Crime fiction,detective story,murder mystery,crime novel,mystery novel, andpolice novel are terms used to describenarratives orfiction that centre oncriminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder.[1] Mostcrime drama focuses oncriminal investigation and does not feature thecourtroom.Suspense andmystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.
It is usually distinguished frommainstream fiction and other genres such ashistorical fiction andscience fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has severalsubgenres,[2] includingdetective fiction (such as thewhodunit),courtroom drama,hard-boiled fiction, andlegal thrillers.
Proto-science and crime fictions have been composed across history, and in this category can be placed texts as varied as theEpic of Gilgamesh fromMesopotamia, theBook of Tobit,Urashima Tarō fromancient Japan, theOne Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), and more.[3] One example of a story of this genre is the medievalArabic tale of "The Three Apples", one of the tales narrated byScheherazade in theArabian Nights. In this tale, a fisherman discovers a heavy locked chest along theTigris River, and he sells it to theAbbasid Caliph,Harun al-Rashid, who then has the chest broken open, only to find inside it the dead body of a young woman who was cut into pieces. Harun orders hisvizier,Ja'far ibn Yahya, to solve the crime and find the murderer within three days, or be executed if he fails his assignment.[4] The story has been described as a "whodunit" murder mystery[5] with multipleplot twists.[6] The story hasdetective fiction elements.[7]
Two otherArabian Nights stories, "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja", contain two of the earliestfictional detectives, who uncover clues and present evidence to catch or convict a criminal, with the story unfolding in normal chronology and the criminal already being known to the audience. The latter involves a climax where titular detective protagonist Ali Khwaja presents evidence fromexpert witnesses in a court.[8] "The Hunchback's Tale" is another earlycourtroom drama, presented as a suspenseful comedy.[3]
The earliest known modern crime fiction isE. T. A. Hoffmann's 1819 novella "Mademoiselle de Scudéri". Also,Thomas Skinner Surr's anonymousRichmond is from1827; another early full-length short story in the genre isThe Rector of Veilbye by Danish authorSteen Steensen Blicher, published in 1829. A further example of crime detection can be found inLetitia Elizabeth Landon's storyThe Knife, published in 1832, although here the truth remains in doubt at the end.
Better known are the earlier dark works ofEdgar Allan Poe.[9] His brilliant and eccentric detectiveC. Auguste Dupin, a forerunner ofArthur Conan Doyle'sSherlock Holmes, appeared in works such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842), and "The Purloined Letter" (1844). With his Dupin stories, Poe provided the framework for the classic detective story. The detective's unnamed companion is the narrator of the stories and a prototype for the character ofDr. Watson in later Sherlock Holmes stories.[10]
Wilkie Collins' epistolary novelThe Woman in White was published in 1860, whileThe Moonstone (1868) is often thought to be his masterpiece. French authorÉmile Gaboriau'sMonsieur Lecoq (1868) laid the groundwork for the methodical, scientifically minded detective.
The evolution oflocked-room mysteries was one of the landmarks in the history of crime fiction. TheSherlock Holmes mysteries of Doyle's are said to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity of this genre. A precursor wasPaul Féval, whose seriesLes Habits Noirs (1862–67) featuresScotland Yard detectives and criminal conspiracies. The best-selling crime novel of the 19th century wasFergus Hume'sThe Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), set in Melbourne, Australia.
The evolution of the printmass media in the United Kingdom and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century was crucial in popularising crime fiction and related genres. Literary 'variety' magazines, such asStrand,McClure's, andHarper's, quickly became central to the overall structure and function ofpopular fiction in society, providing amass-produced medium that offered cheap, illustrated publications that were essentially disposable.
Like the works of many other important fiction writers of his day—e.g. Wilkie Collins andCharles Dickens—Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared in serial form in the monthlyStrand in the United Kingdom. The series quickly attracted a wide and passionate following on both sides of the Atlantic, and when Doyle killed off Holmes in "The Final Problem", the public outcry was so great, and the publishing offers for more stories so attractive, that he was reluctantly forced to resurrect him.
In Italy, early translations of English and American stories and local works were published in cheap yellow covers, thus the genre was baptized with the termlibri gialli or yellow books. The genre was outlawed by the Fascists duringWWII, but exploded in popularity after the war, especially influenced by the Americanhard-boiled school of crime fiction. A group of mainstream Italian writers emerged, who used the detective format to create an antidetective or postmodern novel in which the detectives are imperfect, the crimes are usually unsolved, and clues are left for the reader to decipher. Famous writers includeLeonardo Sciascia,Umberto Eco, andCarlo Emilio Gadda.[11]
In Spain,The Nail and Other Tales of Mystery and Crime was published byPedro Antonio de Alarcón in 1853. Crime fiction in Spain (also curtailed inFrancoist Spain) took on some special characteristics that reflected the culture of the country. The Spanish writers emphasized the corruption and ineptitude of the police, and depicted the authorities and the wealthy in very negative terms.[11]
In China,crime fiction is a major literary tradition, with works dating to the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. Modern Chinese crime fiction emerged from the 1890s, and was also influenced by translations of foreign works.[12]Cheng Xiaoqing, considered the "Grand Master" of 20th-century Chinese detective fiction, translated Sherlock Holmes into classical and vernacular Chinese. In the late 1910s, Cheng began writing his own detective fiction series,Sherlock in Shanghai, mimicking Conan Doyle's style, but relating better to a Chinese audience.[13] During theMao era, crime fiction was suppressed and mainly Soviet-styled and anticapitalist. In the post-Mao era, crime fiction in China focused on corruption and harsh living conditions during the Mao era (such as theCultural Revolution).[11]
The Golden Age, which spanned from the 1920s to 1954, was a period of time featuring the creation of renowned works by several authors. Many of these authors were British.Agatha Christie wroteThe Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) andThe Murder at the Vicarage (1930). These novels commonly prioritized the allure of exploring mysteries in the plot over in-depth character development.Dorothy L. Sayers contributed theWimsey novels. Her work focused on the spectacle of crime deduction. She also displayed an exaggerated form of aristocratic society, straying from a more realistic story. Other novelists tapped into this setting, such asMargery Allingham andNgaio Marsh; Allingham, Christie, Marsh and Sayers are known as theQueens of Crime.
Other British authors areG. K. Chesterton with theFather Brown short stories, andHenry Christopher Bailey.[14]
The Golden Age also had roots in the US. As used byS. S. Van Dine, fictional characterPhilo Vance also took advantage of an inflated personality and a high-class background in a plethora of novels. In 1929, FatherRonald Knox wrote the ‘Detective Story Decalogue,’ mentioning some conditions of the era. Early foreshadowing and functioning roles for characters were discussed, as well as other items.Ellery Queen was featured in several novels written byFrederic Dannay andManfred Lee, serving as both a character and pen name. In such novels, clues may be analyzed by the protagonist in tandem with the viewer, generating the possibility of understanding the narrative before it is revealed in the book.[14]
Past the Golden Age, events such as theGreat Depression and the transition betweenWorld Wars ushered in a change in American crime fiction.[15] There was a shift intohard-boiled novels and their depictions of realism.[16]Dashiell Hammett and his work, includingRed Harvest (1929), offered a more realistic social perspective to crime fiction, referencing events such as theGreat Depression.James M. Cain contributedThe Postman Always Rings Twice (1934). This novel includes a married woman trying to murder her own husband with the assistance of a potential suitor. This theme extends to his other work,Double Indemnity (1934). Such elements of the book were a reference to theGray and Snyder trial.Raymond Chandler was a significant author who managed to see some works made into films. In 1944, he argued for the genre to be seen critically in his essay "The Simple Art of Murder".[14]
Crime fiction provides unique psychological impacts on readers and enables them to become mediated witnesses through identifying with eyewitnesses of a crime. Readers speak of crime fiction as a mode of escapism to cope with other aspects of their lives.[17] Crime fiction provides distraction from readers' personal lives through a strong narrative at a comfortable distance.[17] Forensic crime novels have been referred to as "distraction therapy", proposing that crime fiction can improve mental health and be considered as a form of treatment to prevent depression.[17]
In the history of crime fiction, some authors have been reluctant to publish their novels under their real names. More recently, some publish pseudonymously because of the belief that since the large booksellers are aware of their historical sales figures, and command a certain degree of influence over publishers, the only way to "break out" of their current advance numbers is to publish as someone with no track record.
In the late 1930s and 1940s, British County Court Judge Arthur Alexander Gordon Clark (1900–1958) published a number of detective novels under the aliasCyril Hare, in which he made use of his profoundly extensive knowledge of the English legal system. When he was still young and unknown, award-winning BritishnovelistJulian Barnes (born 1946) published some crime novels under the alias Dan Kavanagh. Other authors take delight in cherishing theiralter egos;Ruth Rendell (1930–2015) wrote one sort of crime novels as Ruth Rendell and another type asBarbara Vine;John Dickson Carr also used the pseudonymCarter Dickson. AuthorEvan Hunter (which itself was a pseudonym) wrote his crime fiction under the name of Ed McBain.
As crime fiction has expanded, there have been many common tropes that emerge from this category of fiction. Such occurrences can appear in a variety of subgenres and media.
While the format may vary across different forms of crime fiction, there are many elements that are generally consistent throughout the genre. Many stories often begin when the crime has already occurred. Such fiction also tends to draw from the cultural aspects in which the work originated, whether from recent events or from a general consensus and viewpoints.[15] The use ofserial killers andunreliable narrators exists in a decent variety of crime fiction as well.[19]
The plot-puzzle formula, which was frequent in the Golden Age, makes use of potential hints and solutions to drive a story forward in order to unravel mysteries.[14] Likewise, the feature of detectives was popularized byEdgar Allan Poe andConan Doyle.[15]Hard-boileddetective stories attracted a decent amount of attention to the genre in America and France as well.[19]
Within crime fiction, it can also be common to use dark themes from real life, such asslavery,organized crime, and more. Aside from general themes, referencing instances of crime in real life is also common in several works of crime fiction.[18] These reflections of reality can be expressed in many ways. For instance, crime fiction in Spain expressed grievances with authority, which was opposite to the instances in Japan that credited the government's functionality.[15]
Espionage is another prominent inclusion in many works of crime fiction. It includes the use of political intrigue, morality, and the existence of spies. Prior media used theCold War for inspiration and provided commentary on such events. Examples include numerous works byJohn le Carré andGorky Park (1981), which was written byMartin Cruz Smith.[14]
Inspiration can be drawn from the legal system around the world, with varying degrees of realism. In these cases, a sense of morality and the more dubious parts of society are explored based on the rules that the work provides.[15]Melville Davisson Post’sRudolph Mason: The Strange Schemes (1896) andHarper Lee’sTo Kill a Mockingbird (1960) are notable examples. Additionally, stories likeDouble Indemnity (1934) are based on cases from reality.[14]
Only a select few authors have achieved the status of "classics" for their published works. A classic is any text that can be received and accepted universally, because they transcend context. A popular, well-known example isAgatha Christie, whose texts, originally published between 1920 and her death in 1976, are available in UK and US editions in all English-speaking nations. Christie's works, particularly featuring detectivesHercule Poirot orMiss Jane Marple, have given her the title the Queen of Crime, and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre. Her most famous novels includeMurder on the Orient Express (1934),Death on the Nile (1937), and the world's best-selling mysteryAnd Then There Were None (1939).[20]
Other less successful, contemporary authors who are still writing have seen reprints of their earlier works, due to current overwhelming popularity of crime fiction texts among audiences. One example isVal McDermid, whose first book appeared as far back as 1987; another isFlorida-based authorCarl Hiaasen, who has been publishing books since 1981, all of which are readily available.
From time to time, publishing houses decide, for commercial purposes, to revive long-forgotten authors, and reprint one or two of their more commercially successful novels. Apart fromPenguin Books, which for this purpose have resorted to their old green cover and dug out some of their vintage authors. Pan started a series in 1999 entitled "Pan Classic Crime", which includes a handful of novels byEric Ambler, but also AmericanHillary Waugh'sLast Seen Wearing .... In 2000,Edinburgh-basedCanongate Books started a series called "Canongate Crime Classics" —both whodunnits androman noir aboutamnesia andinsanity—and other novels. However, books brought out by smaller publishers such as Canongate Books are usually not stocked by the larger bookshops and overseas booksellers. The British Library has also (since 2012) started republishing "lost" crime classics, with the collection referred to on their website as the "British Library Crime Classics series".
Sometimes, older crime novels are revived by screenwriters and directors rather than publishing houses. In many such cases, publishers then follow suit and release a so-called "film tie-in" edition showing a still from the movie on the front cover and the film credits on the back cover of the book—yet another marketing strategy aimed at those cinemagoers who may want to do both: first read the book and then watch the film (or vice versa). Recent examples includePatricia Highsmith'sThe Talented Mr. Ripley (originally published in 1955),Ira Levin'sSliver (1991), with the cover photograph depicting a steamy sex scene betweenSharon Stone andWilliam Baldwin straight from the1993 movie, and again,Bret Easton Ellis'sAmerican Psycho (1991).Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, though, have launched what they call "Bloomsbury Film Classics"—a series of original novels on which feature films were based. This series includes, for example,Ethel Lina White's novelThe Wheel Spins (1936), whichAlfred Hitchcock—before he went to Hollywood—turned into a much-loved movie entitledThe Lady Vanishes (1938), andIra Levin's (born 1929) science-fiction thrillerThe Boys from Brazil (1976), which was filmed in1978.
Older novels can often be retrieved from the ever-growingProject Gutenberg database.
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