Meny

Theme article

History of crime fiction

By: Johan Wopenka

Depending upon how one wishes to define the concept ‘crime fiction’, it is possible to trace its history and roots back in time. When Dorothy L. Sayers compiled her comprehensive three-volume anthology Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror (1928–34) she started with two stories from the Old Testament, and when Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee (alias Ellery Queen) wrote their fundamental The Detective Short Story : A Bibliography (1942), they listed eight Chinese collections of short stories which are believed to have been written down between 600 A.D. and 1800 A.D., some of them containing stories based on an older, oral tradition.

Further reading

Literary figure

Jeffrey Rand

Gender: Male

He was originally called C. Jeffery Rand, but after a while Edward D. Hoch changed the name of his agent, who is the boss of a secret department in the British intelligence services and whose speciality is breaking codes. He is a middle-aged gentleman and he retires after marrying archaeologist Leila Gaad. He is, however, often asked to help solve cases, including strange murders.

Further reading