Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—either professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by American crime fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and the name of their main fictional character, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murders. Dannay and Lee wrote most of the more than thirty novels and several short story collections in which Ellery Queen appeared as a character, and their books were among the most popular of American mysteries published between 1929 and 1971. In addition to the fiction featuring their eponymous brilliant amateur detective, the two men acted as editors: as Ellery Queen they edited more than thirty anthologies of crime fiction and true crime, and Dannay founded and for many decades edited Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which has been published continuously from 1941 to the present. From 1961, Dannay and Lee also commissioned other authors to write crime thrillers using the Ellery Queen nom de plume, but not featuring Ellery Queen as a character; several juvenile novels were credited to Ellery Queen, Jr. Finally, the prolific duo wrote four mysteries under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross.
Diane Mott Davidson is an American author of mystery novels that use the theme of food, an idea she got from Robert B. Parker. Several recipes are included in each book, and each novel title is a play on a food or drink word. Her story, "Cold Turkey", won the 1993 Anthony Award for "Best Short-story".
Otto Penzler is an American editor of mystery fiction, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.
Toni LP Kelner is an author of three mystery series: the eight Laura Fleming novels and related short stories; the Where Are They Now? series, which includes three novels and a forthcoming short story; and the Family Skeleton series, which consists of six books with a seventh forthcoming. She has also edited seven urban fantasy anthologies with Charlaine Harris. Many Bloody Returns,Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, and Home Improvement: Undead Edition were on the extended New York Times best seller list, and Death's Excellent Vacation debuted at #8 on the NYT list. Kelner has written a number of short stories in anthologies and magazines. Her most recent is "Now Hiring Nasty Girlz".
Charlaine Harris Schulz is an American author who specializes in mysteries. She is best known for her book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries, which was adapted as the TV series True Blood. The television show was a critical and financial success for HBO, running seven seasons, from 2008 through 2014. A number of her books have been bestsellers and this series was translated into multiple languages and published across the globe.
Jim Butcher is an American author. He has written the contemporary fantasy The Dresden Files, Codex Alera and Cinder Spires book series.
Carolyn Hart is an American mystery author who specializes in traditional mysteries, also known as cozy mysteries. She was born in Oklahoma in 1936.
The Revolution: A Manifesto is a New York Times #1 best seller by Republican former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul. The work was published on April 30, 2008 by Grand Central Publishing. According to Paul, the book is based on written notes during his 2008 presidential campaign.
A Beautiful Blue Death, by Charles Finch, is the first novel in a series of mysteries featuring Victorian gentleman and amateur detective Charles Lenox.
April Henry is an American New York Times bestselling author of mysteries, thrillers, and young adult novels.
Craig Allen Johnson is an American author who writes mystery novels. He is best known for his Sheriff Walt Longmire novel series. The books are set in northern Wyoming, where Longmire is sheriff of the fictional county of Absaroka. The series debuted in 2004 and as of September 2019, Johnson has written 15 novels, two novellas, and many short stories featuring Longmire. Some of the novels have been on The New York Times Best Seller list. In 2012, Warner Horizon adapted the novels for a television series. Johnson lives at a ranch where he built a residence in the small town of Ucross, Wyoming—population 25.
Brad Parks is an American author of mystery novels and thrillers. He is the winner of the 2010 and 2014 Shamus Award, the 2010 Nero Award and the 2013 and 2014 Lefty Award. He is the only author to have won all three of those awards. He writes both standalone domestic suspense novels and a series featuring investigative reporter Carter Ross, who covers crime for a fictional newspaper The Newark Eagle-Examiner, based in Newark, New Jersey. His novels are known for mixing humor with the gritty realism of their urban setting. Library Journal has called him "a gifted storyteller ."
Joan Hess was an American mystery writer, a member of Sisters in Crime, and a former president of the American Crime Writers League. She wrote two popular mystery series: The Claire Malloy Mysteries and The Maggody Mysteries, and has contributed to multiple anthologies and book series, including: Crosswinds, Deadly Allies, Malice Domestic, Sisters in Crime, and The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. She also wrote the Theo Bloomer mystery series, under the pseudonym Joan Hadley.
For the silversmith and Nashville mayor, see J. T. Elliston.
Alex Grecian is an American author of short fiction, novels, comic books, and graphic novels. His notable works include the comic book series Proof and the novels in the Scotland Yard's Murder Squad series: The Yard, The Black Country, The Devil's Workshop, The Harvest Man, Lost and Gone Forever, and The Blue Girl. He has been nominated for the Strand Award for Best Debut Novel for The Yard, The Dilys Award for The Black Country, and the Barry Award for Best First Novel for The Yard. He was also the recipient of an Inkpot Award in 2018 and of the Kansas Notable Book Awards from the State Library of Kansas for The Yard, The Black Country, and The Devil's Workshop.
Jennifer Chow or Jennifer J. Chow, is an American writer and novelist. She is the Lefty Award-nominated author of the Sassy Cat Mysteries. The first in the Sassy Cat series, Mimi Lee Gets A Clue, was selected as an Overdrive Recommended Read; a PopSugar Best Summer Beach Read; staff picks for Changing Hands Bookstore, Escondido Library, and Richland Library; and as one of BuzzFeed's Top 5 Books by AAPI authors. Chow has also published other Asian-American novels involving secrets and mysteries. She's active in Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Color, and Mystery Writers of America.
Where the Crawdads Sing is a 2018 novel by American author Delia Owens. It has topped The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2019 and The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2020 for a combined 32 non-consecutive weeks. As of late January 2021, the book has spent 124 weeks on the best seller list. The story follows two timelines that slowly intertwine. The first timeline describes the life and adventures of a young girl named Kya as she grows up isolated in the marsh of North Carolina from 1952 to 1969. The second timeline follows a murder investigation of Chase Andrews, a local celebrity of Barkley Cove, a fictional coastal town of North Carolina. The book was selected for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club in September 2018 and for Barnes & Noble's Best Books of 2018. By December 2019, the book had sold over 4.5 million copies, and it sold more print copies in 2019 than any other adult title, fiction or non-fiction. It was also No. 1 for 2019 on Amazon.com's list of Most Sold Books in fiction. In late December 2020, The New York Times listed it as the #6 hardcover bestseller that year.
Clea Simon is an American writer. She is the author of World Enough, a psychological suspense thriller set in the Boston music scene, and the Blackie and Care, Theda Krakow, Dulcie Schwartz, Pru Marlowe, and Witch Cats of Cambridge cozy feline mysteries. Her non-fiction books include Madhouse: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings, Fatherless Daughters and Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection between Women and Cats.
Dear Martin, published in 2017 by Crown Publishing Group, is a young adult novel by Nic Stone. It is Stone's debut novel, written as a reaction to the murder of Jordan Davis. The book appeared as #4 on The New York Times Best Seller list.
