Shōtarō Ikenami’s newly translated novel is steeped in mystery, legend and the tensions of blood kin.
Articles on Detective fiction
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Can stories about detectives from days gone by help students learn to think more critically? An English lecturer provides clues through a course that features novels about sleuths from a bygone era.
Sugar: An Ethnographic Novel is an elegant and intimate portrayal of everyday life in Fiji, deeply honest about the struggles and inequalities beneath the image of a tourist paradise.
Looking for a good crime read? Our experts recommend these page-turners by writers from Italy, Japan, Israel, New Zealand and Finland.
Agatha Christie never explicitly said so, but many of her Belgian detective’s character traits could be interpreted as being autistic.
Arthur Conan Doyle wasn’t the only author spinning tales of cunning detectives.
English professor Frannie Thorstin gets tangled in a sticky web of male attention in the novel and film versions of In the Cut as she tries to sort the bad guys from the good.
Created in response to Sherlock Holmes, detective Martin Hewitt is less operatic and more pragmatic.
Just when you think you’ve had enough of detectives behaving badly, along comes Claire DeWitt. She is, frankly, a beautifully written mess.
Created by a prolific French author, Inspector Jules Maigret observes without judgement and moves like a chameleon between social classes.
While other superheroes draw on past trauma for strength, super-detective Jessica Jones wryly bares her wounds and questions the whole hero gig.
The Inspector Morse prequel series reveals a less certain younger detective, finding his feet but not yet set in his ways.
Sam Spade only appeared in one novel. But he left his mark, with the help of the Hollywood legend who portrayed him.
Trixie Belden wasn’t as pretty as her best friend, or a cool as Nancy Drew. But she had a ‘mental computer’ for solving mysteries and a non-judgmental moral core.
Kevin Brophy’s favourite detective — Kurt Wallander — has aged just ahead of him, made mistakes and lived vividly.
The ‘tough guy’ is a cultural archetype that political leaders have long adopted. But during crises, Americans tend to look for a different kind of hero.
Novelist Emily Bernhard Jackson has identified an important gap in contemporary crime fiction: middle-aged women detectives.
Top contributors
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Professor, English and Literary Studies, The University of Western Australia
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Associate Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, Monash University
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Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne
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Visiting Senior Fellow in English and Creative Writing, University of Suffolk
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Lecturer in English, University of Exeter
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Associate Professor of Media, Macquarie University
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A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, The University of Melbourne
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Distinguished Professor Emerita of Creative Practice, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra
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Associate Professor in Creative Writing, Griffith University
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Honorary Research Professor, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University
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Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Georgetown University
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Assistant Professor of 19th-century literature, Trinity College Dublin
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Lecturer, UNSW
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Senior Lecturer, Media Studies and Production, University of Southern Queensland