Explain the characteristics of a detective novel

The story of the detective novel

The detective novel, the name of which is derived from the Latin word crimen for crime, is very popular with readers. Its beginnings go back a long way.

• Crime stories have always excited people who story However, the actual crime novel begins in the 18th Century. It was then that writers, including Daniel Defoe, began to literarily work on criminal cases on the basis of existing trial files.
• While on the one hand sophisticated crime stories, in Germany about 1820 E. T. A. Hoffman's "Fräulein von Scudéri", developed on the other side of the trivial detective novel.
• Detective novels were therefore long regarded as little-recognized trivial literature, especially in Germany. In the meantime, this assessment has also changed in this country.

The characteristics of a crime novel

• If you want to explain the characteristics of a detective novel, you must first know that detective novels can be divided into numerous sub-genres. These include the detective crime stories, in which a detective rather than a police officer investigates - the most famous crime detective is likely to be Sherlock Holmes - the thrillers and regional crime stories.
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Features of a crime story - this is how you can find out

In good crime stories, not only do crimes take place, but they are used for ...

• Because there are different sub-genres of the detective novel and also the demarcation from others Literary genres is not always clearly possible, there are only a few characteristics that apply to all Detectives apply.
• In any case, you can cite as a characteristic that, as a rule, a crime has taken place that needs to be investigated. However, the “investigator” can be a police officer as well as a private detective or a private person.
• In a crime thriller, the crime usually doesn't just appear on the sidelines as an insignificant event, but rather plays one more or less central role and the perpetrator, victim or investigator are also more or less central Characters. Accordingly, solving the crime usually also plays an important role.
• The reader generally expects a crime thriller to be exciting, but the degree of tension within the genre plays a different role. While a thriller should create a lot of tension, other aspects are more important in a literary detective novel Foreground, for example the representation of social conditions and often a more sophisticated writing and Linguistic style. However, a certain tension is definitely a feature of the detective novel.

Even if not too many clear criteria can be named, it is not that difficult to explain the characteristics of the detective novel to someone.