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Edgar Allen Poe - The Father of the Mystery Novel
Edgar Allen Poe - (1809 - 1849) The father of the mystery novel. In 1841, Poe's story The Murders in the Rue Morgue was published. In this story, the crime was solved by Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin who appeared in five other Poe stories, and was probably based upon accounts of the French police. These stories by Poe became the foundation of the mystery novel as we know it now. -
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870). Inspector Bucket of the London police force was the first detective to appear in an English novel (Bleak House, 1852-1853). Also Dickens started The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) but died before it was completed. -
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins - (1824 - 1889). In 1860, Collins wrote The Woman in White which tells the story of a woman who is wrongfully shut up in a lunatic asylum. The crime is solved by a newspaper artist and a young woman. This novel also introduces the sinister Count Fosco who is the forerunner of the modern secret agent. -
The Notting Hill Mystery by Charles Felix
The Notting Hill Mystery was published in 8 parts in 1862. The author gave the pseudonym of Charles Felix, but in 2011 was discovered to be Charles Warren Adams, a lawyer and owner of Saunders, Otley & Co. -
The Widow Lerouge by Emile Gaboriau
Emile Gaboriau (1832 - 1873). French writer of the roman policier featuring the detective Monsier LeCoq. His first book The Widow Lerouge was published in 1866. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
Conan Doyle employed the principles of deductive reasoning when creating his famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, who was introduced in A Study in Scarlet (1887), followed by A Sign of Four in 1890. Doyle gained great popularity in 1890 when the series of short stories "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" was published. From that point on the public couldn't get enough of Holmes and his side-kick, Watson. MysteryNet.com -
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
As a study in morbid psychology, “Crime and Punishment” published in 1917, is one of the most amazingly convincing and terrifying books in all literature.
—Biographical Note
William Allan
Neilson -
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
The grand dame of the golden age of mysteries, Christie's characters capture the minds of young readers with each new generation.
"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" gave the world the inimitable Hercule Poirot, a retired Belgian police officer who was to become one of the most enduring characters in all of fiction. With his waxed moustache and his "little grey cells," he was "meticulous, a tidy little man, always neat and orderly, with a slight flavour of absurdity about him." MysteryNet.com
