Detective fiction is a type of crime and mystery fiction in which a detective, who can be a professional, amateur, or retired person, looks into crimes, such as murders. The detective genre started around the same time as speculative fiction and other fiction types in the mid-1800s and has stayed very popular, especially in books. Some well-known characters in detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Kogoro Akechi, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot. Stories for young readers with characters like The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have been published for many years.
History
Some scholars, like R. H. Pfeiffer, believe that some ancient religious texts have elements similar to detective fiction. In the Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders (which is found in the apocrypha of the Protestant Bible), the story told by two witnesses falls apart when Daniel questions them. Julian Symons, however, argues that people who look for detective-like clues in the Bible and in the writings of Herodotus are only finding puzzles, not actual detective stories.
The collection of stories known as One Thousand and One Nights includes some of the earliest examples of detective fiction. One of the oldest known detective stories is "The Three Apples," which is told by Scheherazade in One Thousand and One Nights. In this story, a fisherman finds a heavy, locked chest along the Tigris River and sells it to the Abbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid. When Harun opens the chest, he finds the body of a young woman who has been cut into pieces. He then orders his vizier, Ja'far ibn Yahya, to solve the crime and find the murderer within three days or face execution. The story creates suspense through unexpected twists. These features make it an early model for detective fiction. It also uses a storytelling method that begins with a crime and then works backward to explain how it happened, a technique used in modern detective stories.
The main difference between Ja'far in "The Three Apples" and later fictional detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, is that Ja'far does not want to solve the case. The mystery is solved when the murderer confesses. This leads to another task for Ja'far: finding the person who caused the murder within three days or facing execution. Ja'far fails to find the person before the deadline but discovers a key item by chance. In the end, he solves the case through reasoning to save his life.
Two other stories from One Thousand and One Nights, "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja," include some of the earliest fictional detectives. These detectives find clues and present evidence to catch criminals, with the story unfolding in normal order and the criminal already known to the audience. In "Ali Khwaja," the detective presents evidence from expert witnesses in a court during a climax.
Gong'an fiction (gong'an xiaoshuo, meaning "case records of a public law court") is an early type of Chinese detective fiction. Well-known examples include the Yuan dynasty story Circle of Chalk, the Ming dynasty collection Bao Gong An, and the 18th-century Di Gong An stories. The Di Gong An stories were translated into English as Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Dutch scholar Robert Van Gulik, who later wrote his own detective stories based on the style and characters.
The heroes in these novels are usually judges or officials inspired by real historical figures like Judge Bao (Bao Qingtian) or Judge Dee (Di Renjie). Although these figures lived in earlier dynasties, most stories were written during the Ming or Qing dynasties.
Van Gulik chose to translate Di Gong An because he believed it was closer to Western literary styles and more likely to interest non-Chinese readers. Many Gong'an stories may have been lost due to events like the Literary Inquisitions and wars in ancient China. In traditional Chinese culture, this genre was not considered important, so it was less likely to be preserved compared to works of philosophy or poetry.
One of the earliest examples of detective fiction in Western literature is Voltaire's Zadig (1748), which features a character who solves problems through careful thinking. Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) by William Godwin shows the law protecting a murderer and punishing an innocent person. In 1827, a story called Richmond, or Stories in the Life of a Bow Street Officer was published in London. In 1829, a Danish story titled The Rector of Veilbye by Steen Steensen Blicher was written. In 1839, a Norwegian novel titled Mordet paa Maskinbygger Roolfsen ("The Murder of Engine Maker Roolfsen") by Maurits Hansen was published.
In 1819, E. T. A. Hoffmann wrote a short story titled "Das Fräulein von Scuderi," in which a character proves the innocence of a suspect in a jeweler's murder. This story is sometimes called the first detective story and is believed to have influenced Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841). Another possible influence on Poe was a story titled "The Secret Cell" by William Evans Burton, published in 1837. Burton's story involved a London policeman solving the kidnapping of a girl using practical methods like investigation and undercover work, rather than relying on cleverness.
Detective fiction in English literature is said to have started in 1841 with Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which introduced the first fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin. At the time, the word "detective" was not yet used in English, though Dupin's name came from the word "dupe," meaning trickery. Poe created a storytelling pattern that has been used successfully since then, with small changes. He later wrote two more stories featuring Dupin: The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1842) and The Purloined Letter (1844).
Poe called his stories "tales of ratiocination," which means stories about reasoning. In these stories, the main goal is to find the truth, often through a mix of logic, careful observation, and clever thinking. Early detective stories usually followed a character from the beginning to the end of the mystery, focusing on solving the problem rather than emotions. The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is especially notable because it is based on real events involving Mary Cecilia Rogers.
William Russell (1806–1876) was one of the first English writers to create fictional "police memoirs." He wrote a series of stories under the name "Waters" for Chambers's Edinburgh Journal between 1849 and 1852. Unauthorized collections of his stories were published in New York in 1852 and 1853, titled The Recollections of a Policeman. In 1856, twelve of his stories were compiled into a book called Recollections of a Detective Police-Officer.
Literary critic Catherine Ross Nickerson says that Louisa May Alcott wrote the second-oldest modern detective story, after Poe's Dupin tales. Her 1865 story, V.V., or Plots and Counterplots, is an anonymous thriller about a Scottish aristocrat trying to prove that a mysterious woman killed his fiancée and cousin. The detective, Antoine Dupres, is a humorous version of Dupin, more interested in revealing the solution dramatically than solving the crime itself.
Detective fiction in boys story papers
Detective fiction for young male readers became a separate and widely read type of story during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, especially in British and American boys' magazines. While stories about school life were the most popular form of fiction for boys, detective stories became the second most popular from the 1890s onward. In the United States, the format of serial detective stories began with publications like the "Old Sleuth Library" (1872) and stories about a detective named Nick Carter. In Britain, the genre became popular through publishers such as James Henderson and Sons and the Aldine Publishing Company. These publishers first printed American detective stories and later created their own characters. The Amalgamated Press, which published many story papers, helped spread and increase the popularity of the genre.
The most famous detective character in boys' fiction was Sexton Blake, who first appeared in 1893 and appeared in over 3,000 stories over nearly 60 years. Blake's long career happened during a time when many new detective characters were created. One well-known character was Nelson Lee, written by John William Staniforth (who used the name Maxwell Scott). Lee, like Blake, often traveled around the world and faced dangerous situations.
Detective stories for boys had several common features: most detectives had young helpers (like Blake's assistant, Tinker), worked from addresses in London, and solved problems both in the United Kingdom and abroad. These stories focused more on action and adventure than on solving complex puzzles, which was a common feature in adult detective fiction. From the late Edwardian era onward, many detective stories included recurring villains and criminal groups that acted as ongoing enemies for the detectives.
Golden Age novels
The time between World War I and World War II, known as the interwar period (the 1920s and 1930s), is often called the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. During this time, many popular writers appeared, mostly from Britain, but also some from the United States and New Zealand. Many of the most well-known writers from this era were women. These writers included Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh. All of them, except for Ngaio Marsh (who was from New Zealand), were British.
During the Golden Age, many rules and traditions for detective stories were created. In 1929, an English Catholic priest and writer named Ronald Knox made a list of ten rules for detective fiction, called the "Decalogue." One rule said that stories should not include supernatural elements, so the focus would stay on solving the mystery. Knox believed that a detective story should "center on solving a mystery that is clearly described early in the story and that creates curiosity, which is answered at the end." Another common feature in Golden Age detective stories was an outsider, such as a paid investigator, a police officer, or a clever amateur, solving a murder in a closed setting with a small group of suspects.
The most common type of detective novel during this time was the "whodunit," also called "whodunnit," which means "who did it?" In these stories, the writer often uses clever storytelling to hide the identity of the criminal until the end of the book, when both the method and the person responsible are revealed. Scholars Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman said that the Golden Age began with stories about amateur detectives solving murders in peaceful, rural areas. Many traditions of detective fiction developed during this time as writers, from famous entertainers to respected poets, tried writing mystery stories.
John Dickson Carr, who also wrote under the name Carter Dickson, used a puzzle-like style in his stories. His books included complex mysteries for readers to solve. He is famous for creating stories with seemingly impossible situations, especially in the "locked room mystery" genre. Two of his most famous books are The Case of Constant Suicides (1941) and The Hollow Man (1935). Another writer, Cecil Street, who also wrote as John Rhode, created stories about a detective named Dr. Priestley, who used advanced technology to solve crimes. In the United States, authors like Rex Stout and Ellery Queen helped make the whodunit style even more popular. The strict rules of the Golden Age led to many well-written stories, even though they followed similar formats. Successful books from this time often had original plots, strong writing, vivid settings, memorable characters, and the ability to draw readers into their unique worlds.
Agatha Christie was the most famous writer of the Golden Age and is also considered one of the most famous authors of all time. When she died in 1976, she was the best-selling novelist in history. Many of the most popular books from the Golden Age were written by her. She created long series of books featuring detectives like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Her success came from her clever puzzles, "along with her characters that were similar to each other and her stories set in middle-class, colorful environments." Her most famous works include Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937), Three Blind Mice (1950), and And Then There Were None (1939).
By country
In 1896, an important event in Chinese literature happened when four Sherlock Holmes stories were quickly translated and published in Shiwu bao (The Progress), a magazine started by the famous reformer Liang Qichao. These translations were done by Zhang Kunde and marked the first time Western detective stories were shared with Chinese readers. This reflected the intellectual trends of the time. The first story, "The Naval Treaty," was published in three parts from August to September 1896. It was given a new title, "The English Bao and the Case of the Stolen Secret Treaty," which changed Sherlock Holmes into a "pure magistrate," a role familiar to Chinese readers. This change helped Chinese audiences understand the story better and showed the translators wanted to connect the story to Chinese traditions.
After "The Naval Treaty," other Sherlock Holmes stories were also translated and published. "The Crooked Man" appeared in October and November 1896, "A Case of Identity" was published from March to April 1897, and "The Final Problem" was released between April and May 1897. These translations were part of a larger effort to share Western stories with Chinese readers, especially those that matched the goals of reformers. The popularity of Sherlock Holmes helped bring other Western detective stories to China, such as L’affaire Lerouge by Émile Gaboriau, published in 1903, John Thorndyke's Cases by Richard Austin Freeman, published in 1911, and Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc, translated in 1914. These stories helped grow interest in detective fiction as a genre that could entertain and make people think about social issues.
Zhou Guisheng (1863–1926) was an important translator of the time. He specialized in detective and science fiction stories and translated parts of the French novel Margot la Balafrée by Fortuné du Boisgobey. In 1906, he started the first Chinese Translators' Association in Shanghai, which helped share literary works between cultures. His translation of Margot la Balafrée included many notes and explanations that helped readers understand the story’s moral and social messages. Unlike earlier translations that focused on Confucian values, Zhou’s notes criticized the political system of imperial China using sharp humor. Wu Jianren, a famous writer known as Wu Woyao, also helped comment on Zhou’s translation. This shows how detective fiction was used to discuss social and political problems.
During China’s Golden Age of crime fiction (1900–1949), translations of Western detective stories and original Chinese detective stories were widely read. Cheng Xiaoqing first read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s popular Sherlock Holmes stories as a teenager. Later, he translated them into classical and then into modern Chinese. Cheng, who taught himself English at 16, worked with friends to translate all of Sherlock Holmes’s stories. Published in 1916 as Fuermosi tan’an (The Investigative Cases of Sherlock Holmes) by Zhonghua shuju, this translation was a major step in bringing Western detective stories to Chinese readers.
Cheng’s translations introduced a new style of storytelling that focused on individuality, equality, and the value of knowledge. This style helped Chinese readers become interested in popular crime fiction and inspired Cheng to write his own detective story, Sherlock in Shanghai. In the late 1910s, Cheng created stories with a character named Bao, who acted like Dr. Watson in Doyle’s stories. His work made him known as the "Oriental Sherlock Holmes," and he created a detective named Huo Sang, who was similar to Sherlock Holmes in intelligence and methods.
Cheng’s 1914 short story "Dengguang renying" (灯光人影), published in Xinwen bao (新闻报), is often called the first true Chinese detective story. It started a series about Huo Sang, a detective whose skills and methods were very similar to Sherlock Holmes. Both detectives share initials in their names and use logical thinking to solve problems. Huo Sang became a cultural symbol of the modern detective and showed how Chinese writers adapted Western stories to address local issues.
In 1925, "Sadiq Mamquli, The Sherlock Holmes of Iran, The Sheriff of Isfahan" became the first major detective story in Persian, written by Kazim Musta’an al-Sultan (Houshi Daryan). The author’s life was unknown for over 70 years until the book was reprinted in 2017.
Edogawa Rampo was the first major Japanese mystery writer and started the Detective Story Club in Japan. He admired Western mystery writers and added unusual and fantastical elements to his stories in the 1920s. In 1957, Seicho Matsumoto won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his story The Face (顔 kao). His work began the "social school" (社会派 shakai ha), which focused on real-life crimes and social issues. Since the 1980s, the "new orthodox school" (新本格派 shin honkaku ha) has grown, which brings back classic detective rules and self-reflective themes. Famous authors in this movement include Soji Shimada, Yukito Ayatsuji, Rintaro Norizuki, Alice Arisugawa, Kaoru Kitamura, and Taku Ashibe. The Terror of Werewolf Castle (Jinrō-jō no Kyōfu) by Nikaidō Reito, published in four volumes from 1996 to 1998, is the longest detective novel ever written but has not been translated into English as of January 2026.
Byomkesh is one of the most famous detective characters in Indian fiction, created by the well-known Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.
Subgenres
Martin Hewitt, created by British author Arthur Morrison in 1894, is one of the first examples of the modern style of fictional private detective. This character is described as an "Everyman" detective meant to challenge the detective-as-superman that Holmes represented.
By the late 1920s, Al Capone and the American mafia inspired fear and curiosity about the American criminal underworld. Popular pulp fiction magazines like Black Mask took advantage of this interest. Authors such as Carrol John Daly wrote violent stories that focused on the chaos and unfairness caused by criminals, not the reasons behind their crimes. Often, no real mystery existed in these stories; they simply described justice being given to those who deserved punishment, with details described clearly. The overall theme these writers showed reflected "the changing face of America itself."
In the 1930s, the private eye genre became widely used by American writers. One major contributor to this style was Dashiell Hammett, who created the famous private investigator Sam Spade. His style of crime fiction became known as "hardboiled," a genre that usually deals with criminal activity in a modern city, a world of unfamiliar signs and strangers. These stories were told in simple but sometimes elegant language through the eyes of new detective heroes, and they became a popular American trend.
In the late 1930s, Raymond Chandler updated the form with his detective character Philip Marlowe, who had a more personal voice than the more distant style used by Hammett. Chandler’s stories were known for showing the American criminal world, including dark streets, tough criminals, wealthy women, and powerful men. Several movies and television shows were made about Philip Marlowe. James Hadley Chase wrote novels with private detectives as main characters, such as Blonde's Requiem (1945), Lay Her Among the Lilies (1950), and Figure It Out for Yourself (1950). The heroes in these books were typical private detectives, very similar to or inspired by Raymond Chandler’s work.
Ross Macdonald, the pseudonym of Kenneth Millar, updated the form again with his detective Lew Archer. Like Hammett’s characters, Archer had little known history. "Turn Archer sideways, and he disappears," one reviewer wrote. Critics praised Macdonald’s use of psychology and his vivid descriptions. Like other "hardboiled" writers, Macdonald aimed to show realism through violence, sex, and conflict. The 1966 movie Harper, starring Paul Newman, was based on the first Lew Archer story, The Moving Target (1949). Newman played the same role in The Drowning Pool in 1976.
Michael Collins, the pseudonym of Dennis Lynds, is generally considered the author who led the form into the Modern Age. Like Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald, Collins’ main character was a private investigator, Dan Fortune. However, Collins’ stories also explored how society affected people and their roles in it. His books included commentary and short, direct writing, making them more personal than earlier works. They showed that crime could happen in everyday places, like a living room.
The "hardboiled" novel was mostly written by men, and few female authors were published until the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, and Sue Grafton were finally published. Each of these authors created female detectives who were smart and strong. Their success led publishers to look for more female writers.
An inverted detective story, also called a "howcatchem," is a murder mystery where the crime is shown or described at the beginning, including the identity of the person who committed it. The story then follows the detective’s attempt to solve the mystery. Other questions, such as why the crime happened, are also answered during the story. This format is the opposite of the more common "whodunit," where the criminal is not revealed until the end.
Many detective stories have police officers as main characters. These stories can take many forms, but some try to show the daily work of police officers who handle multiple cases at once. Some stories are whodunits, while others involve criminals who are already known, and the detective must gather enough evidence to prove their guilt.
In the 1940s, the police procedural became a new style of detective fiction. Unlike the detectives in stories by Christie, Chandler, and Spillane, police detectives in these stories made mistakes and followed rules and laws. As Gary Huasladen wrote in Places for Dead Bodies, "not all the clients were insatiable bombshells, and invariably there was life outside the job." These detectives do what real police officers do to catch criminals. Prominent writers in this genre include Ed McBain, P. D. James, and Bartholomew Gill.
A historical mystery is set in a time period considered historical from the author’s perspective, and the main plot involves solving a mystery or crime, usually a murder. Though works combining these genres existed earlier, many credit Ellis Peters’s Cadfael Chronicles (1977–1994) for popularizing the historical mystery genre.
A variation of this is Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time. In this story, Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant, who believes he is good at judging people by their faces, is surprised to learn that a portrait he thought showed a kind man actually shows Richard III, who killed his brother’s children to become king. The story follows his attempt to uncover the truth about Richard III’s character. The novel was ranked number one in the Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time by the UK Crime Writers’ Association and number four in The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time by Mystery Writers of America.
Cozy mystery began in the late 20th century as a new version of the Golden Age whodunit. These stories avoid violence and suspense and often feature female amateur detectives. Modern cozy mysteries are usually, though not always, humorous and thematic. Variations include culinary mystery, animal mystery, and quilting mystery, among others.
Cozy mysteries have little violence, sex, or social issues. The mystery is solved through intelligence or intuition, not
Modern criticism
Sometimes, people like advertisers, reviewers, scholars, and enthusiasts accidentally share details or parts of a story, and in some cases, even the ending. For example, in Mickey Spillane's novel I, the Jury, the solution to the mystery is revealed. After the film Witness for the Prosecution ends, moviegoers are asked not to discuss the plot so that others can enjoy the surprise. Similarly, after each performance of The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, audiences are told not to share the identity of the murderer so that future viewers can experience the ending without knowing it beforehand.
In stories featuring amateur detectives, their frequent involvement in crimes can make the plot seem unrealistic. Miss Marple, a character in twelve novels and twenty short stories, lives in the village of St. Mary Mead, which has been described as a place where many bad things happen, similar to the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the TV series Murder, She Wrote, the character Jessica Fletcher often encounters crimes, especially in her hometown of Cabot Cove, Maine. By the end of the show's 12-year run, The New York Times estimated that nearly 2% of the town's residents had been killed. It may be more believable if professional detectives or experts, rather than amateurs, are the main characters in crime stories.
The TV show Monk often jokes about the unrealistic frequency of crimes in the lives of amateur detectives. The main character, Adrian Monk, is sometimes called a "bad luck charm" or a "murder magnet" because murders happen often around him. Similarly, in the manga series Detective Conan, the character Kogoro Mori, a private investigator, is frequently at crime scenes, even though the police do not intentionally seek his help.
The role of chance in detective stories has been debated for a long time. Ronald A. Knox once said that "no accident must ever help the detective," meaning that accidents should not be used to solve mysteries.
Advances in technology have made some older stories less realistic. For example, the widespread use of mobile phones, pagers, and PDAs has changed situations that were once dangerous for investigators.
One way to avoid problems with technology is to set stories in historical periods. Writers like Elizabeth Peters, P. C. Doherty, Steven Saylor, and Lindsey Davis choose to place their characters in the past. This forces the characters to solve mysteries without modern tools, requiring more creative problem-solving.
In contrast, some detective stories use modern technology and focus on cybercrime, such as the Daemon novel series by Daniel Suarez.
Detective Commandments
Several authors have tried to create a list of rules, sometimes called "Detective Commandments," that writers of detective stories should follow.
In 1928, Van Dine wrote a book titled Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories. He explained that detective stories are like a game or competition. He believed there are clear rules for writing them, even if they are not written down. He said that all serious writers of mystery stories follow these rules. He described these rules as a set of beliefs based on the work of famous writers and what a honest writer feels is right. In 1929, Ronald Knox created a list of ten rules, sometimes called the "Ten Commandments" of detective fiction. This is discussed in an article about the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
Most crime fiction writers agree that detective novels must follow certain rules to be considered part of the detective fiction genre. As noted in the article Introduction to the Analysis of Crime Fiction, detective novels from the past 100 years usually include the following key rules to be considered true detective stories.
Influential fictional detectives
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective from England created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He first appeared in the book A Study in Scarlet. At first, the stories were not very successful. However, after being published in the Strand Magazine in 1891, Sherlock Holmes became very popular. Because of his success, many mystery writers copied Conan Doyle's writing style and included traits of Sherlock Holmes in their own detective characters.
The Sherlock Holmes series is perhaps the most popular form of detective fiction. Conan Doyle tried to stop writing about Sherlock Holmes after 23 stories, but readers asked him to continue. The popularity of Sherlock Holmes is not limited to books. For example, the BBC's TV series Sherlock, which first aired in 2010, gained a large audience and renewed public interest in the character. Because of his fame, Conan Doyle was often compared to Queen Victoria in terms of recognition.
Sexton Blake is a fictional British detective whose stories entertained readers for over 80 years, from 1893 to 1978. Blake appeared in more than 4,000 stories written by about 200 different authors, making him one of the most widely written about characters in English literature. His stories were published in many formats, including comic strips, novels, radio shows, silent films, and a 1960s television series. His adventures reached audiences in Britain and around the world in many languages.
Originally created as a Victorian gentleman detective, Blake changed over time. He later lived at 221B Baker Street, had a young assistant named Tinker, a bloodhound named Pedro, and a housekeeper named Mrs. Bardell. While often compared to Sherlock Holmes, Blake's stories usually included more action and colorful villains, many of whom were recurring criminals. Blake had many rivals and imitators, including Nelson Lee, Dixon Hawke, Carfax Baines, Kenyon Ford, Stanley Dare, Ferrers Locke, and others. Blake was most popular during the 1920s and early 1930s, especially through publications like The Union Jack and The Sexton Blake Library, which once published five issues each month.
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian private detective created by Agatha Christie. He is one of Christie's most famous and long-lasting characters. Poirot appeared in 33 novels, one play (Black Coffee), and more than 50 short stories, published between 1920 and 1975. He first appeared in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and died in Curtain (1975), which was Christie's final work. On August 6, 1975, The New York Times published an obituary for Poirot on its front page, alongside the cover of the newly released novel Curtain.
Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional character created by Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin first appeared in Poe's story The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), which is widely considered the first detective fiction story. He returned in The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1842) and The Purloined Letter (1844).
C. Auguste Dupin is often seen as the model for many later fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle and Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie. Conan Doyle once wrote, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed… Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?"
Ellery Queen is a fictional detective created by American writers Manfred Bennington Lee and Frederic Dannay, who were cousins and used a shared pseudonym. He first appeared in The Roman Hat Mystery (1929) and starred in more than 30 novels and several short story collections. During the 1930s and much of the 1940s, Ellery Queen was likely the most well-known American fictional detective.
Detective debuts and swan songs
Many detectives show up in more than one book or story. Here is a list of some first stories and last stories.