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

Don Diavolo

Gender: Male

Don Diavolo is a stage magician who always appears with a mask when he is not solving “impossible” crimes in a horror setting. The author, Stuart Towne (pen name for Clayton Rawson), has given little away about this enigmatic, evasive character. Don Diavolo’s New York home has secret rooms, false mirrors and hidden exits, and he is surrounded by a group of eccentric friends and collaborators.

Further reading