By FPL_Adam
One literary mystery is the history of the detective novel. What was the story that started it all and just who wrote it?
There are those who give Edgar Allen Poe credit with his story Murder in the Rue Morgue in 1841. It is story that begins with a narrator describing meeting an individual when searching for a book at a library in Paris, and from there they begin to converse. It is a tale that many readers will find familiar, will it be the singular analytical sleuth or the municipal police that finally unravel the mystery?
Others give credit for the first detective novel to Wilke Collins and his novel The Moonstone published in 1868. The novel opens with the theft of the legendary yellow diamond. It is a detective novel that features a large cast of potential suspects, a police force searching to make the clues fit, and singular sleuth who promises to be able to solve the puzzle.
However, there is also The Notting Hill Mystery written in 1862. It is a mystery full of all the essentials including several insurance policies, a dubious baron, and babies switched at birth, and one investigator named Ralph Henderson. It first appeared as serial in the Once a Week magazine and then published as a book later in 1865.
Since that time the detective mystery novel has taken off with a range of puzzle solving personalities. If you are mystery fan, you just might be familiar with some of the characters in this list. The question is, how well do you know these famous sleuths?
- SHERLOCK HOLMES read the books
- HERCULE POIROT read the books
- JOE LEAPHORN read the books
- CORK O’CONNOR read the books
- VERONICA MARS read and watch
- NERO WOLFE read the books
- INSPECTOR GAMACHE read the books
- KINSEY MILLHONE read the books
- PRECIOUS RAMOSWE read the books
- STEPHANIE PLUM read and watch
- MAISIE DOBBS read the books
Test your knowledge of these sleuths with the quiz below:
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