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

Philip Trent

Gender: Male

Despite E.C. Bentley only having written three books about the young English artist, Philip Trent is an important name in crime fiction. He became the model for many amateur detectives in whodunits during the first half of the 20th century. Trent is tall, a bit lanky, has a moustache, is from a good family and is well brought-up. He investigates his cases with great enthusiasm, but doesn’t a...

Further reading