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The following list has been compiled primarily from:
* Crime Fiction 1800-2000 by Stephen Knight, Palgrave MacMillan,
2004.
* Bloody Murder--From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: a
History by Julian Symons, Penguin, 1972.
Where no link is given for a particular title it is because we do
not yet have that title in our collections.
Please CONTACT US regarding suggestions for additions to or deletions from this page (refer to 'Crime and Mystery page')
More books by these and other authors of crime and mystery stories can be found in our author listings
Thomas Bailey ALDRICH (1836-1907)
Grant ALLEN (1848-1899)
Clifford ASHDOWN [See R Austin FREEMAN] A Maynard BARBOUR Robert BARR (1850-1912)
E C BENTLEY (1875-1956)
Earl Derr BIGGERS (1884-1933) The "Charlie Chan" Novels
Marjorie BOWEN (a.k.a. George R Preedy, Joseph Shearing, John Winch, Robert Paye)
Mary Elizabeth BRADDON
John BUCHAN (1875-1940) Richard Hannay stories:
Other Works:
Edward BULWER-LYTTON (1803-1873)
Ellis Parker BUTLER (1869-1937) Philo Gubb Stories: G K CHESTERTON (1874-1936)
Father Brown Stories:
Erskine CHILDERS (1870-1922)
Caroline CLIVE Wilkie COLLINS (1824-1889)
Catherine CROWE (1800-1876)
Richard Harding DAVIS (1864-1916)
Thomas DE QUINCEY (1785-1859)
Dick DONOVAN (Mr Joyce R Preston Muddock) (1842-1934)
Sir Arthur Conan DOYLE (1859-1930)
Professor Challenger:
Charles FELIX (pseudonym)
J S (Joseph Smith) FLETCHER (1863-1935)
Hulbert FOOTNER (1862-1943)
Andrew FORRESTER Jnr. Mary FORTUNE (c.1833-c.1910) Dr. Thorndyke
Other Works As Clifford ASHDOWN [Pseudonym of R Austin FREEMAN and John James PITCAIRN (1860-1936)]
Jacques FUTRELLE (1875-1912)
Arthur GASK (1869-1951)
Emile GABORIAU (1836-1873)
William GODWIN (1756-1836)
Anna Katharine GREEN (1846-1935)
Augusta GRONER (1850-1929) (Translated by Grace Isabel Colbron) Joe Muller stories:
William Hope HODGSON (1877-1918) E W HORNUNG (1866-1921) Raffles stories:
Fergus HUME (1859-1932)
Herbert JENKINS (1876-1923)
Maurice LE BLANC (1864-1941)
Sheridan LE FANU (1814-1873) Gaston LEROUX (1868-1927) LOCK AND KEY LIBRARY Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Modern English--TEXT
Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Old Time English--TEXT
Marie Adelaide Belloc LOWNDES (1868-1947)
Charles MARTEL (pseudonym of Thomas DELPH)
A E W MASON (1865-1948)
Arthur MORRISON (1863-1945)
Baroness ORCZY (1865-1947)
Allan PINKERTON
Frank PINKERTON
Catherine Louisa PIRKIS (1841-1910)
Edgar Allan POE (1809-1849) Chevalier C Auguste Dupin stories:
Other Works:
Melville Davison POST (1869-1930)
Arthur J Rees
Arthur B REEVE (1880-1936)
William RUSSELL
SAPPER (Herman Cyril McNEILE) (1888-1937) Bulldog Drummond Books:
Melvin Linwood SEVERY (b.1863)
M P SHIEL (1865-1947)
George SIMS
Chester K STEELE Frank R STOCKTON (1834-1902)
Josephine TEY (a.k.a. Gordon DAVIOT) (1896-1952) (both are pseudonyms of Elizabeth MACKINTOSH)
Louis TRACY (1863-1928)
Mr J G Reeder stories - The complete set:
"Just Men" stories
"Sanders" stories:
Other works:
Samuel WARREN
Victor L WHITECHURCH (1862-1942)
Israel ZANGWILL (1864-1926)
|
A Chronology of Crime Fiction 1800-1950.
(From Crime Fiction 1800-2000 by Stephen Knight, Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.)
1773 | The Newgate Calendar: first major collection of crime without detectives |
1794 | William Godwin, Caleb Williams. |
1798 | Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland. |
1827 | Thomas Gaspey(?), Richmond: Scenes from the Life of a Bow Street Runner. |
1827-8 | Eugene Francois Vidocq, Memoires. |
1828 | Edward Bulwer, Pelham. |
1830 | Samuel Warren, Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician. |
1838 | Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist. |
1841 | Edgar Allan Poe, .Murders in the Rue Morgue. |
1842-3 | Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie-Roge |
1844 | Edgar Allan Poe, The Purloined Letter. |
1849 | William Russell, Recollections of a Police Officer. |
1852 | William Russell, Recollections of a Policeman. |
1853 | Charles Dickens, Bleak House. |
1856 | William Russell, The Recollections of a Detective Police Officer. |
1860 | Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White. |
1861 | Ellen Wood, East Lynne. |
1862 | Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret. |
1864 | Andrew Forrester Jun., The Female Detective. |
1864 | W. S. Hayward(?), Revelations of a Lady Detective. |
1865 | Charles Felix, The Notting Hill Murder. |
1865 | John B. Williams' (ed.), Leaves from the Note-Book of a New York Detective. |
1866 | Emile Gaboriau, L'Affaire Lerouge. |
1866 | Mary Fortune, as 'W.W.' in The Australian Journal, may be the first woman writing self-conciously detective fiction |
1867 | Seeley Regester (Metta Fuller), The Dead Letter. |
1868 | Emile Gaboriau, M. Lecoq. |
1868 | Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone. |
1870 | Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood: Dickens's last and unfinished novel was to involve mystery, disguise and--it seems--some detection. |
1874 | Allan Pinkerton, The Expressman and the Detective. |
1878 | Anna Katherine Green, The Leavenworth Case. |
1881 | Emile Gaboriau novels translated into English and published in London. |
1886 | Fergus Hume, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. |
1887 | Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet. |
1891 | Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal in Bohemia |
1892 | Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. |
1892 | Israel Zangwill, The Big Bow Mystery. |
1894 | Arthur Morrison, Martin Hewitt, Investigator. |
1894 | Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.: more stories, but Holmes dies in the last, 'The Final Problem' |
1901-2 | Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles: Doyle resumes Holmes in The Strand, but sets story back before his death |
1902 | Arthur Conan Doyle, The Empty House: Doyle revives Holmes in Strand Magazine. |
1907 | Maurice Leblanc, The Exploits of Arsene Lupin. |
1907 | Gaston Leroux, The Mystery of the Yellow Room. |
1907 | Jacques Futrelle, The Thinking Machine. |
1907 | R. Austin Freeman, The Red Thumb Mark. |
1908 | Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase. |
1911 | G. K. Chesterton, The Innocence of Father Brown. |
1913 | E. C. Bentley, Trent's Last Case. |
1913 | Carolyn Wells, The Technique of the Mystery Story: first extended discussion of the genre |
1920 | Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. |
1920 | Freeman Wills Crofts, The Cask. |
1923 | Dorothy Sayers: Whose Body? |
1923 | Dashiell Hammett starts publishing tough detective stories in The Black Mask |
1925 | Earl Derr Biggers, The House without a Key. |
1926 | Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. |
1926 | S. S. Van Dine, The Benson Murder Case |
1928 | Arthur Upfield, The House of Cain.: first novel starring the Australian aboriginal detective 'Boney' |
1928 | Patricia Wentworth, Grey Mask. |
1929 | Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest. |
1929 | Gladys Mitchell, Speedy Death. |
1929 | Ellery Queen, The Roman Hat Mystery |
1929 | W. R. Burnett, Little Caesar |
1929 | Mignon Eberhart, The Patient in Room 18. |
1930 | Margery Allingham, Mystery Mile. |
1930 | Dorothy Sayers, Strong Poison. |
1930 | Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage. |
1931 | Francis Iles, Malice Aforethought. |
1932 | Raymond Chandler publishes his first private-eye story in Black Mask |
1932 | Rudolph Fisher, The Conjure-man Dies. |
1933 | John Dickson Carr, Hag's Nook. |
1933 | Erie Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Velvet Claws. |
1934 | James M. Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice. |
1934 | Ngaio Marsh, A Man Lay Dead. |
1934 | Rex Stout, Fer de Lance. |
1939 | Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep. |
1939 | James Hadley Chase, No Orchids for Miss Blandish. |
1940 | Cornell Woolrich, The Bride Wore Black. |
1943 | Margaret Millar, Wall of Eyes. |
1945 | Lawrence Treat, V as in Victim. |
1947 | Mickey Spillane, I, The Jury. |
1949 | Ross Macdonald (as John Macdonald), The Moving Target. |
1950 | Julian Symons, The Thirty-First of February. |
"The Hole in the Wall" by Arthur Morrison and "The Franchise Affair" by Josephine Tey are both listed on this crime and mystery page.
Some readers will be aware that "The Hole in the Wall" was serialised by BBC Television in England, with Nigel Rathborne playing one of the major parts. Few, I venture to suggest, will have read the book. Following its publication in 1902, V S Pritchett described it as "one of the minor masterpieces of the century," although the century was then not much advanced. Morrison is, at this time, perhaps better known as a writer of detective fiction, having created the detective Martin Hewett. However, in "The Hole in the Wall" he did indeed create a minor masterpiece. This tale of murder, thievery, and general villainy, brilliantly evokes the Dickensian squalor and evil of the East End of London in the second half of the eighteenth century.
The story is told through the eyes of a nine year old boy who goes to live with his grandfather in an old inn, situated beside the Thames. Many of the events are only half understood by the boy but the reader is left in no doubt about what is really going on as the tale moves seamlessly to its violent conclusion.
"The Franchise Affair", published in 1948, is also set in England and is also concerned with violence and mystery. However the setting and the period are very much removed from those of "The Hole in the Wall." Two women, a mother and daughter, living the quiet life in a country house, are accused of kidnapping and beating a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl in order to get her to do work for them. The charge is denied by the women and they engage a local solicitor to act on their behalf. He becomes engrossed in the case and it finally drives him to step outside of the ordered world of a country solicitor.
Josephine Tey, who also wrote under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot, was baptised Elizabeth MacKintosh. A brief quote on the back of a paperback edition of the book credits a reviewer with stating that it is "one of the most intriguing detective stories ever written." That might be drawing a long bow but there is no doubt that the book is superbly crafted. As with Morrison's evocation of the East End, Tey's evocation of the setting of her novel is superb and the twists and turns in the plot are made entirely believable by Tey's ability to "lay the groundwork" for each development well in advance of its occurrence.
Both of these novels are well worth a read and both ebooks are no further than a mouse-click away. Check them out on this page.
Updated 3 August 2018