I thought the modern detective story could more or less be said to start with Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, not thinking of Baltimore's Edgar Allan Poe. I have read that the first novel was written by a high-born Japanese lady in about the 1100's, so just for fun, I looked up "detective story" in Google and was sent to "detective fiction". Turns out the Arabs and the Chinese have types of detective stories centuries before our country existed but generally they differ somewhat from our kind of story. You can see something of the Chinese version by downloading "Judge Dee"stories, a Chinese fictional character from the Tang dynasty (600-900 AD). The stories in Amazon Kindle form are composed by a Dutch scholar of Chinese history and literature, using an 18th century Chinese story as a basis.
I have enjoyed many different sorts of detectives, from Tony Hillerman's Navaho policeman Jim Chee to Donna Leon's Commissaire Brunetti of Venice. Of course, we know Miss Marple and that misplaced Belgian Hercule Poirot running around in Britain finding baddies. We have enjoyed the gardeners Rosemary (a botanist) and Thyme (a former policewoman) and the wily Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle as he proceeds to stop badpersons ignoring or actually exploiting the WW II struggle between Germany and Britain.
You can go in many directions with detective stories and it is only natural that strong imaginations would do so after there are more than enough gunshots, more than enough blood and more than enough lies about who did what. I.J. Parker writes about medieval Japan and crimes that need solving and Georges Simenon, another Belgian, wrote many novels about Inspector Maigret, who mostly operated in France. The woman anthropologist who writes under the name Fred Vargas and the Canadian author Louise Penny are in the business as are the many Scandinavians, such as the unsupassed-for-sales, Steig Larsson, the gloomy Hennning Mankell and Helen Thursten. Kwei Quartey MD has written two good reads about Inspector Darko Dawson who tries to make justice prevail in Ghana. There are many others. Probably one for every major city in the world and most occupations.
Like many others, I very much like the tales of Mma Precious Ramotswe, owner of the No. Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana, Africa. Her problems and projects often turn out to be less gruesome and criminal than most fictional detective work, as when the culprits turned out to be a group of baboon vandals. I plan to write a fun and cozy (a genuine technical term for crime stories with less blood and gory descriptions) series featuring an astute and insightful kindergarten teacher and the troubles and puzzles she gets herself into, innocently of course.
Whenever I pay attention to a story, I tend to feel as though I have temporarily become the main character. I have recently gained quite a bit of weight and am now 750 lbs. I am a robot in the future who was built to fight and kill but possesses such sophisticated software that I have nearly qualified for full citizenship in the society of both 'bots and biologicals created by the Texas writer A. Lee Martinez in "The Automatic Detective". I am now quite different from being Tenzing Norbu of the two books by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay, the Tibetan now a detective in L.A., who uses meditation and calming to keep his spirit and strength up.
Sometime, I may get to Eric Garcia's T-rex detective from the group of dinosaurs who faked their extinction and now solve crimes. Whenever I need a laugh, I return to the adventures of the Pink Panther and the highly unskilled and ridiculous Inspector Clouseau.
I have enjoyed many different sorts of detectives, from Tony Hillerman's Navaho policeman Jim Chee to Donna Leon's Commissaire Brunetti of Venice. Of course, we know Miss Marple and that misplaced Belgian Hercule Poirot running around in Britain finding baddies. We have enjoyed the gardeners Rosemary (a botanist) and Thyme (a former policewoman) and the wily Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle as he proceeds to stop badpersons ignoring or actually exploiting the WW II struggle between Germany and Britain.
You can go in many directions with detective stories and it is only natural that strong imaginations would do so after there are more than enough gunshots, more than enough blood and more than enough lies about who did what. I.J. Parker writes about medieval Japan and crimes that need solving and Georges Simenon, another Belgian, wrote many novels about Inspector Maigret, who mostly operated in France. The woman anthropologist who writes under the name Fred Vargas and the Canadian author Louise Penny are in the business as are the many Scandinavians, such as the unsupassed-for-sales, Steig Larsson, the gloomy Hennning Mankell and Helen Thursten. Kwei Quartey MD has written two good reads about Inspector Darko Dawson who tries to make justice prevail in Ghana. There are many others. Probably one for every major city in the world and most occupations.
Like many others, I very much like the tales of Mma Precious Ramotswe, owner of the No. Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana, Africa. Her problems and projects often turn out to be less gruesome and criminal than most fictional detective work, as when the culprits turned out to be a group of baboon vandals. I plan to write a fun and cozy (a genuine technical term for crime stories with less blood and gory descriptions) series featuring an astute and insightful kindergarten teacher and the troubles and puzzles she gets herself into, innocently of course.
Whenever I pay attention to a story, I tend to feel as though I have temporarily become the main character. I have recently gained quite a bit of weight and am now 750 lbs. I am a robot in the future who was built to fight and kill but possesses such sophisticated software that I have nearly qualified for full citizenship in the society of both 'bots and biologicals created by the Texas writer A. Lee Martinez in "The Automatic Detective". I am now quite different from being Tenzing Norbu of the two books by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay, the Tibetan now a detective in L.A., who uses meditation and calming to keep his spirit and strength up.
Sometime, I may get to Eric Garcia's T-rex detective from the group of dinosaurs who faked their extinction and now solve crimes. Whenever I need a laugh, I return to the adventures of the Pink Panther and the highly unskilled and ridiculous Inspector Clouseau.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
