Markup View

Author: Catbert

Nov 14th 2013 at 4:39:39 PM

I don't think it is a good idea to put a strict time limit on what constitutes being old enough to count as HistoricalFiction. No one else does.  There is no reason that a book written in the 1980's about WorldWarII, for example, would not be considered HistoricalFiction, even if there is only 40 years difference.

Also, whether or not the protagonist tends to be an AmateurSleuth tends to depend on whether or not the professional detectives were common during the period depicted.  For example:

* Creator/AnnPerry's The Literature/MonkSeries is set in VictorianLondon in the 1850's though the 1860's.  The title character, William Monk, is at various times in the series a PoliceDetective or a PrivateDetective.
* Creator/AnnPerry's The Literature/PittSeries is set in VictorianLondon in the 1880's though the 1890's.  Thomas Pitt starts out as an ordinary PoliceDetective at the famous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_Street_Magistrates%27_Court Bow Street police station]] and eventually works his way up to the head of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_branch Special Branch]].  His wife, Charlotte Pitt, is a well born lady who sometimes uses her social status to assist her husband by investigating parts of upper-class female society that are not easily accessible by police officers.