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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.

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Literary figure

Kommissarie Battle

Gender: Male

Strong and stubborn Scot, works for Scotland Yard where his speciality is solving politically sensitive cases. In his private life, he is married and the father of five children. He only believes in pure facts: he can say, for example: ‘We never know as much as we would like to know’ and ‘Don’t reveal any emotions’. He is the main character in four novels by Agatha Christie, and he cooperates with...

Further reading