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

Magersfontein Lugg

Gender: Male

A genuine Cockney, with an entertaining, imaginative slang language. He was previously a burglar, but gets a job as a butler in the home of Margery Allingham’s classic detective Albert Campion. Lugg’s knowledge of England’s criminals and the investigative missions he carries out, are of great use to Campion; however, neither Campion nor his police friends want to hear any details about Lugg’s work...

Further reading