Editing Detective fiction (section)

===Serial killer mystery===
[[Serial killer]] mystery might be thought of as a variation of the police procedural. There are early mystery novels in which a police force attempts to contend with the type of criminal known in the 1920s as a homicidal maniac, such as a few of the early novels of [[Philip Macdonald]] and [[Ellery Queen]]'s ''[[Cat of Many Tails]]''. However, this sort of story became much more popular after the coining of the phrase "serial killer" in the 1970s and the publication of ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (novel)|The Silence of the Lambs]]'' in 1988. These stories frequently show the activities of many members of a police force or government agency in their efforts to apprehend a killer who is selecting victims on some obscure basis. They are also often much more violent and suspenseful than other mysteries.