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

Parker

Gender: Male

One of the most horrible anti-heroes in crime fiction is the professional criminal and psychopath Parker (he doesn’t have a first name), created by Richard Stark (pseudonym for Donald E. Westlake). He doesn’t have a permanent home, is well-built, his face looks like it has been carved in cement, his hair is brown and stripy, and he kills without any consideration or conscience. The only time he sh...

Further reading