Detective fiction covers criminal activity, its motivations and methods, and its resolution. It includes sub-genres such as whodunit and locked room mysteries. The genre has extended to spy thrillers, crime-life dramas, and legal ramifications of criminal activity, mixing with other genres like high fantasy. The first crime novel is debated, but the genre solidified in the early 10th century with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” series.
Detective fiction is a literary genre that covers criminal activity, its motivations and methods, and its eventual resolution. Some works go beyond crime and deal with the interpersonal dynamics between criminals and fellow criminals, criminals and lawful persons, and other significant people in the same sphere of influence. There are several recurring tropes and sub-genres within detective fiction, including crime novels, political thrillers, and heist stories. The genre is flexible enough to branch into other genres of fiction, such as science fiction and classic horror.
Many experts recognize Steen Steensen Blicher’s 1829 work The Rector of Veilbye as the first crime novel, although crime stories have been dated as early as Arabian Nights, which has evidence of having been written as early as X century . However, detective fiction only solidified itself as a distinct literary genre in the early 10th century. During this period, literary magazines and pulp fiction publications noticed that tales of criminal activity sold well among the public and subsequently went into print in large quantities of stories in answer to the question. One notable series developed at the time was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes”. “, which helped catapult crime fiction to new heights of popularity.
The defining subgenre of detective fiction is whodunit, which gets its name from the phrase “Who did it?” As the label would suggest, these stories often deal with a crime and its mysterious perpetrator. Readers have followed the protagonist, most often a detective, as he attempts to identify the culprit based on a series of clues. Most mysteries dealt with murders or thefts, a trend that continues with modern fiction.
In some cases, the mysteries of detective fiction concerned the method of the crime, rather than the culprit. This subgenre is often called the “locked room” mystery, in which the protagonist attempts to discover how an otherwise impossible crime was committed. The sub-genre takes its name from the recurring theme that the perpetrator could have committed the crime, without a clear way how he could have entered or exited the crime scene. The protagonists of these stories often discover a secret passage that allowed the crime, and the revelation can be interspersed with yellow elements.
Modern detective fiction has extended far beyond victim, crime, and detective mysteries, including genres such as spy thrillers like Ian Fleming’s “James Bond” series and crime-life dramas like Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather.” Some stories, such as John Grisham’s “The Firm,” deal with the legal ramifications of criminal activity. Authors often mix other popular genres such as high fantasy with elements of crime fiction, further broadening the spectrum of the genre.
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