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

Frieda Klein

Gender: Female

She is a psychotherapist and curious, which is why she can’t refrain form delving deep into the problems of her patients – as well as her own problems. Freida Klein is in her twenties and lives in London. She suffers from insomnia and explores the darker sides of the city at night. In several books by Nicci French (pseudonym for Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) she cooperates with police detective M...

Further reading