A: At the top of a long list of writers widely suspected to have invented the detective novel are Agatha Christie (of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot fame) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes).
However, the actual culprits behind this mystery or mysteries were actually one Edgar Allen Poe, famous for explorations of death, and the now obscure (though once wildly popular) author, Wilkie Collins. Poe set the stage with three novels in which his hero, Auguste Dupin, follows convoluted trails to the truth using logic and astute observation. And while that proved a good start, the genre of detective fiction didn’t truly emerge until Wilkie Collins introduced archetypes such as the inept police force, the celebrated private investigator, the reconstruction of the crime, and the final plot twist in his 1860 novel The Woman in White.
The truth is Wilkie had mastered the genre over fifteen years before the first Sherlock Holmes novel was even published. Case closed!
Article comments
1 - Katie McNeill
I love Wilkie Collins!!!! I don't think he is obscure at all! You can still find novels of his, 'The Woman in White' and 'The Moonstone' in bookstores today. Although some of his other works are harder to come by they are still out there.