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

Carl Crader

Gender: Male

Middle-aged man who is the director of the American police organisation CIB (Computer Investigation Bureau). He reports directly to the White House and is on first-name terms with the president, according to author Edward D. Hoch. Little is known about Carl Crader’s private life, but he dyes his hair which has started to turn grey, and has two faithful members of staff: his assistant Earl Jazine a...

Further reading