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

Arab Blake

Gender: Female

Black-haired Arabella ”Arab” Blake is young, beautiful and slim. She is a crack shot, angler and she plays a mean game of hockey. She is married to the antiques dealer Andy, a pensive, quiet gentleman who ends up in some very perilous situations, usually as a result of his adventurous wife. The couple are the principal characters in a series of entertaining novels by Richard Powell.

Further reading