Detective genre and its types. Typical mistakes when writing detective stories

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1) The reader should have equal opportunities with the detective to unravel the mystery of the crime. All clues must be clearly labeled and described.

2) The reader must not be deliberately deceived or misled, except in those cases when he, together with the detective, according to all the rules fair play cheating offender.

3) The novel should not be love line. After all, we are talking about bringing the criminal to justice, and not about connecting the yearning lovers with the bonds of Hymen.

4) Neither the detective nor any of the official investigators should turn out to be a criminal. This is tantamount to outright deceit - it's the same as if we slipped a shiny copper instead of a gold coin. Fraud is fraud.

5) The offender must be discovered by the deductive method - with the help of logical conclusions, and not due to chance, coincidence or unmotivated confession. After all, choosing this last path, the author quite consciously directs the reader along a deliberately false trail, and when he returns empty-handed, he calmly reports that all this time the answer has been in his pocket, the author. Such an author is no better than a lover of primitive practical jokes.

6) In a detective novel there must be a detective, and a detective is only a detective when he tracks down and investigates. His task is to collect clues that will serve as clues and ultimately point to who committed this low crime in the first chapter. The detective builds a chain of his reasoning on the basis of an analysis of the collected evidence, otherwise he is likened to a negligent schoolboy who, without solving the problem, writes off the answer from the end of the problem book.

7) You simply cannot do without corpses in a detective novel, and the more naturalistic the corpse, the better. Only the murder makes the novel interesting enough. Who would read three hundred pages with excitement if it were a less serious crime! In the end, the reader should be rewarded for their concern and energy expended.

8) The mystery of the crime must be revealed in a purely materialistic way. Absolutely unacceptable are such methods of establishing the truth as divination, seances, reading other people's thoughts, fortune-telling, etc., etc. The reader has some chance not to yield in intelligence to the rationalistic detective, but if he is forced to compete with the spirits underworld, he is doomed to defeat ab initio.

9) There should be only one detective, that is, only one main character deduction, only one deus ex machina. To mobilize the minds of three, four, or even a whole detachment of detectives to unravel the crime means not only to scatter the reader's attention and break the direct logical thread, but also unfairly put the reader in a disadvantageous position. With more than one detective, the reader does not know which one he is competing with in deductive reasoning. It's like making the reader race with a relay team.

10) The criminal should be a character who played a more or less prominent role in the novel, that is, a character who is familiar and interesting to the reader.

11) The author must not make a servant a murderer. This is too easy a decision, to choose it means to evade difficulties. The perpetrator must be a person with a certain dignity - one that usually does not arouse suspicion.

12) No matter how many murders take place in the novel, there must be only one criminal. Of course, the offender may have an assistant or an accomplice, but the entire burden of guilt should lie on the shoulders of one person. The reader must be given the opportunity to focus all the ardor of his indignation on a single black nature.

13) In a true detective novel, secret bandit societies, all sorts of Camorras and mafia, are out of place. After all, an exciting and truly beautiful murder will be irreparably damaged if it turns out that the blame falls on a whole criminal company. Of course, the killer in a detective novel should be given hope of salvation, but allowing him to resort to the help of a secret society is already too much. No top-notch, self-respecting killer needs that kind of advantage.

14) The method of murder and the means of solving the crime must meet the criteria of rationality and scientific character. In other words, pseudoscientific, hypothetical, and purely fantastic adaptations cannot be introduced into a detective novel. As soon as the author soars, in the manner of Jules Verne, into fantastic heights, he finds himself outside the detective genre and frolic in the unknown expanses of the adventure genre.

15) At any moment, the solution should be obvious - provided that the reader has enough insight to solve it. This means the following: if the reader, having reached the explanation of how the crime was committed, re-reads the book, he will see that the solution, so to speak, lay on the surface, that is, all the evidence actually pointed to the culprit, and, be it, the reader , as smart as a detective, he would have been able to solve the mystery on his own, long before last chapter. Needless to say, the smart reader often reveals it in this way.

16) Long descriptions, literary digressions and side themes, subtly subtle analysis of characters and recreation of atmosphere are inappropriate in a detective novel. All these things are irrelevant to the story of the crime and its logical disclosure. They only delay the action and introduce elements that have nothing to do with main goal which is to state the problem, analyze it and bring it to a successful solution. Of course, enough descriptions and well-defined characters should be introduced into the novel to give it credibility.

17) The guilt for committing a crime should not be placed on a professional criminal. Crimes committed by burglars or gangsters are investigated by the police department, not by a detective writer and brilliant amateur detectives. A truly spectacular crime is one committed by a pillar of the church or by an old maid who is a well-known benefactor.

18) A crime in a detective novel should not turn out to be a suicide or an accident. To end the odyssey of tracking with such a breakdown in tension is to fool the gullible and kind reader.

19) All crimes in detective novels must be committed for personal reasons. International conspiracies and military policy are the property of a completely different literary genre- for example, a spy or action novel. A detective novel, on the other hand, should remain in a cozy, homely framework. It should reflect the reader's daily experiences and, in a sense, give vent to his own repressed desires and emotions.

20) And finally, the last point: a list of some tricks that no self-respecting author of detective novels will now use. They have been used too often and are well known to all true lovers of literary crimes. To resort to them means to sign one's writing failure and lack of originality.

a) Identification of the offender by the cigarette butt left at the scene of the crime.

b) The device of an imaginary séance with the aim of frightening the criminal and forcing him to betray himself.

c) Fake fingerprints.

d) A fake alibi provided by a dummy.

e) A dog that does not bark and allows the conclusion that the intruder was not a stranger.

f) Laying the blame for the crime on a twin brother or other relative, like two peas in a pod, similar to a suspect, but an innocent person.

g) A hypodermic syringe and a drug mixed into wine.

h) Committing a murder in a locked room after the police broke in.

i) Establishing guilt through psychological test to naming words by free association.

j) The mystery of the code or encrypted letter, finally solved by the detective.

Definition

Detective - the meaning and definition of the concept of the term, a dictionary of literary terms:: Textologia.ru

DETECTIVE(English - detective; from lat. - disclosure) - piece of art with a special type of plot associated with the disclosure of mysterious crimes, the confrontation between good and evil, where, as a rule, good triumphs over evil. The detective as a genre is characterized by the following main restrictive features: 1) the presence of the mystery of the crime (most often murder); 2) a moral and physical clash on this ground between a professional or amateur detective and a criminal; 3) the process of investigation, in which various versions of what happened are checked and worked out, various suspects and the investigator himself are tested; 4) identification of the offender; 5) restoration of all circumstances of the crime.

This literary genre has a long history in European literature. It is considered to be the founder American writer Edgar Allan Poe, who in the short story "Murder in the Rue Morgue" (1841) first brought out the image of an amateur detective endowed with outstanding abilities for logical analysis.

D.N. Ushakov, Big explanatory dictionary of the modern Russian language (online version)

DETECTIVE death, detective, ·husband. (English detective). Detective, detective police agent.

Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. M.: Russian language from A to Z. Publishing house<ЮНВЕС>. Moscow. 2003.

DETECTIVEEnglish - detective (detective).

Latin - detego (detect).

The word "detective" was borrowed from English in the second half of the 19th century. It has two meanings. The first is a “detective”, the second is a “genre of literarywork or film.

Derivative: detective.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Detective(English)detective , from lat.detego - reveal, expose) - predominantly literary and cinematic genre, whose works describe the process of investigating a mysterious incident in order to clarify its circumstances and solve the riddle. Usually a crime acts as such an incident, and the detective describes its investigation and identification of the perpetrators, in which case the conflict is built on a clash of justice with lawlessness, ending with the victory of justice.

Genre features of the detective

The main feature of the detective as a genre is the presence in the work of some mysterious incident, the circumstances of which are unknown and must be clarified. The most frequently described incident is a crime, although there are detective stories in which events that are not criminal are investigated (for example, in Notes on Sherlock Holmes, which certainly belongs to the detective genre, there are no crimes in five stories out of eighteen).

An essential feature of the detective is that the actual circumstances of the incident are not communicated to the reader, at least in their entirety, until the investigation is completed. Instead, the reader is led by the author through the process of investigation, having the opportunity at each stage to build their own versions and evaluate known facts. If the work initially describes all the details of the incident, or the incident does not contain anything unusual, mysterious, then it should already be attributed not to a pure detective story, but to related genres.

An important property of a classic detective story is the completeness of facts. The solution of the mystery cannot be based on information that was not provided to the reader during the description of the investigation. By the time the investigation is completed, the reader should have enough information to make their own decision based on it. Only a few minor details can be hidden that do not affect the possibility of revealing the secret. Upon completion of the investigation, all riddles must be solved, all questions must be answered.

Several Yet signs of a classic detective collectively were named N. N. Volsky hyperdeterminism of the detective's world(“the world of the detective is much more orderly than the life around us”):

Ordinary environment. The conditions under which the events of the detective story take place are generally common and well known to the reader (in any case, the reader himself believes that he is confidently orientated in them). Thanks to this reader, it is initially obvious what is ordinary from what is being described, and what is strange, beyond the scope.
stereotypical character behavior. The characters are largely devoid of originality, their psychology and behavioral patterns are quite transparent, predictable, and if they have any prominent features, then those become known to the reader. The motives of actions (including the motives of the crime) of the characters are also stereotyped.
The existence of a priori rules for constructing a plot that do not always correspond to real life. So, for example, in a classic detective story, the narrator and the detective, in principle, cannot turn out to be criminals.

This set of features narrows the field of possible logical constructions based on known facts making it easier for the reader to analyze them. However, not all detective subgenres follow these rules exactly.

Another restriction is noted, which is almost always followed by a classic detective story - the inadmissibility of random errors and undetectable matches. For example, in real life a witness may tell the truth, may lie, may be mistaken or misled, or may simply make an unmotivated mistake (accidentally confuse dates, amounts, names). In the detective story, the last possibility is excluded - the witness is either accurate, or lying, or his mistake has a logical justification.

Eremey Parnov points out the following features of the classic detective genre:

the reader of the detective story is invited to participate in a kind of game - solving the mystery or the name of the criminal;
« gothic exotic» -

From Edgar Allan Poe's infernal ape, the founder of both genres (fiction and detective), to Conan Doyle's blue carbuncle and tropical viper, Wilkie Collins' Indian moonstone, to Agatha Christie's secluded castles and Charles Snow's corpse in a boat, the Western detective is incorrigibly exotic. In addition, he is pathologically committed to the Gothic novel (a medieval castle is a favorite stage on which bloody dramas are played out).

sketchiness -

Unlike science fiction a detective story is often written just for the sake of a detective, that is, a detective! In other words, the criminal adjusts his bloody activity to the detective, just as an experienced playwright adjusts the roles to specific actors.

Typical characters

Detective - directly involved in the investigation. The most different people: law enforcement officers, private detectives, relatives, friends, acquaintances of the victims, sometimes - completely random people. The detective cannot be a criminal. The figure of the detective is central in the detective story.
A professional detective is a law enforcement officer. Can be very expert high level, and maybe - and the usual, of which there are many, a police officer. In the second case in difficult situations sometimes turns to a consultant for advice.
A private detective - for him, investigating crimes is the main job, but he does not serve in the police, although he may be a retired policeman. As a rule, he is extremely highly qualified, active and energetic. Most often, a private detective becomes a central figure, and to emphasize his qualities, professional detectives can be put into action, who constantly make mistakes, succumb to the provocations of a criminal, get on the wrong track and suspect the innocent. The opposition “a lone hero against a bureaucratic organization and its officials” is used, in which the sympathies of the author and the reader are on the side of the hero.
An amateur detective is the same as a private detective, with the only difference that investigating crimes for him is not a profession, but a hobby that he turns to only from time to time. A separate subspecies of an amateur detective is a random person who has never engaged in such activities, but is forced to conduct an investigation due to urgent need, for example, in order to save an unjustly accused loved one Or deflect suspicion from yourself. The amateur sleuth brings the investigation closer to the reader, allows him to give him the impression that "I could figure it out too." One of the conventions of a series of detectives with amateur detectives (like Miss Marple) is that in real life a person, if he does not professionally investigate crimes, is unlikely to encounter such a number of crimes and mysterious incidents.
Criminal - commits a crime, covers his tracks, tries to counteract the investigation. In the classic detective story, the figure of the criminal is clearly indicated only at the end of the investigation, until this moment the criminal can be a witness, a suspect or a victim. Sometimes the actions of the criminal are described in the course of the main action, but in such a way as not to reveal his identity and not to inform the reader of information that could not be obtained during the investigation from other sources.
The victim is the one against whom the crime is directed or the one who suffered as a result of a mysterious incident. One of the standard variants of the detective's denouement - the victim himself turns out to be a criminal.
Witness - a person who has any information about the subject of the investigation. The perpetrator is often shown for the first time in the description of the investigation as one of the witnesses.
A detective's companion is a person who is constantly in contact with the detective, participating in the investigation, but does not have the abilities and knowledge of the detective. He can provide technical assistance in the investigation, but his main task is to show more prominently outstanding abilities a detective against the background of an average level of an ordinary person. In addition, a companion is needed to ask the sleuth questions and listen to his explanations, giving the reader the opportunity to follow the sleuth's thoughts and drawing attention to certain points that the reader himself might miss. Classic examples of such companions are Dr. Watson in Conan Doyle and Arthur Hastings in Agatha Christie.
A consultant is a person who has a pronounced ability to conduct an investigation, but is not directly involved in it himself. In detective stories where a separate figure of a consultant stands out, she can be the main one (for example, the journalist Ksenofontov in detective stories

GENRES OF MOVIE. DETECTIVE.

Detectiveś in(eng. detective, from lat. detego - reveal, expose) - a predominantly literary and cinematic genre, the works of which describe the process of investigating a mysterious incident in order to clarify its circumstances and solve the riddle. Usually, a crime acts as such an incident, and the detective describes its investigation and identification of the perpetrators, in which case the conflict is built on a clash of justice with lawlessness, culminating in the victory of justice.

1 Definition

2 Features of the genre

3 Typical characters

4 Detective story

5 Twenty rules for writing detective stories

6 The Ten Commandments of Ronald Knox's Detective Novel

7 Some types of detectives

7.1 Detective closed type

7.2 Psychological detective

7.3 Historical detective

7.4 Ironic Detective

7.5 Fantastic Detective

7.6 Political detective

7.7 Spy detective

7.8 Police Detective

7.9 "Cool" detective

7.10 Crime detective

8 Film Detective

8.1 Aphorisms about the detective

Genre features

A few more features of the classic detective story were collectively called by N.N. Volsky the hyperdetermination of the world of the detective (“the world of the detective is much more ordered than the life around us”):

Ordinary environment. The conditions under which the events of the detective story take place are generally common and well known to the reader (in any case, the reader himself believes that he is confidently orientated in them). Thanks to this reader, it is initially obvious what is ordinary from what is being described, and what is strange, beyond the scope.

stereotypical character behavior. The characters are largely devoid of originality, their psychology and behavioral patterns are quite transparent, predictable, and if they have any prominent features, then those become known to the reader. The motives of actions (including the motives of the crime) of the characters are also stereotyped.

The existence of a priori rules for constructing a plot that do not always correspond to real life. So, for example, in a classic detective story, the narrator and the detective, in principle, cannot turn out to be criminals.

This set of features narrows the field of possible logical constructions based on known facts, making it easier for the reader to analyze them. However, not all detective subgenres follow these rules exactly.

Another restriction is noted, which is almost always followed by a classic detective story - the inadmissibility of random errors and undetectable matches. For example, in real life, a witness may tell the truth, may lie, may be mistaken or misled, or may simply make an unmotivated mistake (accidentally mix up dates, amounts, names). In the detective story, the last possibility is excluded - the witness is either accurate, or lying, or his mistake has a logical justification.

Eremey Parnov points out the following features of the classic detective genre:

the reader of the detective story is invited to participate in a kind of game - solving the mystery or the name of the criminal;

"Gothic Exotic" - Starting with the infernal monkey, the founder of both genres (fiction and detective) Edgar Poe, with the blue carbuncle and the tropical viper of Conan Doyle, with the Indian moonstone of Wilkie Collins, and ending with the secluded castles of Agatha Christie and the corpse in the boat of Charles Snow, Western the detective is irredeemably exotic. In addition, he is pathologically committed to the Gothic novel (a medieval castle is a favorite stage on which bloody dramas are played out).

sketchiness -

Unlike science fiction, detective stories are often written just for the sake of the detective, that is, the detective! In other words, the criminal adjusts his bloody activity to the detective, just as an experienced playwright adjusts the roles to specific actors.

There is one exception to these rules - the so-called. "Inverted Detective".

Typical characters

Detective - directly involved in the investigation. A variety of people can act as a detective: law enforcement officers, private detectives, relatives, friends, acquaintances of the victims, sometimes completely random people. The detective cannot be a criminal. The figure of the detective is central in the detective story.

A professional detective is a law enforcement officer. He may be a very high-level expert, or he may be an ordinary, of which there are many, police officers. In the second case, in difficult situations, sometimes he turns to a consultant for advice (see below).

A private detective - for him, investigating crimes is the main job, but he does not serve in the police, although he may be a retired policeman. As a rule, he is extremely highly qualified, active and energetic. Most often, a private detective becomes a central figure, and to emphasize his qualities, professional detectives can be put into action, who constantly make mistakes, succumb to the provocations of a criminal, get on the wrong track and suspect the innocent. The opposition “a lone hero against a bureaucratic organization and its officials” is used, in which the sympathies of the author and the reader are on the side of the hero.

An amateur detective is the same as a private detective, with the only difference that investigating crimes for him is not a profession, but a hobby that he turns to only from time to time. A separate subspecies of an amateur detective is a random person who has never engaged in such activities, but is forced to conduct an investigation due to urgent need, for example, to save an unjustly accused loved one or to avert suspicion from himself (these are the main characters of all Dick Francis novels). The amateur sleuth brings the investigation closer to the reader, allows him to give him the impression that "I could figure it out too." One of the conventions of a series of detectives with amateur detectives (like Miss Marple) is that in real life a person, if he does not professionally investigate crimes, is unlikely to encounter such a number of crimes and mysterious incidents.

Criminal - commits a crime, covers his tracks, tries to counteract the investigation. In the classic detective story, the figure of the criminal is clearly indicated only at the end of the investigation, until this moment the criminal can be a witness, a suspect or a victim. Sometimes the actions of the criminal are described in the course of the main action, but in such a way as not to reveal his identity and not to inform the reader of information that could not be obtained during the investigation from other sources.

The victim is the one against whom the crime is directed or the one who suffered as a result of a mysterious incident. One of the standard variants of the detective's denouement - the victim himself turns out to be a criminal.

Witness - a person who has any information about the subject of the investigation. The perpetrator is often shown for the first time in the description of the investigation as one of the witnesses.

A detective's companion is a person who is constantly in contact with the detective, participating in the investigation, but does not have the abilities and knowledge of the detective. He can provide technical assistance in the investigation, but his main task is to more prominently show the outstanding abilities of the detective against the background of the average level of an ordinary person. In addition, a companion is needed to ask the sleuth questions and listen to his explanations, giving the reader the opportunity to follow the sleuth's thoughts and drawing attention to certain points that the reader himself might miss. Classic examples of such companions are Dr. Watson in Conan Doyle and Arthur Hastings in Agatha Christie.

A consultant is a person who has a pronounced ability to conduct an investigation, but is not directly involved in it himself. In detective stories where a separate figure of a consultant stands out, she may be the main one (for example, the journalist Ksenofontov in the detective stories of Viktor Pronin), or may turn out to be just an occasional adviser (for example, the detective's teacher, whom he turns to for help).

Assistant - does not conduct the investigation himself, but provides the detective and / or consultant with information that he obtains himself. For example, a forensic expert.

Suspect - in the course of the investigation, there is an assumption that it was he who committed the crime. Authors deal with suspects differently, one of the frequently practiced principles is “none of those immediately suspected is a real criminal”, that is, everyone who falls under suspicion turns out to be innocent, and the real criminal is the one who was not suspected of anything. . However, not all authors follow this principle. In the detective stories of Agatha Christie, for example, Miss Marple repeatedly says that "in life, it is usually the one who is suspected first who is the criminal."

Detective Story

Poe's stories written in the 1840s are usually considered the first works of the detective genre, but elements of the detective story were used by many authors earlier. For example, in William Godwin's (1756-1836) novel The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794), one of the central characters is an amateur detective. E. Vidocq's Notes, published in 1828, also had a great influence on the development of detective literature. However, it was Poe who created, according to Yeremey Parnov, the first Great Detective - the amateur detective Dupin from the story "Murder on the Rue Morgue". Dupin subsequently fathered Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown (Chesterton), Lecoq (Gaboriau) and Mr Cuff (Wilkie Collins). It was Edgar Allan Poe who introduced into the plot of the detective story the idea of rivalry in solving a crime between a private investigator and the official police, in which the private investigator, as a rule, takes over.

The detective genre becomes popular in England after the release of W. Collins' novels The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868). In the novels Wilder's Hand (1869) and Checkmate (1871) by the Irish writer C. Le Fanu, the detective story is combined with the Gothic novel. The golden age of the detective in England is considered to be the 30s - 70s. 20th century. It was at this time that the classic detective novels by Agatha Christie, F. Biding and other authors were published, which influenced the development of the genre as a whole.

The founder of the French detective is E. Gaborio, the author of a series of novels about the detective Lecoq. Stevenson imitated Gaboriau in his detective stories (especially in "The Diamond of the Rajah").

Twenty rules for writing detective stories

Twenty rules for writing detective stories. It is necessary to provide the reader with equal opportunities with the detective to unravel the mysteries, for which purpose it is necessary to clearly and accurately report all incriminating traces.

2. With regard to the reader, only such tricks and deceit are allowed that a criminal can use in relation to a detective.

3. Love is forbidden. The story should be a game of tag, not between lovers, but between a detective and a criminal.

4. Neither a detective nor any other professional investigator can be a criminal.

5. Logical conclusions should lead to exposure. Random or unsubstantiated confessions are not allowed.

6. A detective cannot be absent in a detective who methodically searches for incriminating evidence, as a result of which he comes to solve the riddle.

7. Mandatory crime in detective - murder.

8. In solving a given mystery, all supernatural forces and circumstances must be excluded.

9. Only one detective can act in a story - the reader cannot compete with three or four members of the relay team at once.

10. The perpetrator must be one of the more or less significant characters well known to the reader.

11. An impermissibly cheap solution in which one of the servants is the culprit.

12. Although the perpetrator may have an accomplice, the main story should be about the capture of one person.

13. Secret or criminal communities have no place in the detective.

14. The method of committing the murder and the methodology of the investigation must be reasonable and justified with scientific point vision.

15. For a smart reader, the clue should be obvious.

16. In a detective story there is no place for literature, descriptions of painstakingly developed characters., coloring the situation by means of fiction.

17. The criminal can never be a professional villain.

19. The motive for a crime is always of a private nature, it cannot be a spy action seasoned with any international intrigues, motives of secret services.

As Yeremey Parnov writes, however,

The decade that followed the promulgation of the terms of the Van Dyne Convention finally discredited the detective story as a genre of literature. It is no coincidence that we know the detectives of previous eras well and each time we turn to their experience. But we can hardly, without getting into reference books, name the figures from the Twenty Rules clan. The modern Western detective has evolved in spite of Van Dyne, refuting point by point, overcoming the limitations that have been sucked from the finger. One paragraph (a detective must not be a criminal!), however, survived, although it was violated several times by the cinema. This is a reasonable prohibition, because it protects the very specificity of the detective, his core line ... In modern novel we will not see any traces of the "Rules" ...

The Ten Commandments of a detective novel by Ronald Knox

Ronald Knox, one of the founders of the Detective Club, also proposed his own rules for writing detective stories:

I. The perpetrator must be someone mentioned at the beginning of the novel, but it must not be the person whose thought the reader has been allowed to follow.

II. As a matter of course, the action of supernatural or otherworldly forces is excluded.

III. It is not allowed to use more than one secret room or secret passage.

IV. It is unacceptable to use hitherto unknown poisons, as well as devices that require a long scientific explanation at the end of the book.

V. A Chinese person must not appear in the work.

VI. A detective should never be helped by a lucky break; nor should he be guided by an unaccountable but sure intuition.

VII. The detective doesn't have to turn out to be a criminal himself.

VIII. Having come across this or that clue, the detective must immediately present it to the reader for study.

IX. The detective's foolish friend, Watson in one form or another, must not hide any of the considerations that cross his mind; in their own way mental capacity it should yield a little - but only a little - to the average reader.

X. Indistinguishable twin brothers and doubles in general cannot appear in a novel unless the reader is properly prepared for it.

Some types of detectives

Closed Detective

A subgenre usually most closely aligned with the canons of the classic detective story. The plot is based on the investigation of a crime committed in a secluded place, where there is a strictly limited set of characters. There can be no stranger in this place, so the crime could only be committed by one of those present. The investigation is conducted by one of those at the scene of the crime with the help of other heroes.

This type of detective is different in that the plot basically eliminates the need to search for an unknown criminal. There are suspects, and the detective's job is to get as much information as possible about the participants in the events, on the basis of which it will be possible to identify the criminal. Additional psychological stress is created by the fact that the perpetrator must be one of the well-known, nearby people, none of whom, usually, looks like a criminal. Sometimes in a closed-type detective a whole series of crimes (usually murders) takes place, as a result of which the number of suspects is constantly decreasing. Examples of closed type detectives:

Edgar Poe, Murder in the Rue Morgue.

Cyril Hare, "Purely English Murder".

Agatha Christie, "Ten Little Indians", "Murder on the Orient Express" (and almost all works).

Leonid Slovin, "The Extra Comes on the Second Way".

Gaston Leroux, The Secret of the Yellow Room.

Psychological detective

This type of detective story may somewhat deviate from the classical canons in terms of the requirement of stereotypical behavior and the typical psychology of heroes. Usually, a crime committed for personal reasons (envy, revenge) is investigated, and the main element of the investigation is the study of the personality characteristics of the suspects, their attachments, pain points, beliefs, prejudices, clarifying the past. There is a school of French psychological detective.

Dickens, Charles, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".

Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment.

Boileau - Narsezhak, "She-wolves", "The one that was gone", "Sea Gate", "Outlining the Heart".

Japrisot, Sebastien, "Lady with glasses and a gun in a car."

Calef, Noel, "Elevator to the Scaffold".

Ball, John, "A Stuffy Night in the Carolinas".

historical detective

Main article: Historical detective

Historical work with detective intrigue. The action takes place in the past, or an ancient crime is being investigated in the present.

Eco, Umberto "The Name of the Rose"

Robert van Gulik, Judge Dee series

Agatha Christie "Death Comes at the End", "The Five Little Pigs"

John Dickson Carr "Newgate Bride", "Devil in Velvet", "Captain Cut-Throat"

Ellis Peters, Cadfael series

Ann Perry, series Thomas Pitt, Monk

Boileau-Narcejac "In the Enchanted Forest"

Quinn, Ellery "The Unknown Manuscript of Dr. Watson"

Boris Akunin, Literary project "The Adventures of Erast Fandorin"

Leonid Yuzefovich, Literary project about the detective Putilin

Alexander Bushkov, Adventures of Alexei Bestuzhev

See also List of detective stories about pre-revolutionary Russia

Ironic detective

The detective investigation is described from a humorous point of view. Often, works written in this vein parody and ridicule the clichés of a detective novel.

Agatha Christie, "Partners in Crime"

Varshavsky, Ilya, "The robbery will take place at midnight"

Kaganov, Leonid, "Major Bogdamir saves money"

Kozachinsky, Alexander, "Green Van"

Westlake, Donald, "Cursed Emerald" (Hot Stone), "The Bank That Gurgled"

Joanna Khmelevskaya (most works)

Daria Dontsova (all works)

Yene Reite (all works)

Fantastic detective[edit | edit wiki text]

Main article: Fantastic detective

Works at the intersection of fantasy and detective. The action can take place in the future, an alternative present or past, as well as in a completely fictional world.

Lem, Stanislav, "Investigation", "Inquiry"

Russell, Eric Frank, "The Daily Job", "The Wasp"

Holm van Zaychik, cycle " bad people No"

Kir Bulychev, cycle "Intergalactic Police" ("Intergpol")

Isaac Asimov, Lucky Starr cycles - space ranger, Detective Elijah Bailey and robot Daniel Olivo

Sergei Lukyanenko, Genome

John Brunner, The Squares of the City (eng. The Squares of the City, 1965; Russian translation - 1984)

Brothers Strugatsky, Hotel "At the Dead Alpinist"

Cook, Glenn, fantasy detective series about detective Garrett

Randall Garrett, a series of fantasy detectives about the detective Lord Darcy

Boris Akunin "Children's Book"

Kluger, Daniel, a series of fantasy detectives "Cases of magic"

Edgar Alan Poe - Murder in the Rue Morgue

Harry Turtledove - The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

political detective

One of the genres quite far from the classic detective. The main intrigue is built around political events and rivalry between various political or business figures and forces. It also often happens that the protagonist himself is far from politics, however, investigating the case, he stumbles upon an obstacle to the investigation on the part of the "powers that be" or reveals some kind of conspiracy. Distinctive feature political detective is (though not necessarily) the possible absence of completely good characters, except for the main one. This genre is rarely found in its pure form, but it can be an integral part of the work.

Agatha Christie, The Big Four

Boris Akunin, State Councilor

Levashov, Viktor, "Conspiracy of Patriots"

Adam Hall, "Berlin Memorandum" (Quiller Memorandum)

Nikolai Svechin, "The Hunt for the Tsar", "The Demon of the Underworld"

Spy detective[edit | edit wiki text]

Based on the narrative of the activities of intelligence officers, spies and saboteurs both in wartime and in peacetime on " invisible front". In terms of stylistic boundaries, it is very close to political and conspiracy detectives, often combined in the same work. The main difference between a spy detective and a political one is that in a political detective the most important position is occupied by the political basis of the case under investigation and antagonistic conflicts, while in espionage the attention is focused on intelligence work (surveillance, sabotage, etc.). A conspiracy detective can be considered a variety of both espionage and political detective.

Agatha Christie, "Cat Among Pigeons", "Man in Brown Suit", "Hours", "Meetings of Baghdad" (and most works).

John Le Carré, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold"

John Boynton Priestley, The Mist Over Gretley (1942)

James Grady, Six Days of the Condor

Boris Akunin, Turkish Gambit

Dmitry Medvedev, "It was near Rivne"

Nikolai Dalekiy, "The Practice of Sergei Rubtsov"

Ian Fleming, James Bond novel series

Get inspired by example

Many authors of popular detective stories do not hide the fact that they were inspired by reading the works of the outstanding masters of this genre. For example, the American writer Elizabeth George has always admired the work of Agatha Christie. Boris Akunin could not resist the charades of the great author of detective prose. The writer generally admitted that he loves detective stories in English style and often uses their characteristic techniques in his works. About what contribution Arthur Conan Doyle made to the detective genre with his famous character probably not worth much to say. Because to create a hero like Sherlock Holmes is the dream of any writer.

Become a criminal

To write a real detective story, you need to come up with a crime, because the mystery associated with it is always at the heart of the plot. So, the author will have to try on the role of an attacker. To begin with, it is worth deciding what the nature of this crime will be. Most famous detective stories are based on the investigation of murders, thefts, robberies, kidnappings and blackmail. However, there are also many examples when the author captivates the reader with an innocent incident that leads to the solution of a big mystery.

turn back time

After choosing a crime, the author will have to think it over carefully, since a real detective conceals all the details that will lead to a denouement. Masters of the genre are advised to use the technique of the reverse course of time. The first step is to decide who committed the crime, how he did it, and why. Then you need to imagine how the attacker will try to hide what he has done. Do not forget about accomplices, evidence left behind and witnesses. These leads build a compelling plot that gives the reader the opportunity to conduct their own investigation. For example, the famous British writer P.D. James says that before she starts creating an exciting story, she always comes up with a solution to the mystery. Therefore, when asked about how to write a good detective story, she replies that one must think like a criminal. A novel should not be like a boring interrogation. Intrigue and tension - that's what matters.

Plot construction

Detective genre like any other literary direction, has its subgenres. Therefore, when answering the question of how to write a detective story, professionals advise first to decide on the choice of how to build a storyline.

The classic detective story is presented in a linear fashion. The reader is investigating committed crime along with the main character. At the same time, he uses the keys to the riddles left by the author.
Inverted detective story the reader at the very beginning becomes a witness to the crime. And the whole subsequent plot revolves around the process and methods of investigation.
Often writers of detective stories use a combined storyline. When the reader is offered to look at the same crime from different sides. This approach is based on the surprise effect. After all, the current and slender version breaks down in one moment.

Interest the reader

Bringing the reader up to date and intriguing by presenting a crime is one of the main steps in creating a detective story. It does not matter how the facts become known. The reader can witness the crime himself, learn about it from the character's story, or find himself at the scene of its commission. The main thing is that there are clues and versions for investigation. The description should have a sufficient amount of believable detail - this is one of the factors to consider when figuring out how to write a detective story.

keep intrigue

The next important task of the novice author will be to keep the interest of the reader. The story should not be too simple, when it becomes clear from the very beginning that the "scuba diver" killed everyone. A far-fetched plot will also quickly get bored and disappointed, since a fairy tale and a detective story - different genres. But even if it is supposed to create a famously twisted plot, you should hide some clues in a pile of unimportant, at first glance, details. This is one of the tricks of the classic English detective. A vivid confirmation of the above can be the statement of the popular Mickey Spillane. When asked how to write a book (detective), he replied: “No one will read mysterious story to get to the middle. Everyone wants to read it to the end. If it turns out to be a disappointment, you will lose the reader. The first page sells this book, and the last page sells all that will be written in the future.”

Traps

Since detective work relies on reason and deduction, a plot will be more compelling and believable if the information presented in it leads the reader to the wrong conclusions. They may even be mistaken and follow a false line of reasoning. This technique is often used by authors who create detective stories about serial killers. This allows you to confuse the reader and create an intriguing turn of events. When everything seems to be clear and there is nothing to be afraid of, it is at this moment that the main character becomes the most vulnerable to the impending series of dangers. An unexpected twist always makes a story more interesting.

Motivation

Detective heroes should have interesting motives. The writer's advice that every character in a good story should want something applies more to the detective genre than to others. Since the subsequent actions of the hero directly depend on motivation. So, they affect the storyline. It is necessary to follow and then write down all the causes and effects in order to keep the reader firmly in the created situation. The more characters with their hidden interests, the more confusing, and, therefore, the more exciting the story is. Spy detectives are mostly filled with such characters. A good example is the detective thriller Mission: Impossible, written by David Koepp and Steven Zaillyan.

Create the offender's identity

Since the author knows who, how and why committed the crime from the very beginning, the only thing left is to decide whether this character will be one of the main ones.

If you use a common technique, when the attacker is constantly in the field of view of the reader, then it is necessary to work out his personality and appearance in detail. As a rule, the author makes such a hero very sympathetic in order to inspire confidence in the reader and avert suspicions. And in the end - dumbfounded by an unexpected denouement. A vivid and illustrative example is the character Vitaly Egorovich Krechetov from the detective series "Liquidation".

In the case where the decision is made to make the criminal the least visible character, more detailed portrayal of personal motives than appearance will be needed in order to bring him to the main stage in the end. It is these characters that are created by authors who write detective stories about serial killers. An example is the sheriff from the detective series The Mentalist.

Create the identity of the hero investigating the crime

The character opposing evil can be anyone. And not necessarily a professional investigator or a private detective. Attentive old Miss Marple by Agatha Christie and Professor Langdon by Dan Brown do their job no less well. The main task of the leading character is to interest the reader and arouse empathy in him. Therefore, his personality must be alive. And also the authors of the detective genre give advice on the description of the appearance and behavior of the protagonist. Some feature will help to make him extraordinary, like Fandorin's gray temples and stuttering. But professionals warn novice authors against excessive enthusiasm in the description inner world the protagonist, as well as from creating too beautiful appearance with figurative comparisons, since such techniques are more typical for romance novels.

Investigator Skills

Perhaps a rich imagination, natural instinct and logic will help the novice author in creating an interesting detective story, and will also captivate the reader by compiling overall picture cases from small pieces of information offered. However, the story must be believable. Therefore, the luminaries of the genre, explaining how to write a detective story, focus on studying the intricacies of the work of professional detectives. After all, not everyone has the skills of criminal investigators. So, for the reliability of the plot, it is necessary to delve into the features of the profession.

Some use expert advice. Others spend long hours and days sorting through old court cases. Moreover, to create a high-quality detective story, you will need not only the knowledge of criminologists. It will be necessary at least general idea about the psychology of the behavior of criminals. And for authors who decide to spin the plot around the murder, they will also need knowledge in the field of forensic anthropology. Do not forget about the details specific to the time and place of the action, as they will require additional knowledge. If, according to the plot, the investigation of the crime takes place in the 19th century, the environment, historical events, technologies and behavior of the characters must comply with it. At times, the task becomes more complicated when a part-time detective is a professional in some other area. For example, a strange mathematician, psychologist or biologist. Accordingly, the author will have to become more proficient in the sciences that make his character special.

Completion

The most important task of the author is also to create an interesting and logical ending. Since no matter how twisted the plot turns out, all the riddles presented in it must be solved. All questions that have accumulated along the way should be answered. Moreover, through detailed conclusions that will be clear to the reader, since understatement in the detective genre is not welcome. Thinking and building various options completing the story is typical for novels with a philosophical component. And the detective genre is commercial. In addition, the reader will be very interested to know where he was right and where he was wrong.

Professionals pay attention to the danger lurking in the mixing of genres. When working in this style, it is very important to remember that if the story has a detective beginning, its conclusion must be written in the same genre. One should not leave the reader disappointed by attributing the crime to mystical powers or an accident. Even if the former do occur, their presence in the novel must fit into the plot and the course of the investigation. And the accident itself is not the subject of a detective story. Therefore, if it happened, someone is involved in this. In a word, a detective may have an unexpected end, but it cannot cause bewilderment and disappointment. It is better if the end is designed for the deductive abilities of the reader, and he will solve the riddle a little earlier than the main character.

Genre features

A few more signs of a classic detective story were collectively named by N. N. Volsky hyperdeterminism of the detective's world(“the world of the detective is much more orderly than the life around us”):

Ordinary environment. The conditions under which the events of the detective story take place are generally common and well known to the reader (in any case, the reader himself believes that he is confidently orientated in them). Thanks to this reader, it is initially obvious what is ordinary from what is being described, and what is strange, beyond the scope.
stereotypical character behavior. The characters are largely devoid of originality, their psychology and behavioral patterns are quite transparent, predictable, and if they have any prominent features, then those become known to the reader. The motives of actions (including the motives of the crime) of the characters are also stereotyped.
The existence of a priori rules for constructing a plot that do not always correspond to real life. So, for example, in a classic detective story, the narrator and the detective, in principle, cannot turn out to be criminals.

Another restriction is noted, which is almost always followed by a classic detective story - the inadmissibility of random errors and undetectable matches. For example, in real life, a witness may tell the truth, may lie, may be mistaken or misled, or may simply make an unmotivated mistake (accidentally mix up dates, amounts, names). In the detective story, the last possibility is excluded - the witness is either accurate, or lying, or his mistake has a logical justification.

Eremey Parnov points out the following features of the classic detective genre:

Typical characters

Detective - directly involved in the investigation. A variety of people can act as a detective: law enforcement officers, private detectives, relatives, friends, acquaintances of the victims, sometimes completely random people. The detective cannot be a criminal. The figure of the detective is central in the detective story.
- A professional detective is a law enforcement officer. He may be a very high-level expert, or he may be an ordinary, of which there are many, police officers. In the second case, in difficult situations, sometimes he turns to a consultant for advice (see below).
- A private detective - for him, investigating crimes is the main job, but he does not serve in the police, although he may be a retired policeman. As a rule, he is extremely highly qualified, active and energetic. Most often, a private detective becomes a central figure, and to emphasize his qualities, professional detectives can be put into action, who constantly make mistakes, succumb to the provocations of a criminal, get on the wrong track and suspect the innocent. The opposition “a lone hero against a bureaucratic organization and its officials” is used, in which the sympathies of the author and the reader are on the side of the hero.
- An amateur detective is the same as a private detective, with the only difference that investigating crimes for him is not a profession, but a hobby that he turns to only from time to time. A separate subspecies of an amateur detective is a random person who has never engaged in such activities, but is forced to conduct an investigation due to urgent need, for example, to save an unjustly accused loved one or to avert suspicion from himself (these are the main characters of all Dick Francis novels). The amateur sleuth brings the investigation closer to the reader, allows him to give him the impression that "I could figure it out too." One of the conventions of a series of detectives with amateur detectives (like Miss Marple) is that in real life a person, if he does not professionally investigate crimes, is unlikely to encounter such a number of crimes and mysterious incidents.
Criminal - commits a crime, covers his tracks, tries to counteract the investigation. In the classic detective story, the figure of the criminal is clearly indicated only at the end of the investigation, until this moment the criminal can be a witness, a suspect or a victim. Sometimes the actions of the criminal are described in the course of the main action, but in such a way as not to reveal his identity and not to inform the reader of information that could not be obtained during the investigation from other sources.
The victim is the one against whom the crime is directed or the one who suffered as a result of a mysterious incident. One of the standard variants of the detective's denouement - the victim himself turns out to be a criminal.
Witness - a person who has any information about the subject of the investigation. The perpetrator is often shown for the first time in the description of the investigation as one of the witnesses.
A detective's companion is a person who is constantly in contact with the detective, participating in the investigation, but does not have the abilities and knowledge of the detective. He can provide technical assistance in the investigation, but his main task is to more prominently show the outstanding abilities of the detective against the background of the average level of an ordinary person. In addition, a companion is needed to ask the sleuth questions and listen to his explanations, giving the reader the opportunity to follow the sleuth's thoughts and drawing attention to certain points that the reader himself might miss. Classic examples of such companions are Dr. Watson in Conan Doyle and Arthur Hastings in Agatha Christie.
A consultant is a person who has a pronounced ability to conduct an investigation, but is not directly involved in it himself. In detective stories where a separate figure of a consultant stands out, she may be the main one (for example, the journalist Ksenofontov in the detective stories of Viktor Pronin), or may turn out to be just an occasional adviser (for example, the detective's teacher, whom he turns to for help).
Assistant - does not conduct the investigation himself, but provides the detective and / or consultant with information that he obtains himself. For example, a forensic expert.
Suspect - in the course of the investigation, there is an assumption that it was he who committed the crime. Authors deal with suspects differently, one of the frequently practiced principles is “none of those immediately suspected is a real criminal”, that is, everyone who falls under suspicion turns out to be innocent, and the real criminal is the one who was not suspected of anything. . However, not all authors follow this principle. In Agatha Christie's detective stories, for example, Miss Marple repeatedly says that "in life it is usually the one who is suspected first who is the culprit."

Detective Story

Edgar Allan Allan Poe stories written in the 1840s are usually considered the first works of the detective genre, but elements of the detective story were used by many authors earlier. For example, in the novel by William Godwin (-) "The Adventures of Caleb Williams" (), one of the central characters is an amateur detective. A great influence on the development of detective literature was also made by E. Vidocq's "Notes", published in. However, it was Edgar Poe who, according to Yeremey Parnov, created the first Great Detective - the amateur detective Dupin from the story "Murder on Morgue Street". Dupin subsequently fathered Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown (Chesterton), Lecoq (Gaboriau) and Mr Cuff (Wilkie Collins). It was Edgar Allan Poe who introduced into the plot of the detective story the idea of rivalry in solving a crime between a private investigator and the official police, in which the private investigator, as a rule, takes over.

The detective genre becomes popular in England after the release of W. Collins' novels The Woman in White () and The Moonstone (). In the novels Wilder's Hand () and Checkmate () by the Irish writer C. Le Fanu, the detective story is combined with the gothic novel. The golden age of the detective in England is considered to be the 30s - 70s. 20th century. It was at this time that the classic detective novels by Agatha Christie, F. Biding and other authors were published, which influenced the development of the genre as a whole.

The founder of the French detective is E. Gaborio - the author of a series of novels about the detective Lecoq. Stevenson imitated Gaboriau in his detective stories (especially in "The Diamond of the Rajah").

Twenty rules for writing detective stories

In 1928 English writer Willard Hattington, better known by his pseudonym Stephen Van Dyne, published his set of literary rules, calling it "The 20 Rules for Writing Detectives":

1. It is necessary to provide the reader with equal opportunities with the detective to unravel the mysteries, for which purpose it is necessary to clearly and accurately report all incriminating traces.

2. With regard to the reader, only such tricks and deceit are allowed that a criminal can use in relation to a detective.

3. Love is forbidden. The story should be a game of tag, not between lovers, but between a detective and a criminal.

4. Neither a detective nor any other professional investigator can be a criminal.

5. Logical conclusions should lead to exposure. Random or unsubstantiated confessions are not allowed.

6. A detective cannot be absent in a detective who methodically searches for incriminating evidence, as a result of which he comes to solve the riddle.

7. Mandatory crime in detective - murder.

8. In solving a given mystery, all supernatural forces and circumstances must be excluded.

9. Only one detective can act in a story - the reader cannot compete with three or four members of the relay team at once.

10. The perpetrator must be one of the most or least significant actors well known to the reader.

11. An impermissibly cheap solution in which one of the servants is the culprit.

12. Although the perpetrator may have an accomplice, the main story should be about the capture of one person.

13. Secret or criminal communities have no place in the detective.

14. The method of committing the murder and the methodology of the investigation must be reasonable and justified from a scientific point of view.

15. For a smart reader, the clue should be obvious.

16. In a detective story there is no place for literature, descriptions of painstakingly developed characters, coloring the situation by means of fiction.

17. The criminal can never be a professional villain.

19. The motive for a crime is always of a private nature, it cannot be a spy action seasoned with any international intrigues, motives of secret services.

The decade that followed the promulgation of the terms of the Van Dyne Convention finally discredited the detective story as a genre of literature. It is no coincidence that we know the detectives of previous eras well and each time we turn to their experience. But we can hardly, without getting into reference books, name the figures from the Twenty Rules clan. The modern Western detective has evolved in spite of Van Dyne, refuting point by point, overcoming the limitations that have been sucked from the finger. One paragraph (the detective must not be a criminal!), however, survived, although it was violated several times by the cinema. This is a reasonable prohibition, because it protects the very specifics of the detective, his core line ... In the modern novel, we will not see even traces of the "Rules" ...

The Ten Commandments of a detective novel by Ronald Knox

Ronald Knox, one of the founders of the Detective Club, also proposed his own rules for writing detective stories:

I. The perpetrator must be someone mentioned at the beginning of the novel, but it must not be the person whose thought the reader has been allowed to follow.

II. As a matter of course, the action of supernatural or otherworldly forces is excluded.

III. It is not allowed to use more than one secret room or secret passage.

IV. It is unacceptable to use hitherto unknown poisons, as well as devices that require a long scientific explanation at the end of the book.

V. A Chinese person must not appear in the work.

VI. A detective should never be helped by a lucky break; nor should he be guided by an unaccountable but sure intuition.

VII. The detective doesn't have to turn out to be a criminal himself.

VIII. Having come across this or that clue, the detective must immediately present it to the reader for study.

IX. The detective's foolish friend, Watson in one form or another, must not hide any of the considerations that cross his mind; in terms of his mental abilities, he should be slightly inferior - but only very slightly - to the average reader.

X. Indistinguishable twin brothers and doubles in general cannot appear in a novel unless the reader is properly prepared for it.

Some types of detectives

Closed Detective

Cyril Hare, "Purely English Murder".
Agatha Christie, Ten Little Indians, Murder on the Orient Express.
Boris Akunin, "Leviathan" (signed by the author as "sealed detective").
Leonid Slovin, "The Extra Arrives on the Second Track".

Psychological detective

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment.
Boileau - Narsezhak, "She-wolves", "The one that was gone", "Sea Gate", "Outlining the Heart".
Japrisot, Sebastien, "Lady with glasses and a gun in a car."
Calef, Noel, "Elevator to the scaffold".
Ball, John, "A Stuffy Night in the Carolinas".

historical detective

Main article: historical detective

Historical work with detective intrigue. The action takes place in the past, or an ancient crime is being investigated in the present.

Boileau-Narcejac "In the Enchanted Forest"
Quinn, Ellery "The Unknown Manuscript of Dr. Watson"
Boris Akunin, Literary project "The Adventures of Erast Fandorin"
Leonid Yuzefovich, Literary project about detective Putilin
Alexander Bushkov, The Adventures of Alexei Bestuzhev

Ironic detective

The detective investigation is described from a humorous point of view. Often, works written in this vein parody and ridicule the clichés of a detective novel.

Varshavsky, Ilya, "The robbery will take place at midnight"
Kaganov, Leonid, "Major Bogdamir saves money"
Kozachinsky, Alexander, "The Green Van"
Westlake, Donald, "The Cursed Emerald" ( hot stone), "Bank that gurgled"
Joanna Khmelevskaya (most works)
Daria Dontsova (all works)
Yene Reite (all works)

fantasy detective

Works at the intersection of fantasy and detective. The action can take place in the future, an alternative present or past, as well as in a completely fictional world.

Lem, Stanislav, "Investigation", "Inquiry"
Russell, Eric Frank, "The Daily Job", "The Wasp"
Holm van Zaychik, "There are no bad people" cycle
Kir Bulychev, cycle "Intergalactic Police" ("Intergpol")
Isaac Asimov, Lucky Starr cycles - space ranger, Detective Elijah Bailey and robot Daniel Olivo
John Brunner, Chess City Squares The Squares of the City, ; Russian translation - )
Brothers Strugatsky, Hotel "At the Dead Alpinist"
Cook, Glenn, fantasy detective series about detective Garrett
Randall Garrett, a series of fantasy detectives about the detective Lord Darcy
Boris Akunin "Children's Book"
Kluger, Daniel, Fantasy Detective Series "Cases of Magic"
Harry Tortledove - The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

political detective

One of the genres quite far from the classic detective. The main intrigue is built around political events and rivalry between various political or business figures and forces. It also often happens that the protagonist himself is far from politics, however, investigating the case, he stumbles upon an obstacle to the investigation on the part of the "powers that be" or reveals some kind of conspiracy. A distinctive feature of the political detective is (although not necessarily) the possible absence of completely positive characters, except for the main one. This genre is rarely found in its pure form, but it can be an integral part of the work.

Levashov, Victor, "Conspiracy of Patriots"
Adam Hall, "Berlin Memorandum" (Quiller Memorandum)
Fletcher Niebel, "Seven Days in May"
Nikolai Svechin, "The Hunt for the Tsar", "Demon of the Underworld"

Spy detective

Based on the narrative of the activities of intelligence officers, spies and saboteurs both in wartime and in peacetime on the "invisible front". In terms of stylistic boundaries, it is very close to political and conspiracy detectives, often combined in the same work. The main difference between a spy detective and a political one is that in a political detective the most important position is occupied by the political basis of the case under investigation and antagonistic conflicts, while in espionage the attention is focused on intelligence work (surveillance, sabotage, etc.). Conspiracy detective can be considered a variety of both espionage and political detective

Agatha Christie, "Cat Among the Pigeons"
John Boynton Priestley, "Mist over Gretley" (1942)
James Grady, Six Days of the Condor
Dmitry Medvedev, "It was near Rovno"
Nikolai Dalekiy, "The Practice of Sergei Rubtsov"

police detective

Describes the work of a team of professionals. In works of this type, the protagonist-detective is either absent, or only slightly higher in importance in comparison with the rest of the team members. In terms of the reliability of the plot, it is closest to reality and, accordingly, deviates to the greatest extent from the canons of the pure detective genre (the professional routine is described in detail with details that are not directly related to the plot, there is a significant proportion of accidents and coincidences, the presence of informants in criminal and near-criminal environment, the perpetrator often remains unnamed and unknown until the very end of the investigation, and may also escape punishment due to the negligence of the investigation or lack of direct evidence).

Schöwall and Vale, a series of novels about members of the homicide department led by Martin Beck
Yulian Semyonov, "Petrovka, 38", "Ogaryova, 6"
Kivinov, Andrei Vladimirovich, "A Nightmare on Stachek Street" and subsequent works.

"Cool" detective

It is described most often by a lone detective, a man of thirty-five or forty, or a small detective agency. In works of this type, the protagonist confronts almost the whole world: organized crime, corrupt politicians, corrupt police. The main features are the maximum action of the hero, his "coolness", the vile surrounding world and the honesty of the protagonist. The best examples of the genre are psychological and contain signs of serious literature - for example, the works of Raymond Chandler.

Dashiell Hammett, Continental Series detective agency, "Bloody Harvest" - is considered the founder of the genre.
Raymond Chandler, "Goodbye Darling", "High Window", "The Woman in the Lake".
Ross Macdonald - many works.
Chester Hayims, "Run, Negro, run."

Crime detective

Events are described from the point of view of the criminal, and not the people looking for him. Classic example Storyline: Jim Thompson "The Killer in Me"

James Hadley Chase - "All the World in Your Pocket"

Movie detective

Detective focuses on the actions of a detective, private investigator, or aspiring detective investigating the mysterious circumstances of a crime by finding clues, investigating, and skillful deductions. Successful Detective film often hides the identity of the perpetrator until the end of the story, and then adds an element of surprise to the process of arresting a suspect. However, the opposite is also possible. So, calling card The Colombo series was a demonstration of events from the point of view of both the detective and the criminal.

The suspense is often retained as an important part of the plot. This can be done with soundtrack, camera angles, shadow play and unexpected plot twists. Alfred Hitchcock used all these techniques, occasionally allowing the viewer to enter into a state of foreboding threat and then choosing the most opportune moment for dramatic effect.

Detective stories have proven to be a good choice for a movie script. The detective is often a strong character with strong leadership qualities, and the plot may include elements of drama, suspense, personal growth, ambiguity and unexpected distinctive features character.

Until at least the 1980s, women in detective stories often played a dual role, having a relationship with the detective and often playing the role of "woman in danger". The women in those films are often resourceful personalities, being opinionated, determined and often duplicitous. They can serve as an element of suspense as helpless victims.

Aphorisms about the detective

Thanks to criminals World culture enriched by the detective genre.
If you do not know what to write, write: "A man entered with a revolver in his hand."(Raymond Chandler)
The slower the investigator, the longer the detective story. (

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