Editing Crime fiction (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of crime fiction}}

Proto-science and crime fictions have been composed across history, and in this category can be placed texts as varied as the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]] from [[Mesopotamia]], the [[Mahabharata]] from [[History of India|ancient India]], the [[Book of Tobit]], [[Urashima Tarō]] from [[History of Japan|ancient Japan]], the ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' (''Arabian Nights''), and more.<ref name="Newland">{{cite book |last1=Newland |first1=Courttia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4wO6BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |title=Writing Short Stories: A Writers' and Artists' Companion |last2=Hershman |first2=Tania |date=2015 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |isbn=9781474257305 |pages=16–17}}</ref> One example of a story of this genre is the medieval [[Arabic literature|Arabic tale]] of "[[The Three Apples]]", one of the tales narrated by [[Scheherazade]] in the ''Arabian Nights''. In this tale, a fisherman discovers a heavy locked chest along the [[Tigris]] River, and he sells it to the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid 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 his [[vizier]], [[Ja'far ibn Yahya]], to solve the crime and find the murderer within three days, or be executed if he fails his assignment.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=90-04-09530-6|pages=86–91}}</ref> The story has been described as a "[[whodunit]]" murder mystery<ref>{{citation|title=The Arabian Nights Reader|first=Ulrich|last=Marzolph|publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]]|year=2006|isbn=0-8143-3259-5|pages=239–246 (240–242)}}</ref> with multiple [[plot twist]]s.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=90-04-09530-6|pages=86–97 (93, 95, 97)}}</ref> The story has [[detective fiction]] elements.<ref>{{citation|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=90-04-09530-6|pages=86–97 (91–92, 93, 96)}}</ref>

Two other ''Arabian Nights'' stories, "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja", contain two of the earliest [[fictional 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 from [[expert witness]]es in a court.<ref name="Gerhardi">{{cite book |last1=Gerhardi |first1=Mia I. |title=The Art of Story-Telling |date=1963 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill Archive]] |pages=169–170 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f88UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA169}}</ref> "[[The Hunchback's Tale]]" is another early [[courtroom drama]], presented as a suspenseful comedy.<ref name="Newland"/>

The earliest known modern crime fiction is [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]]'s 1819 novella "Mademoiselle de Scudéri". Also, [[Thomas Skinner Surr]]'s anonymous ''[[Richmond (novel)|Richmond]]'' is from [[1827 in literature|1827]]; another early full-length short story in the genre is ''[[The Rector of Veilbye]]'' by Danish author [[Steen Steensen Blicher]], published in 1829. A further example of crime detection can be found in [[Letitia Elizabeth Landon]]'s story ''The Knife'', published in 1832, although here the truth remains in doubt at the end.

Better known are the earlier dark works of [[Edgar Allan Poe]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Murder Will Out: The Detective in Fiction|last=Binyon|first=T.J|publisher=Faber Finds|year=1990|isbn=0-19-282730-8|location=Oxford|url=https://archive.org/details/murderwillout00tjbi}}</ref> His brilliant and eccentric detective [[C. Auguste Dupin]], a forerunner of [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock 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 of [[Dr. Watson]] in later Sherlock Holmes stories.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bailey|first=Frankie Y.|date=Jul 2017|title=Crime Fiction|url=http://criminology.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-29#acrefore-9780190264079-e-29-div1-3|journal=The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology & Criminal Justice|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.29|isbn=978-0-19-026407-9|language=en|access-date=2018-03-22|archive-date=2018-03-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322084448/http://criminology.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-29#acrefore-9780190264079-e-29-div1-3|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Wilkie Collins]]' epistolary novel [[The Woman in White (novel)|''The Woman in White'']] was published in 1860, while ''[[The Moonstone]]'' (1868) is often thought to be his masterpiece. French author [[Émile Gaboriau]]'s [[Monsieur Lecoq (novel)|''Monsieur Lecoq'']] (1868) laid the groundwork for the methodical, scientifically minded detective.

[[File:Mystery of a Hansom cab Fergus W. Hume c. 1887.jpg|thumb|Cover art for 'The mystery of a hansom cab', written by Fergus W. Hume]]
The evolution of [[Locked room mystery|locked-room mysteries]] was one of the landmarks in the history of crime fiction. The [[Canon of Sherlock Holmes|Sherlock Holmes mysteries]] of  Doyle's are said to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity of this genre. A precursor was [[Paul Féval]], whose series ''[[Les Habits Noirs]]'' (1862–67) features [[Scotland Yard]] detectives and criminal conspiracies. The best-selling crime novel of the 19th century was [[Fergus Hume]]'s ''[[The Mystery of a Hansom Cab]]'' (1886), set in Melbourne, Australia.

The evolution of the print [[mass 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 as ''Strand'', ''[[McClure's]]'', and ''[[Harper's]]'', quickly became central to the overall structure and function of [[popular fiction]] in society, providing a [[Mass production|mass-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 and [[Charles Dickens]]—Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared in serial form in the monthly [[Strand Magazine|''Strand'']] 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 term ''libri gialli'' or yellow books. The genre was outlawed by the Fascists during [[World War II|WWII]], but exploded in popularity after the war, especially influenced by the American [[Hardboiled crime fiction|hard-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 include [[Leonardo Sciascia]], [[Umberto Eco]], and [[Carlo Emilio Gadda]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gjdemko/nyaag.htm|title=The International Diffusion and Adaptation of the Crime Fiction Genre|last=Demko|first=George J|website=dartmouth.edu|access-date=2018-03-21|archive-date=2019-12-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221033839/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gjdemko/nyaag.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In Spain, ''The Nail and Other Tales of Mystery and Crime'' was published by [[Pedro Antonio de Alarcón]] in 1853. Crime fiction in Spain (also curtailed in [[Francoist 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.<ref name=":0" />

In China, [[Chinese crime fiction|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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Giving Texts a Context: Chinese Translations of Classical English Detective Stories, 1896–1916|last=Hung|first=Eva|publisher=David Pollard, ed.,Translation and Creation|year=1998|isbn=9027216282|location=Amsterdam ; Philadelphia|pages=151–176}}</ref> [[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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/8225|title=Sherlock in Shanghai: Stories of Crime and Detection|last=Cheng|first=Xiaoqing|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|year=2007|isbn=9780824830991|location=Honolulu|translator-last=Wong|translator-first=Timothy|access-date=2018-03-30|archive-date=2018-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180331035953/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/8225|url-status=live}}</ref> During the [[Mao 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 the [[Cultural Revolution]]).<ref name=":0" />

=== Golden Age ===
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]] wrote ''[[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]]'' (1926) and ''[[The 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 the [[Lord Peter Wimsey|Wimsey]] 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 as [[Margery Allingham]] and [[Ngaio Marsh]]; Allingham, Christie, Marsh and Sayers are known as the ''Queens of Crime''. 

Other British authors are [[G. K. Chesterton]] with the [[Father Brown]] short stories, and [[H. C. Bailey|Henry Christopher Bailey]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Bradford |first=Richard |title=Crime Fiction: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2015 |isbn=9780199658787}}</ref>

The Golden Age also had roots in the US. As used by [[S. S. Van Dine]], fictional character [[Philo Vance]] also took advantage of an inflated personality and a high-class background in a plethora of novels. In 1929, Father [[Ronald 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 by [[Frederic Dannay]] and [[Manfred 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.<ref name=":02" />

=== Hard-Boiled Age ===
Past the Golden Age, events such as the [[Great Depression]] and the transition between [[World war|World Wars]] ushered in a change in American crime fiction.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Henderson |first=Deborah |title=Cultural Studies Approaches to the Study of Crime in Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-026407-9}}</ref> There was a shift into [[Hardboiled|hard-boiled]] novels and their depictions of realism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horsley |first=Lee |title=Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=November 3, 2005 |isbn=0199253269 |location=Oxford, England |publication-date=November 3, 2005 |pages=68}}</ref> [[Dashiell Hammett]] and his work, including ''[[Red Harvest]]'' (1929), offered a more realistic social perspective to crime fiction, referencing events such as the [[Great Depression]]. [[James M. Cain]] contributed ''[[The Postman Always Rings Twice (novel)|The 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 (novel)|Double Indemnity]]'' (1934). Such elements of the book were a reference to the [[Ruth Snyder|Gray 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 from ‘[[The Simple Art of Murder]].’<ref name=":02" />