Editing Historical mystery (section)

==Origins==
Though the term "whodunit" was coined sometime in the early 1930s,<ref name=1946wolfe>{{cite news|last=Kaufman|first=Wolfe|title=Bits of Literary Slang|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gRoaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NCUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3821%2C4432702|access-date=27 April 2013|newspaper=[[The Milwaukee Journal]]|date=10 June 1946|archive-date=21 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421194734/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gRoaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NCUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3821%2C4432702|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=1985words>{{cite news|last=Morris|first=William & Mary|title=Words... Wit... Wisdom|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oj9PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zAIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5656%2C3661243|access-date=27 April 2013|newspaper=[[Toledo Blade]]|date=3 June 1985|archive-date=21 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421194735/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oj9PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zAIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5656%2C3661243|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |title=U's Whodunit: Universal is shooting 'Recipe for Murder,' Arnold Ridley's play |date=28 August 1934 |url=http://www.varietyultimate.com/search?search=whodunit&searchType=&startYear=1906&endYear=2013&searchDate=8%2F28%2F1934 |page=19 |access-date=13 November 2013 |archive-date=21 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421194736/http://www.varietyultimate.com/search?search=whodunit&searchType=&startYear=1906&endYear=2013&searchDate=8%2F28%2F1934 |url-status=live }}</ref> it has been argued that the detective story itself has its origins as early as the 429 BC [[Sophocles]] play ''[[Oedipus Rex]]''<ref>{{cite book|last=Scaggs|first=John|title=Crime Fiction (The New Critical Idiom)|year=2005|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0415318259|pages=9–11}}</ref> and the 10th century tale "[[The Three Apples]]" from ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' (''Arabian Nights'').<ref>{{cite book |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}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Arabian Nights Reader|first=Ulrich|last=Marzolph|publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]]|year=2006|isbn=0-8143-3259-5|pages=239–246}}</ref> During [[China]]'s [[Ming dynasty]] (1368–1644), ''[[gong'an fiction|gong'an]]'' ("crime-case") folk novels were written in which government [[magistrate]]s—primarily the historical [[Di Renjie]] of the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) and [[Bao Zheng]] of the [[Song dynasty]] (960–1279)—investigate cases and then as judges determine guilt and punishment. The stories were set in the past but contained many [[anachronism]]s. [[Robert van Gulik]] came across the 18th century anonymously written Chinese manuscript ''[[Di Gong An]]'', in his view closer to the Western tradition of detective fiction than other ''gong'an'' tales and so more likely to appeal to non-Chinese readers, and in 1949 published it in English as ''[[Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee]]''. He subsequently wrote his own [[Judge Dee stories]] (1951–1968) in the same style and time period.<ref name="WSJ 2010"/><ref name="Dee Herbert">{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Rosemary |year=1999 |title=The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-507239-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195072396/page/38 38–39] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195072396/page/38 }}</ref><ref name="Dee Hegel">{{cite book|last=Hegel|first=Robert|title=Reading Illustrated Fiction in Late Imperial China|year=1998|publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-8047-3002-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/readingillustrat00hege/page/32 32–33]|url=https://archive.org/details/readingillustrat00hege/page/32}}</ref>

Perhaps the first modern English work that can be classified as both historical fiction and a mystery however is the 1911 [[Melville Davisson Post]] story "The Angel of the Lord", which features amateur detective [[Uncle Abner]] in pre-[[American Civil War]] [[West Virginia]].<ref name="PW Picker 2010"/><ref name="Abner">{{cite news |title=America's Greatest Mystery Writer |url=http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2007/05/americas-greatest-mystery-writ |first=Joseph |last=Bottum |author-link=Joseph Bottum (author) |date=1 May 2007 |access-date=13 November 2013 |work=[[First Things]] |archive-date=13 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113091600/http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2007/05/americas-greatest-mystery-writ |url-status=live }}</ref> Barry Zeman of the [[Mystery Writers of America]] calls the Uncle Abner short stories "the starting point for true historical mysteries."<ref name="PW Picker 2010"/> In the 22 Uncle Abner tales Post wrote between 1911 and 1928, the character puzzles out local mysteries with his keen observation and knowledge of the Bible.<ref name="Abner"/> It was not until 1943 that American mystery writer [[Lillian de la Torre]] did something similar in the story "The Great Seal of England", casting 18th century literary figures [[Samuel Johnson]] and [[James Boswell]] into [[Sherlock Holmes]] and [[Dr. Watson]] roles in what would become the first of her ''Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector'' series of stories.<ref name="DLT obit">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/19/obituaries/lillian-de-la-torre-91-an-author-of-mysteries-from-british-history.html |title=Obituary: Lillian de la Torre, 91, an Author of Mysteries From British History |work=[[The New York Times]] |archive-date=23 January 2013 |date=19 September 1993 |first=Bruce |last=Lambert |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123014636/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/19/obituaries/lillian-de-la-torre-91-an-author-of-mysteries-from-british-history.html }}</ref><ref name="DLT bio">{{cite web |url=http://www.enotes.com/topics/lillian-de-la-torre |title=Lillian de la Torre Biography (''Critical Survey of Mystery & Detective Fiction'', Revised Edition) |access-date=13 November 2013 |archive-date=9 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409131328/http://www.enotes.com/topics/lillian-de-la-torre |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Carr">{{cite web |url=http://www.historicalnovels.info/Bride-of-Newgate.html |title=''The Bride of Newgate'' by John Dickson Carr |first=Margaret |last=Donsbach |website=HistoricalNovels.info |access-date=13 November 2013 |archive-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125143557/http://www.historicalnovels.info/Bride-of-Newgate.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1944, [[Agatha Christie]] published ''[[Death Comes as the End]]'', a mystery novel set in ancient [[Egypt]] and the first full-length historical whodunit.<ref name="PW Picker 2010"/><ref name="Carr"/><ref name="Christie">{{cite web |url=http://www.historicalnovels.info/Death-Comes-as-the-End.html |title=''Death Comes as the End'' by Agatha Christie |first=Margaret |last=Donsbach |website=HistoricalNovels.info |access-date=13 November 2013 |archive-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125143728/http://www.historicalnovels.info/Death-Comes-as-the-End.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="PBS">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/marple/christie.html |title=Biography: Agatha Christie |publisher=[[PBS]] |access-date=13 November 2013 |archive-date=15 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070115120530/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/marple/christie.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1950, [[John Dickson Carr]] published the second full-length historical mystery novel called ''[[The Bride of Newgate]]'', set at the close of the [[Napoleonic Wars]].<ref name="Carr"/>