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

Charles Paris

Gender: Male

Careless, slightly alcoholic actor with more resting periods than working periods. He is of upper middle age, looks a bit the worse for wear but nice all the less, and he likes women, author Simon Brett assures us. Charles Paris lives in a small furnished bedsitter, and likes to socialise with his wife – they did, however, separate several years ago. He is a busy amateur detective even though he s...

Further reading