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

Nick Stefanos

Gender: Male

Nicholas J. ‘Nick’ Stefanos is a Greek-American private detective in Washington in a trilogy of detective stories by George P. Pelecanos. He is heavily built and often does unpaid work to help relatives and friends who have run into problems. This means that he doesn’t earn much money, and to make ends meet he also works in a bar. He rarely says no to a bit of liquor, some sex or a fight.

Further reading