Detective, Police, or Whodunit novel is a literary genre within the novel.
- Protagonist: Usually a private investigator (Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Pendergast), a journalist (Gálvez), a lawyer (Perry Mason), or an amateur criminologist (Miss Marple, Father Brown). They investigate a single event or a series of occurrences by interviewing the involved characters or examining evidence and clues of the crime.
- The resolution of the mystery is the primary objective.
- Plot development is almost mathematical. It is characterized by solving enigmas through clues and pieces that must fit together using an intellectualized and psychological formula. It often unfolds in indoor settings and within higher social strata.
- Creation of the genre: Edgar Allan Poe with The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1842-43), and The Purloined Letter (1844). His detective, Auguste Dupin, served as the model for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. The latter, along with Agatha Christie and others, forged the English school of the detective novel.
Noir Fiction (Novela Negra) owes its name to its origins in publication, appearing in Black Mask magazine in the U.S. and in the Série Noire collection from a French publisher.
- The resolution of the mystery is not the primary objective.
- Plot development usually takes place in lower social classes and within very violent environments. The atmosphere is stifling—marked by fear, violence, injustice, insecurity, and political corruption. It serves as a reflection of early 20th-century society: the post-WWI crisis and the Great Depression of 1929 gave rise to police stories inspired by Prohibition. It is not as intellectual or inquisitive as British detective narratives.
- Dissemination: Originally spread through magazines printed on cheap “pulp” paper to reach a working-class or proletarian audience.
- Creation of the genre: Carroll John Daly with his detective Race Williams; Dashiell Hammett with detectives Nick Charles and Sam Spade and his novels Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, and The Dain Curse. Raymond Chandler with his detective Philip Marlowe, the protagonist of The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye.