixkill (novel)|Sixkill]]'' (last novel completed by Parker)
|-
| ''(Series continues written by [[Ace Atkins]])''
|-
| Vera Stanhope
| [[Ann Cleeves]]
| ''The Crow Trap''
|-
| [[Cormoran Strike]]
| [[J.K. Rowling]] (under the pen name Robert Galbraith)
| ''[[The Cuckoo's Calling]]''
|-
| rowspan="2" | [[The Adventures of Tintin|Tintin]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Hergé]]
| rowspan="2" | ''[[Tintin in the Land of the Soviets]]'' 
| ''[[Tintin and the Picaros]]'' (last completed work)
|-
| ''[[Tintin and Alph-Art]]'' (unfinished)
|-
| [[Tommy and Tuppence]] (Thomas and Prudence Beresford)
| [[Agatha Christie]]
| ''[[The Secret Adversary]]'' || ''[[Postern of Fate]]''
|-
| [[Philip Trent]]
| [[Edmund Clerihew Bentley|E. C. Bentley]]
| ''[[Trent's Last Case (novel)|Trent's Last Case]]'' 
| ''Trent Intervenes''
|-
| [[Kurt Wallander]]
| [[Henning Mankell]]
| ''[[Faceless Killers]]''
| ''[[The Troubled Man]]''
|-
| [[V.I. Warshawski]]
| [[Sara Paretsky]]
| ''[[Indemnity Only]]''
|-
| Willam Warwick
| [[Jeffrey Archer]]
| ''Nothing Ventured''
|-
| [[Inspector Wexford|Reginald Wexford]]
| [[Ruth Rendell]]
| ''[[From Doon with Death]]''
| ''[[No Man's Nightingale]]''
|-
| rowspan="3" | [[Lord Peter Wimsey]]
| rowspan="3" | [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]
| rowspan="3" | ''[[Whose Body?]]''
| ''[[Busman's Honeymoon]]'' (last novel completed by Sayers) 
|-
| "Talboys" (last story written by Sayers)
|-
|''[[The Late Scholar]]'' (last story completed by [[Jill Paton Walsh]])
|-
| rowspan="2" | [[Nero Wolfe]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Rex Stout]]
| rowspan="2" | ''[[Fer-de-Lance (novel)|Fer-de-Lance]]''
| ''[[A Family Affair (novel)|A Family Affair]]'' (last novel completed by Stout)
|-
| ''(Series continues written by [[Robert Goldsborough (writer)|Robert Goldsborough]])''
|-
| Manabu Yukawa
| [[Keigo Higashino]]
| ''Tantei Galileo'' (AKA ''Detective Galileo'')
|}

==Books==
*''Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel – A History'' by Julian Symons {{ISBN|0571094651}}
*Stacy Gillis and Philippa Gates (Editors), ''The Devil Himself: Villainy in Detective Fiction and Film,'' Greenwood, 2001. {{ISBN|0313316554}}
*''The Manichean Investigators: A Postcolonial and Cultural Rereading of the Sherlock Holmes and Byomkesh Bakshi Stories'' by Pinaki Roy, New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2008, {{ISBN|978-8176258494}}
*''Killer Books'' by Jean Swanson & Dean James, Berkley Prime Crime edition 1998, Penguin Putnam Inc. New York {{ISBN|0425162184}}
*''Delightful Murder: A Social History of the Crime Story'' by [[Ernest Mandel]], 1985. Univ. of Minnesota Press.{{ISBN?}}
*''Clifford's War: The Bluegrass Battleground'' by J. Denison Reed {{ISBN| 978-1737164029}}

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
*[[Closed circle of suspects]]
*[[List of Ace mystery double titles]]
*[[List of Ace mystery letter-series single titles]]
*[[List of Ace mystery numeric-series single titles]]
*[[List of crime writers]]
*[[List of detective fiction authors]]
*[[List of female detective characters]]
*[[Mafia (party game)|Mafia]]
*[[Mystery film]]
*[[Metaphysical detective story]]

== References ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
{{commons category|Detective fiction}}
*{{Citation|last=Witschi |first=N. S. |title=Traces of Gold: California's Natural Resources and the Claim to Realism in Western American Literature |publisher=University of Alabama Press. |year=2002 |location=Tuscaloosa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=opfSb5vI1e8C|isbn=978-0-8173-1117-9}}
*[https://www.monash.edu/library/collections/exhibitions/detective-fiction An exhibition of detective fiction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220222513/https://www.monash.edu/library/collections/exhibitions/detective-fiction |date=2020-02-20 }}, [[Monash University]] Library

{{Crime fiction}}
{{Fictional espionage navbox}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Detective Fiction}}
[[Category:Detective fiction| ]]
[[Category:Crime fiction]]
[[Category:Literary genres]]
[[Category:Works about law enforcement| Detective fiction]]
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