Lucy Worsley's The Art of the English Murder is
a fascinating look at how the detective novel was born from crime
reporting, and how, eventually, detective fiction gave way to the darker
American-style thriller of the Cold War era. Here, Worsley picks the 10
best fictional detectives.
Around the
turn of the nineteenth century, Britons were flooding from the
countryside into towns and cities. Their lives were safer now from
nature and its dangers — famine, wild animals, disease. Their thoughts
turned instead to the stranger living next door. Who was he? What might
he do? Could he be a murderer, like the criminals who filled the pages
of the cheap newspapers they read?
And so crowded cities like London needed a new professional: the
detective. He, or she, was a super-hero for the age. In their scary new
urban world, the Victorians found it reassuring to read about crimes
being solved and justice served, which is why so many of our great
fictional detectives were birthed during that period. Here is a list of
the best of them.
What do you think?
