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
Jack Fenner
Gender: Male
Private detective in Boston, where he shares an office with lawyer Frank Quinn. He was created by George Harmon Coxe, who describes the former police detective Jack Fenner as a sinewy, tough man of average height, with a square face and thinning dark hair. He is something of a dress snob, is careful with his appearance and makes sure he always has nicely polished shoes. He often works together...