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

Porfiry Rostnikov

Gender: Male

He was a police officer during the Soviet era, and remained in the police force after the collapse of communism. According to author Stuart M. Kaminsky, he did so despite having problems with colleagues and superiors – because Porfiry Rostnikov is scrupulously honest and when necessary breaks bureaucratic rules. The fact that he is married to a Jewess, Sarah, is not seen with approval either. He r...

Further reading