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

Malin Fors

Gender: Female

Police detective in Linköping and a single mother to daughter Tove after divorcing her husband Janne. Instead, Malin Fors has a number of lovers, one after another, but no relationship lasts very long. She is attractive, with blond hair, usually worn short, and a well-trained, athletic body. She has struggled hard against alcoholism, and finally succeeded, says author Mons Kallentoft.

Further reading