!!A short history of MysteryFiction
* '''Unknown''': ''Literature/OneThousandAndOneNights'' has a story called The Three Apples. Interestingly, in contrast to modern works, the detective in this story has no interest in solving crimes but instead was forced to under threat of death penalty.
* '''1841''': Creator/EdgarAllanPoe publishes the first modern detective story, "Literature/TheMurdersInTheRueMorgue", with the prototypical detective, Literature/CAugusteDupin.
* '''1853''': Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/BleakHouse'' becomes the first full-length novel to feature a police detective (Inspector Bucket) solving a crime as a major plot point. (Of course, this being Dickens, there are tons of characters and the detective plot is only one thread of many.)
* '''1866''': Emile Gaboriau publishes ''L'Affaire Lerouge'' (''The Widow Lerouge''), the first in his Monsieur Lecoq detective series, the successor to Dupin.
* '''1868''': Wilkie Collins, already well known for his book ''Literature/TheWomanInWhite'', publishes ''Literature/TheMoonstone'', the first English detective novel (Poe's being short stories).
* '''1887''': Sir Creator/ArthurConanDoyle publishes ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'' (46 years after Poe), which provides the world with Literature/SherlockHolmes. In that story, he includes a TakeThat against Dupin and Lecoq.
* '''1910''': Starting with the short story "The Blue Cross," Creator/GKChesterton introduces the widely influential ''Literature/FatherBrown''.
* '''1912''': R. Austin Freeman invents the ReverseWhoDunnit with the stories in his collection ''Literature/TheSingingBone'', featuring Literature/DrThorndyke.
* '''1920''': Creator/AgathaChristie publishes ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', the first with her detective Literature/HerculePoirot.
* '''1923''': Starting with ''Whose Body?'', Creator/DorothyLSayers gleefully [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the mystery genre so far with her Literature/LordPeterWimsey series.
* '''1927''': [[Creator/StratemeyerSyndicate Edward Stratemeyer]] (under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon) introduces the world to ''Literature/TheHardyBoys'', probably the first {{Kid Detective}}s, in ''The Tower Treasure''.
* '''1929''': Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, under the collective pseudonym of their hero, publish ''The Roman Hat Mystery'', the first appearance of Creator/ElleryQueen.
* '''1930''':
** Stratemeyer and writer Mildred Wirt (under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene) introduce the world to ''Literature/NancyDrew'' in ''The Secret of the Old Clock''.
** Creator/AgathaChristie introduces the LittleOldLadyInvestigates trope with ''The Murder at the Vicarage'' and Literature/MissMarple.
** Creator/DashiellHammett writes ''Literature/TheMalteseFalcon'', the novel which introduces Sam Spade, the TropeCodifier for the HardboiledDetective.
** The Detection Club is formed in Britain, a society of notable Mystery Fiction authors championing the FairPlayWhodunnit.
* '''1945''': The Mystery Writers of America is founded.
* '''1949''': Robert van Gulik translates and publishes ''Celebrated Cases of Literature/JudgeDee'', introducing traditional Chinese mystery to Western audiences.
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