Crime Writers

Sample of authors

Smirnoff, Karin (f. 1964)

Karin Smirnoff has the same name as August Strindberg’s daughter, dramatist and author Karin Smirnoff (1880-1973) who also wrote novels. ‘Our’ Karin Smirnoff grew up in Stockholm, but now lives in Hertsånger in Västerbotten, northern Sweden. She has her roots on her mother’s side in the same area. Karin has previously worked as a journalist and photographer, one of her employers being Västerbot...

Further reading

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 figures

William Meredith

Gender: Male

A conscientious murder investigator who solves cases in various parts of England in a suite of detective stories by John Bude (pseudonym for Ernest Elmore). William Meredith is a patient gentleman, open for tips about possible alternative solutions; he listens carefully to what colleagues – ranging from village constables to chief constables – say. He is of normal build, with an everyday but sym...

Further reading