Detective fiction and typologies

 

Detective fiction has been a popular genre in the novel form ever since the nineteenth century. It is a distinct subgenre of crime fiction-stories that deal with crime, criminals, and their apprehension. (Other subgenres of crime fiction include the hardboiled novel, the police procedural, and the courtroom thriller.)

In detective fiction, the detective (along with the reader) is presented with an apparently insoluble crime and the case is slowly cracked. In the crime novel, on the other hand, the author shares with the reader the identity of the criminal at the very beginning, and the interest lies in following the detective's progress in identifying the culprit and in observing the culprit's attempts to escape from her/him.

Features of a detective novel

An apparently perfect crime or murder is committed, which leaves the police baffled. The unsolvable nature of the crime keeps the reader interested. A sense of mystery is created, sometimes accompanied by tension or a sense of danger.

 
The novel takes the reader through the process of the investigation of the crime by the protagonist, who eventually seeks the culprit.

 
The protagonist may be a professional or an amateur detective. Very often, the detective is an eccentric character with idiosyncratic mannerisms.

 
The police and other authority figures are sometimes depicted as being either uncooperative or dim-witted.

 
Multiple probable suspects, red herrings, and unsavoury characters are common features of such novels.

 

The resolution is usually startling and unexpected. The detective explains how she/he logically arrived at the right solution.

 
Edgar Allan Poe, the American novelist, is considered to be the pioneer of this genre. His short story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' (1841) is considered to be the first modern detective story. Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1868) is usually considered to be the first English detective novel. The most famous detective to be created is, of course, Sherlock Holmes, who appeared for the first time in 1887 in the novel, A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle. G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown is another famous detective. Agatha Christie wrote several novels in this genre and created the detective, Hercule poirot. Murder on the orient Express (1934) is one of her most widely read books.

 

Sensation Fiction

Influenced by developments in newspaper press in terms of wider circulation to middle class households and the increasing reportage of crime happenings across Britain that provided sensational plots to the writers alongside changes in acts pertaining to social relationships, led novels to represent the insidious nature of crime within aristocratic and middleclass homes. According to Lyn Pykett, “the sensation genre was a journalistic construct, a label attached by reviewers to novels whose plots centred on criminal deeds, or social transgressions and illicit passions, and which ‘preached to the nerves’. Sensation novels were tales of modern life that dealt in nervous, psychological, sexual and social shocks, and had complicated plots involving bigamy, adultery, seduction, fraud, forgery, blackmail, kidnapping and, sometimes, murder”. Apart from Collins’s famous sensational novels, (Mrs Henry) Ellen Wood’s East Lynne, Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1861–2) were other successful novels in this genre. Sensational novels did not represent the dark underbelly of crime amongst the underworld rather, the novels of this genre sought to puncture the notions of familial respectability. Crime occurred within households and was committed by family members rather than by outsiders.

In most sensational novels, legal machinery was hardly visible and hence, amateur detectives were increasingly on the rise to decide on the outcome of social and moral perversity committed by one of their own. Sensational novels, an adaption of the earlier Newgate novels moved from crime to detection, from low-life to respectable households where men and women were both perpetrators of crime.

 

Hard-Boiled Novels

Hard-boiled novels are a subgenre of crime fiction that emerged in the early 20th century, primarily in the United States. They feature tough, cynical protagonists, gritty urban settings, and a focus on realism. The stories are often marked by violence, moral ambiguity, and a sense of disillusionment. The protagonists, usually private detectives or loners, are hardened by their experiences and tend to operate outside the law or established norms.

 

The heroes are typically private detectives or individuals, they have a code of honor, but it’s often their own, separate from conventional morality.These novels often take place in large, corrupt cities where crime is rampant, and the justice system is flawed or ineffectual.  Hard-boiled novels rarely feature clear-cut distinctions between good and evil. The protagonist may bend the law or engage in morally questionable activities, but they do so in pursuit of a larger justice.The stories are often violent, reflecting the harsh realities of the world they depict. Characters are frequently involved in brutal confrontations, and the language used is direct and unsentimental.

 

The hard-boiled style was popularized in the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly through publications like Black Mask. This style was a reaction against the more genteel and puzzle-oriented detective stories of British writers like Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

 

Prominent Examples and Authors

1. Dashiell Hammett:

   - The Maltese Falcon (1930): This novel is one of the quintessential examples of hard-boiled fiction. It features a private detective Sam Spade

   - Red Harvest (1929): Another important work by Hammett, it features a nameless detective who cleans up a corrupt mining town in a violent, morally ambiguous way.

 

2. Raymond Chandler:

   - The Big Sleep (1939): Featuring the famous private detective Philip Marlowe, this novel is known for its complex plot, witty dialogue, and dark tone. Marlowe, like many hard-boiled heroes, is tough, cynical, and willing to bend the rules, but he retains a deep sense of justice.

   - Farewell, My Lovely (1940): Another Marlowe novel, this one explores themes of corruption and betrayal in a seedy Los Angeles setting.

 

Noir fiction : Noir fiction (or roman noir) is a subgenre of crime fiction. In this subgenre, right and wrong are not clearly defined, while the protagonists are seriously and often tragically flawed. In its modern form, noir has come to denote a marked darkness in theme and subject matter, generally featuring a disturbing mixture of sex and violence. While related to and frequently confused with hardboiled detective fiction, the two are not the same. Both regularly take place against a backdrop of systemic and institutional corruption. However, noir (French for “black”) is centred on protagonists that are either victims, suspects, or perpetrators—often self-destructive. A typical protagonist of noir fiction is forced to deal with a corrupt legal, political or other system, through which the protagonist is either victimized and/or has to victimize others, leading to a lose-lose situation. Otto Penzler argues that the traditional hardboiled detective story and noir story are “diametrically opposed, with mutually exclusive philosophical premises”.