Detectiv e Story: Discussant: Ma. Cheska Kaye Bendal

Detectiv

e
Story
Discussant:
Ma. Cheska Kaye
Bendal
History of the Detective Story
TIMELINE
1841 – Edgar Allan Poe

1870 – Charles Dickens

1887 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1920 – Agatha Christie

A Brief History
Since the first detective story, Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue hit the
bookstores in 1841, this form of literature has had widespread appeal.
Mystery fiction has come to be called “the greatest escape literature of
all time.” One has only to check the best seller lists over the past
decades to see how consistently successful good mystery writers are.
This is a genre (type) of literature which truly engages the reader as it
entertains.
The true detective story challenges the reader to a mental contest to solve the
crime along with the characters in the story. The temptation to play “armchair
detective” is irresistible. Reader involvement by itself, however, could hardly
account for the popularity of this literary genre. Equally important is the
character of the detective. The most popular fictional detectives all have their
little eccentricities that connect them to their readers.
The most famous detective of all is, no doubt, Sherlock Holmes a fictional
character so real that the reading public still mail letters to his famous Baker Street
address requesting his assistance! The author of the Sherlock Holmes tales, Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, experiencing little early success with his medical practice,
turned to writing. The first story featuring Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet,
appeared in 1887. The Holmes stories were instantly popular, with each new case
being eagerly awaited. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself was one of the few people
who did not revere Holmes as did the reading public. In fact, at one point, he
actually wrote a story in which he killed off his famous detective. Attacked by angry
letters from outraged fans, Doyle finally “resurrected” Holmes for another series of
adventures.
The detective story is a puzzle story. The reader is presented with a crime, a
handful of clues, a cast of suspects, and a detective. The object of the game is
to beat the detective to the solution of the crime. And the solution, as Sherlock
Holmes once observed, is simple: “When you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” The author must
play fair with the readers, supplying us with all the necessary clues and
suspects without giving too much away. There are, in fact, a set of accepted
rules for constructing the good detective story:
Elements of detective
story
1. The detective must be memorable .
Fictional detectives are expected to be both clever and a bit out of the
ordinary. They must have some small habit , mannerism , eccentricity ,
interest , talent – anything that sets them apart from the crowd.
2. The crime must be significant .
Traditionally, the detective novel is constructed around a murder or a great
theft . Murder is a crime that cannot be reversed or made amends for;
thus, it is a crime worth the detective’s (and the reader’s) time and efforts
to solve.
3. The criminal must be a worthy opponent .
In real life, crimes are committed by ordinary, everyday, sometimes dull and
stupid people. However, if fictional detectives are to show off their considerable
skills, they must match wits with adversaries of equal cleverness . The mind of the
criminal is often the intellectual equal of the detective’s. The conflict becomes a
battle of intellects between the detective, his/her opponent, and the reader.
4. All the suspects , including the criminal, must be presented early
in the story.
Half the fun of reading a good detective story comes from the mental contest
between the reader and the detective in a race to solve the crime. The reader
must be able to safely assume that the perpetrator of the crime is one of the
main characters in the story, not someone whom the author is going to slip in
on the unsuspecting reader in the next-to-the-last chapter.
5. All clues discovered by the detective must be made available to

the reader.
Like not springing any surprise suspects, this is another “fair play” rule to
which the author must adhere. The reader must be given the same
opportunity to solve the crime as the detective, and this means getting the
same evidence at the same time it is made available to the detective. Of
course, an author may deliberately mislead the reader ( red herrings !), as
long as his fictional detective is similarly deceived.
6. The solution must appear logical and obvious when the detective
explains how the crime was solved.
The reader must be convinced that he could have come to exactly the
same conclusion as the detective. In the end, the reader must see how all
the little tidbits of information fit together like so many pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle . It is for this reason that detective stories are so appealing.
Example of detective story
A detective short story

By Vincent and Léo, 2de 7 LV2
It was a Friday afternoon. The sun was shining. Birds were singing.
Florent was eating in his house. Hardly had he finished eating when he heard
someone shout. He left his house and checked his neighbour's door. He saw that the
door was broken. He came in and saw the body of his best friend lying on the floor.
When he turned back, he briefly saw someone rushing out of the house. He started to
run after him but couldn't unfortunately catch him. But he had managed to observe
him and could describe him pretty well. That's why Florent decided to go to the
police to report the murder. The next day, the police started investigating. They had
found a clue which disturbed Florent. The clue was a glove, and he knew that this
glove belonged to his brother Mark. He decided to talk to Mark. When he arrived in
front of the door of his brother's house, he noted that the door was half open. Then, he
saw his brother run with a knife in his hand and a big bag on his back. Florent
realized his brother was the killer. He decided to tell the police.
After two days, he heard his brother had been killed by a policeman.
Thank you!!!

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Detectiv

1870 – Charles Dickens

1887 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1920 – Agatha Christie

5. All clues discovered by the detective must be made available to

A detective short story

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