What is Crime Fiction?
Crime has existed for thousands upon thousands of years. It’s no surprise, then, that crime fiction is not a new genre. Early crime fiction, at least in its modern day form, can be dated back to the 19th century. Edgar Allen Poe was one of the very first crime fiction writers, and is often credited with inventing the very first ‘detective’ character.
The crime stories of Edgar Allen Poe had a great influence on later writers. He created tales where the detective (though this word was not in use at the time) would follow a series of clues to uncover the details of the crime. Often, the audience was left to try to piece together the clues right until the very end of the story.
One of the most popular crime fiction writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, often used this model when he created perhaps the most famous of all detectives, Sherlock Holmes. Using the works of both Poe and Doyle as models of how crime fiction should be structured, it can be said that crime fiction is a genre that details crimes and their detection, sometimes with emphasize on criminals and their motives.
The Sub-Genres of Crime Fiction
Crime fiction has evolved substantially since the time of Edgar Allen Poe. Today, crime fiction is often divided into several sub-genres, since it is difficult to fit all ‘crime fiction’ into a single category. The ‘standard’ crime fiction novel, if there is a standard at all, might be detective fiction. This sub-genre typically involves discovering who did it and how they did it.
A variation of these them is the inverted detective story. These tend to focus less on who did it and more on catching the ‘who’ in question. These tales often involve a great deal of adventure and drama, sometimes crossing over into the adventure fiction genre.
Some of the other sub-genres in crime fiction include:
- Police fiction;
- Legal drama;
- Capers;
- Spy stories; and
- Psychological thrillers.
