7 writers who are deservedly considered the best authors of detective stories

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Authors of detective novels have the ability to combine psychological tension and mystery with cold facts in their works. The best authors have been writing incredibly complex and exciting detective stories for decades, creating images of the most popular characters, whose adventures readers follow from book to book. In our today's review, we suggest recalling the best authors of detective stories, recognized and loved all over the world.

Agatha Christie

The English writer and playwright is known for her detective novels, most of which revolved around Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. In addition, Agatha Christie has released several psychological novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott and has published many collections of detective stories. The play "The Mousetrap", based on a play originally written for the radio, became the record holder for the largest number of theatrical performances. For her special contribution to literature, Agatha Christie was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971.

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Arthur Conan Doyle

The British writer was originally a practicing physician, and began writing his first stories while he was studying at the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine. True, Blackwood's Magazine refused to publish the first story, The True Ghost Story of Gorsthorpe Manor, and the first published work was The Mystery of the Sassass Valley, published on September 6, 1879 in Chambers' Edinburgh magazine. Arthur Conan Doyle became famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The writer was very prolific, and his bibliography, in addition to detective stories, includes fantastic and sci-fi stories about Professor Challenger, humorous stories about Brigadier Gerard, and also plays, romances, historical novels.

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Edgar Allan Poe

The American writer, editor and literary critic is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. Edgar Allan Poe is known as the central figure of romanticism in the United States and in American literature in general. Poems and short stories, especially those related to mysticism and horror, brought him popularity. He became one of the first Americans to provide themselves exclusively with writing.

Earl Stanley Gardner

American lawyer and writer has worked in various literary genres. He wrote novels and plays, and published a series of popular science books, including stories about his travels in different regions of Mexico. Earl Stanley Gardner achieved the greatest popularity thanks to his character Perry Mason, a practicing lawyer from Los Angeles. The writer has released 82 novels with this literary hero and 4 more stories. At the time of his death in 1970, Earl Stanley Gardner was the best-selling author of the 20th century.

Georges Simenon

His first novel about Commissar Magra "Peter Lettysh" was published back in 1929, and his famous author wrote it in just six days. At the same time, the publisher, who had previously published his works, reproached his author for the fact that his detective was not able to captivate the public. However, as it turned out later, he was deeply mistaken. And the cycle of novels about the commissar Maigret has become one of the most beloved and read in the world. Perhaps it was precisely because each book was not like the works of this genre of other authors. Perhaps the success was due to Maigret's favorite theory, according to which a person lives inside every villain and swindler.

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Rex Stout

The American writer has published more than 70 works, the hero of which was his character: a detective, a couch potato, a lover of delicious food and an intellectual Nero Wolfe, with whom his personal secretary and assistant Archie Goodwin invariably turned out. All in all, Rex Stout wrote more than 500 novels, won the 1959 American Grand Master Detective Writers' Award, was nominated for the title of the best detective author of the century at the annual convention of creators and fans of detective stories and detective fiction Bouchercon XXXI. In addition, Rex Stout was a prominent public figure, served as head of the Writers' War Council during World War II, led the Authors Guild, and sought to reform international copyright law.

James Headley Chase

Rene Brabazon Raymond (real name of the writer) became the most famous thriller and detective writer of all time. He earned the fame of the king of thriller in Europe and became one of the best-selling writers in the world. 50 books of the author were filmed. From the age of 18, he was forced to go on an independent voyage, leaving home. The future famous writer began with a job in sales, mainly specializing in literature. The writer was inspired to create the first detective novel by James M. Kane's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. Then Rene Brabazon Raymond realized that there is a demand in society for interesting gangster stories. Already in 1939, the first novel of the writer, "No Orchids for Miss Blandish," was published, which became one of the best-selling books of the decade, opening the way for the author to fame and fortune.

We are sometimes amazed at the imagination of the authors of action-packed novels, forgetting that the most brilliant screenwriter and director is our life. However, the authors themselves remember this very well, therefore plots of many famous detectives are taken from real criminal cases, and many famous literary heroes, both criminals and detectives, have prototypes.