| Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction that centres
upon the investigation of a crime, usually murder, by a detective, either professional or amateur. It is closely related to mystery fiction but generally contains more of a puzzle element that must be solved, generally by a single
protagonist, either male or female.
A common feature of detective fiction is an investigator who is unmarried, with some source of income other than a regular
job, and who generally has some pleasing eccentricities or striking characteristics. He or she frequently has a less intelligent
assistant, or foil, who is asked to make apparently irrelevant inquiries, and who acts as
an audience surrogate for the explanation of the mystery at the
end of the story.
Whodunnit?
The most widespread subgenre of the detective novel is the whodunnit (usually
spelled whodunit in the U.S.), where great ingenuity may be exercised in narrating the events of the crime and of the
subsequent investigation in such a manner as to conceal the identity of the criminal from the reader until the end of the book,
when the method and culprit are revealed.
Early archetypes of these stories were the three Auguste Dupin tales by Edgar Allan Poe: The
Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, and The Purloined Letter. Poe's detective stories have been described as ratiocinative tales. In
stories such as these, the primary concern of the plot is ascertaining truth, and the usual means of obtaining the truth is
through a complex and mysterious process combining intuitive logic, astute observation, and perspicacious inference. As a
consequence, the crime itself sometimes becomes secondary to the efforts taken to solve it. The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is
particularly interesting, as it is a barely fictionalized analysis of the circumstances of the real-life discovery of the body of
a young woman named Mary Rogers, in which Poe expounds his theory of what actually happened. The style of the analysis, with its
attention to forensic detail, makes it a precursor of the
stories about the most famous of all fictional detectives, Arthur
Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, who in turn set the style for many
others in later years, including Holmesian pastiches such as August Derleth's Solar
Pons.
Another early archetype of the whodunnit is found as a sub-plot in the vast novel Bleak House (1853) by Charles Dickens. The
conniving lawyer Tulkinghorn is killed in his office late one night and the crime is investigated by Inspector Bucket of the
Metropolitan force. Numerous characters appeared on the staircase leading to Tulkinghorn's office that night, some of them in
disguise, and Inspector Bucket must penetrate these mysteries to identify the culprit.
Dickens' protégé, Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), is credited with the first great mystery novel The Woman in White. He is sometimes referred to as the "grandfather
of English detective fiction." His novel The Moonstone (1868) was
described by T. S. Eliot as "the first and greatest of English detective
novels" and by Dorothy L. Sayers as "probably the very finest
detective story ever written". Although technically preceded by Charles Felix's The Notting Hill Mystery (1865), The
Moonstone can claim to have established the genre with several classic features of the twentieth-century detective story:
- A country house robbery
- An 'inside job'
- A celebrated investigator
- Bungling local constabulary
- Detective enquiries
- False suspects
- The 'least likely suspect'
- A rudimentary 'locked room' murder
- A reconstruction of the crime
- A final twist in the plot
Some readers have suggested even earlier prototypes for the whodunnit, most notably the Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders
(Daniel 13; in the Protestant Bible
this story is found in the apocrypha) and the story of the dog and the horse
related in the third chapter of Voltaire's Zadig (1747). However, popularity of this genre has
only grown in time, and even has made it into the online community (http://privatedick.blogspot.com).
Many detective stories have police officers as the main characters. Of course these
stories may take many forms, but many authors try to go for a realistic depiction of a police officer's routine. A good deal are
whodunnits, in others the criminal is well known and it is a case of getting enough evidence.
Some typical features of these are:
- The detective is rarely the first on the crime scene - it will be milling with uniform, paramedics and possibly members of
the public.
- Forensic reports - and the wait for them.
- Rules and regulations to follow - or not.
- Suspects arrested and kept in custody - sometimes wrongly.
- Pressure from senior officers to show progress.
- A large investigating team - two, three or four main characters, plus other officers to order about.
- Pubs - places to discuss or think about the case - especially in the Inspector Morse mysteries.
- Informants - to lean on.
- Political pressure when the suspects are prominent figures
- Internal hostility from comrades when the suspects are fellow police officers
- Pressure from the media (tv, newspapers) to come up with an answer
- Interesting and unusual cars driven by the principal detective
Other subgenres
There is also a subgenre of historical detectives. See historical whodunnit for an overview.
Suspense - the core tenet of detective fiction
A beginner to detective fiction would generally be advised against reading anything about a piece of detective fiction (such
as a blurb or an Introduction) before reading the text itself. Even if they do not mean to, advertisers, reviewers, scholars and
aficionados usually have a habit of giving away details or parts of the plot, and sometimes -- for example in the case of
Mickey Spillane's novel I, the Jury -- even the solution. (After the credits of Billy Wilder's film Witness
for the Prosecution, the cinemagoers are asked not to talk to anyone about the plot so that future viewers will also be
able to fully enjoy the unravelling of the mystery.)
The unresolved problem of plausibility and coincidence
Up to the present, some of the problems inherent in crime fiction have remained unsolved (and possibly also insoluble). Some
of them can be dismissed with a shrug: Why bother at all, even if it is obvious to everyone that an ordinary person is not likely
to keep stumbling across corpses? After all, this is just part of the game of crime fiction. Still the fact that an old spinster
like Miss Marple meets with an estimated two bodies per year does raise a few
doubts as to the plausibility of the Miss Marple mysteries. De Andrea has described the quiet little village of St Mary Mead as
having "put on a pageant of human depravity rivaled only by that of Sodom and Gomorrah". Similarly, TV heroine Jessica Fletcher
is confronted with bodies wherever she goes, but over the years people who have met violent deaths have also piled up in the
streets of Cabot Cove, Maine, the cosy little village where she lives. Generally,
therefore, it is much more convincing if a policeman, private eye, forensic
expert or similar professional is made the hero or heroine of a series of crime novels. On the other hand, who cares for
authenticity?
Also, the role and legitimacy of coincidence has frequently been the topic of heated arguments ever since Knox categorically stated that "no accident must ever help the detective"
(Commandment No.6). Yet time and again authors resort to that deus ex
machina-sort of device. Is it just because they have to meet their publisher's deadline and cannot think of any other
ending to their latest novel? Or is it because they are mediocre writers in the first place? Or is one coincidence per novel
acceptable now? A special case of illogical plotting seems to be the murderers' reluctance to kill off the hero or heroine of the
story: Even serial killers, who normally do not hesitate for a second to
kill an innocent bystander if they happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, show a lot of scruples when it comes to
ridding themselves of their most dangerous -- and ultimate -- enemy, even if he or she is already in their power. Instead of
killing him or her right on the spot -- in the manner in which they bumped off all their previous victims --, they keep putting
off the execution until it is too late and they are outsmarted by their rival. In many cases, instead of just pulling the
trigger, they embark on a lengthy discussion of their criminal record, detailing all their crimes -- no doubt mainly for the
reader's benefit, but shouldn't a good author be able to think of other narrative devices that help the reader catch up on what
they have missed so far?
Technological progress has also rendered many of plots implausible and antiquated. For example, the use of mobile phones by practically everyone these days has significantly altered the
dangerous situations that investigators traditionally find themselves in. A snowbound mansion somewhere in the country, with a
murderer at large? A deserted street in a slum area in the middle of the night, with dark figures looming in the distance? Get
out your mobile and phone for help. Some authors have not really succeeded in adapting to the changes brought about by modern
technology; others, among them Carl Hiaasen (born 1953), have.
Famous fictional detectives
The full list of fictional detectives would be immense. The format is well suited to dramatic presentation, and so there are
also many television and film detectives, besides those appearing in adaptations of novels in this genre. Fictional detectives
generally fall within one of four domains:
- the amateur or dilettante detective (Marple, Jessica Fletcher);
- the private investigator (Holmes, Marlowe, Spade, Rockford);
- the police detective (Ironside, Kojak, Morse);
- more recently, the medical examiner, criminal psychologist, forensic evidence expert or other specialists (Scarpetta, Quincy,
Cracker, CSI).
Notable fictional detectives and their creators include:
Amateurs
Private eyes
Police detectives
- Includes FBI agents, etc.
Medical examiners, etc.
Others
And for younger readers
Historical
- In chronological order.
In science fiction and fantasy
Other notable authors
Detective debuts and swansongs
Many detectives appear in more than one novel or story. Here is a list of a few debut and swansong stories:
- Brother Cadfael
- Shin'ichi Kudo / Conan Edogawa
- Dave Robicheaux
- Father Brown
- Gordianus the Finder
- Inspector Morse
- Debut, Colin Dexter, Last Bus to Woodstock
- Swansong, Colin Dexter, Remorseful Day
- Hercule Poirot
- Lord Peter Wimsey
- Miss Marple
- Nero Wolfe
- Owen Archer
- Debut, Candace M. Robb, The Apothecary Rose
- Roderick Alleyn
- Sherlock Holmes
- Sir John Fielding and Jeremy Proctor
- Debut, Bruce Alexander, Blind Justice
- Spenser
- Stephanie Plum
- Debut, Janet Evanovich, One for the Money
- Travis McGee
- V.I. Warshawski
- Guido Brunetti
- Debut, Donna Leon, Death at La Fenice
Books
- Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel - A History by Julian Symons ISBN 0571094651
External resources
- Classic Crime
Fiction Website (http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/)
- Private Eye Writers of America website: [1] (http://members.aol.com/rrandisi/myhomepage/writing.html)
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