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

Elma Craggs

Gender: Female

One of the most original problem-solvers in crime literature is Mrs Elma Craggs. She is a cockney and a widow, and has a strenuous and badly-paid job as a cleaning lady. This gains her admittance to various environments. She won’t tolerate any nonsense, and when crimes are committed, she carries out her own investigations with the help of the timid Mrs Millhone. H.R.F. Keating has written a n...

Further reading