Skip to main content

Posts

The First Detectives in Fiction

In the history of humanity, the complexity of solving riddles of big crimes, ordinary felonies, and even simple misdemeanors in growing western society has become more difficult with the fast development of large cities of the 19th century. This was the time when first detective agencies were founded, initially in Paris by Eugène François Vidocq, convicted criminal who, in his inspirational life, switched the side of the law and turned into criminalist career, followed by 'Bow Street Runners', the very first police detective force in London and first detective units in Boston and Chicago with Allan Pinkerton, famous owner of the most memorable private detective agency in the history of United States. There is no doubt that many actual events from western criminology from the early 19th century heavily influenced first modern detective stories from the time. The very first one in this genre is widely attributed to Edgar Allan Poe and his short story "The Murders in th...