Detective fiction centers a story on the solution of a crime, typically a murder, through a detective's systematic application of reasoning and observation to physical and testimonial evidence. Edgar Allan Poe founded the genre with three stories, most famously The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in Graham's Magazine in April 1841, featuring the Parisian amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin and Poe's own term for his method, ratiocination. Poe's Dupin tales established the genre's recurring shape, an inexplicable crime, a baffled official police force and a private reasoner who solves it through logic, that Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot both directly descend from.
Facts
Place of OriginMarks the origin of the genre's English-language founding text; earlier antecedents exist in Arabic and Chinese narrative traditions. Notable ExampleEdgar Allan Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) 1 Defining TraitAn investigator solves a crime, typically a murder, through systematic reasoning and observation applied to physical and testimonial evidence. 1 Detective Fiction
Filter Results15 entries
FAQs
How is detective fiction different from crime fiction?
Crime fiction covers any story about crime, while detective fiction is limited to works that depend upon detection.
Crime fiction is the wider category and takes in any fiction involving crime, often with some detective work in it. Detective fiction is the narrower one, restricted to works that include and depend upon detection. Because of that restriction, critics argue over what counts as detective work and whether a story with only some detection in it belongs to the genre. The critic Howard Haycraft put the point this way, that the crime in a mystery story is only the means to an end, which is detection.
Connections
Associated With
Encompasses Form
Features Author
Source Wikipedia: A Study in Scarlet
Source Wikipedia: Arthur Conan Doyle
Source Wikipedia: Boris Akunin
Source Wikipedia: Dashiell Hammett
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) is the genre's founding work, introducing C. Auguste Dupin and the amateur-reasoner template.
Source The Cambridge History of the English Short Story
Source Wikipedia: Maigret Sets a Trap
Source Wikipedia: Maurice Leblanc
Source Wikipedia: Pietr the Latvian
Source Wikipedia: The Big Sleep
Source The Da Vinci Code (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Source Wikipedia: The Long Goodbye (novel)
Source Wikipedia: The Moonstone
Source Wikipedia: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The genre's founding work.
Source The Cambridge History of the English Short Story
Source The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (novel) (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: The Thin Man
Source Wikipedia: The Valley of Fear
Source Wikipedia: The Yellow Dog (novel)
Source Tom Sawyer, Detective (Wikipedia)
Form Of Genre
In the Other Atlases
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.s.v. detective storyQuote, s.v. detective story
the first fictional detective, the eccentric and brilliant C. Auguste Dupin
The Cambridge History of the English Short Story
- Features Author: Edgar Allan Poe
- Features Author: The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (novel) (Wikipedia)
Features Author: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Lead paragraphQuote, Features Author: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Lead paragraph
is the first detective novel in the eponymous series
Detective fiction (Wikipedia)
In Group: Detective and Crime Fiction Subgenres, LeadQuote, In Group: Detective and Crime Fiction Subgenres, Lead
Detective fiction is a subtype of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective-whether professional, amateur or retired-investigates a crime, often murder.
Wikipedia: The Moonstone
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Moonstone, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Moonstone, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Epistolary novel, Detective novel
Wikipedia: A Study in Scarlet
WikipediaFeatures Author: A Study in Scarlet, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: A Study in Scarlet, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction
Wikipedia: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction, Murder mystery
Wikipedia: The Big Sleep
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Big Sleep, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Big Sleep, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Hardboiled detective, crime
Wikipedia: The Hound of the Baskervilles
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction, Gothic fiction
Wikipedia: The Thin Man
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Thin Man, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Thin Man, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective, Murder mystery
Wikipedia: The Long Goodbye (novel)
Features Author: The Long Goodbye, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Long Goodbye, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction
Wikipedia: Pietr the Latvian
WikipediaFeatures Author: Pietr the Latvian, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Pietr the Latvian, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction
Wikipedia: The Yellow Dog (novel)
Features Author: The Yellow Dog, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Yellow Dog, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction
Wikipedia: Maigret Sets a Trap
WikipediaFeatures Author: Maigret Sets a Trap, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Maigret Sets a Trap, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction
Wikipedia: The Valley of Fear
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Valley of Fear, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Valley of Fear, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective
The Da Vinci Code (Wikipedia)
Features Author: The Da Vinci Code, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: The Da Vinci Code, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Mystery, detective fiction, conspiracy fiction, thriller
Tom Sawyer, Detective (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Tom Sawyer, Detective, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Tom Sawyer, Detective, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction
Wikipedia: Arthur Conan Doyle
Features Author: Arthur Conan Doyle, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Arthur Conan Doyle, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction fantasy science fiction historical novels non-fiction
Wikipedia: Boris Akunin
Features Author: Boris Akunin, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Boris Akunin, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective, historical fiction
Wikipedia: Dashiell Hammett
Features Author: Dashiell Hammett, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Dashiell Hammett, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Crime and detective fiction
Wikipedia: Maurice Leblanc
Features Author: Maurice Leblanc, Infobox, genre fieldQuote, Features Author: Maurice Leblanc, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Detective fiction, science fiction, psychological novel
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.