Crime Novel

A crime novel is the literary genre about crime stories. The action consists in a survey conducted by a private detective or a policeman that solves different cases with specific forensic methods. The action is complete and the protagonist usually follows and tries to discover multiple clues to detect the criminals and their motives. The first modern crime novel was written by Edgar Allan Poe and the name was 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'.

The absolute master of crimes and mystery books remains Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of detective Sherlock Holmes, assisted in most of his stories by Dr. Watson. Besides the popular books with Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the author of numerous science fiction stories, historical novels, plays, romance novels, poetry and texts directly inspired from reality.

Doyle was convinced of the veracity of the photos of Cottingley fairy tales, captured by him in some photos he had reproduced in 'The Coming of The Fairies', together with theories about the existence of fairies and elves. This book was why the Soviet Union banned his collection of stories 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' in 1929 and charged him of occultism. Fortunately the ban lasted for a short time. Doyle was a friend of the American magician Harry Houdini, a leading opponent of the Spiritualist movement. Although Houdini insisted that they use some tricks, Doyle became convinced that Houdini himself possess supernatural powers and expressed his view in his book the 'The Edge of the Unknown'.

Bored of the success of the series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decided in December 1893 to 'kill' the detective and devote his attention and writing to historical novels. Holmes 'dies' in a scene where he faces Professor Moriarty his death enemy. They both jump into a waterfall and find the end the story 'Last Issue'. But the public reacted promptly and Doyle was forced to reconsider its decision. In the story 'The Adventure of the Empty House,' Doyle used an ingenious explanation for the 'revive' of Sherlock Holmes, and wrote that only Moriarty died and Holmes, who had other enemies, preferred to do play dead. Sherlock Holmes is the main character in 56 stories and four novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.