| Mystery fiction is a distinct subgenre of detective
fiction that entails the occurrence of an unknown event which requires the protagonist to make known (or solve). It is similar to the whodunit in that the clues may often be given to the reader by subtle means. Though it is often confused with
detective fiction, it does not require a crime to have occurred or the involvement of law enforcement.
Early beginnings
The genre has its beginning in the riddles told in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Similar stories were told in the middle ages, but the genre didn't really begin to develop until the detective stories
of Edgar Allan Poe. The first true mystery novel is considered to be
The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins. Collins wrote several more in this
genre, including The Moonstone (1868) which is thought to be his masterpiece. The genre began to expand near the turn of century with the development
of dime novels and pulp
magazines. Pulp magazines were especially helpful to the genre with many authors writing in the genre in the 1920s. An import contribution to mystery fiction in the 1920's was the development of the
juvenile mystery by Edward Stratemeyer. Stratemeyer originally
developed and wrote the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries written under the Franklin W.
Dixon and Carolyn Keene pseudonyms, respectively (and later written
by his daughter, Harriet S.
Adams, and other authors). The 1920's also gave rise to the most popular mystery author of all time, Agatha Christie. Christie's books are numerous, though her literary
reputation has suffered. The massive popularity of pulp magazines in
the 1930s and 1940s only increased the interest
in mystery fiction. Pulp magazines decreased in popularity in the
1950s with the rise of television, so much so that the numerous titles available then are
reduced to two today (and those are Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine). The
Detective fiction author Ellery Queen (pseudonym of authors Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee) is also credited with the continued interest in mystery fiction thanks to the namesake
magazine which began in 1941. Interest in mystery fiction continues to this day thanks to various television shows which have
used mystery themes over the years and the many juvenile and adult novels which continue to be published and frequent the best
seller lists. Also, there is some overlap with "thriller" or "suspense" novels and authors in those genres may consider
themselves mystery novelists. An organization for the authors of mystery, detective, and crime fiction was begun in 1945, called
the Mystery Writers of America. This popular
genre has naturally made the leap into the online world, spawning countless websites devoted to every aspect of the genre, with
even a few supposedly written by real detectives (http://privatedick.blogspot.com).
External links
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