Detective stories are a popular genre of fiction featuring a protagonist who solves crimes, often involving homicide investigations. The genre has a formulaic outline with recurring themes and characters, and can be traced back to ancient Asia. Many detective stories take place in small rural communities with low murder rates. The genre has produced many beloved characters and authors, including Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Detective stories are a genre of fiction built around a protagonist who solves crimes. Often the protagonist is involved in homicide investigations, although other types of crimes may also be investigated. Many detective stories feature a formulaic outline typically including a sidekick, several wrong turns, and thematic elements that remain consistent across a series. For example, a series might revolve around a character who runs a bakery and solves mysteries, in which case baking will be a recurring theme in the books.
The history of thrillers is quite ancient. Some of the oldest come from Asia, where detective stories were especially popular in China, and the Islamic world. In the English-speaking world, an explosion of detective stories occurred in the 19th century, when many were published in the form of periodicals that people could read in business newspapers. The Sherlock Holmes novels are a particularly well-known example of detective stories from this era.
The detectives can work independently or as part of an agency in these stories. Often the author has created some sort of quirk or unusual feature that is intended to make the character more dynamic and interesting. For example, a crime series might feature a female protagonist who works as a detective in an era when this type of work was frowned upon for women, or it might feature a protagonist who struggles with depression while working mystery cases.
A curious quirk of crime novels that many readers have noticed is that they often take place in small rural communities with an alarmingly low murder rate. Readers sometimes wonder how someone could be left alive to be killed after a certain point, or why national government law enforcement investigating the unusually high homicide rate doesn’t appear in the books. Aside from this problem, many detective stories feature a rich cast of characters that readers may become very attached to.
Lots of people seem to enjoy detective stories and new entries in this genre are constantly being released. Long-form series can include dozens of books, and people also write short stories for anthologies and short story collections. Some characters have become so beloved by readers that they have been brought to life on television, stage and screen. Some notable names in the genre include Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Raymond Chandler, Ellery Queen, Dorothy Sayers and Dashiell Hammett, among many others.
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