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

Cockie Cockrill

Gender: Male

His first name is not mentioned in the books by Christianna Brand (pseud. for Mary Lewis), but Cockrill is called "Cockie" by his friends and colleagues. He is an older gentleman, short – described as “bird-like” – with brown eyes, thick eyebrows and white hair. A widower for many years, he usually wears a raincoat with his hat askew, and solves his cases with great patience while chain-smoking se...

Further reading