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.
Literary figure
Edward X. Delaney
Gender: Male
When his wife becomes terminally ill, he retires from the New York police. After her death, he consoles himself with giant sandwiches, which author Lawrence Sanders lets him create – and eat! – together with a new wife, Monica. Former detective Edward X. Delaney continues to solve murder cases as a hobby. He is a large and heavy man with grey hair cut very short, and he is ruthless when necessary.