Editing Detective fiction (section)

===Police procedural===
{{Main|Police procedural}}

Many detective stories have [[police]] officers as the main characters. These stories may take a variety of forms, but many authors try to realistically depict the routine activities of a group of police officers who are frequently working on more than one case simultaneously. Some of these stories are whodunits; in others, the criminal is well known, and the detective must gather enough evidence to charge them with the crime.

In the 1940s the [[police procedural]] evolved as a new style of detective fiction. Unlike the heroes of Christie, Chandler, and Spillane, the police detective was subject to error and was constrained by rules and regulations. As Gary Huasladen writes in ''Places for Dead Bodies'', "not all the clients were insatiable [[Bombshell (slang)|bombshells]], and invariably there was life outside the job." The detective in the police procedural does the things police officers do to catch a criminal. Prominent writers in the genre include [[Ed McBain]], [[P. D. James]], and [[Bartholomew Gill]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://libguides.enc.edu/mysteryfiction/genres|title=LibGuides: Mystery Fiction and Film: Genres of Mystery and Crime Fiction|last=Hwang|first=Amy|website=libguides.enc.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-03-19|archive-date=2018-03-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320110032/http://libguides.enc.edu/mysteryfiction/genres|url-status=dead}}</ref>