Abstract
We can also see the kind of xenophobic stereotypes that Christie used when we compare her works to detective fiction taken from an entirely different cultural tradition: When we think about the detective novel, we are most likely to see in our mind?s eye Sherlock Holmes?s deerstalker cap or hear the Belgian accents of Hercule Poirot. The genre of detective fiction ? with its traditional elements of the seemingly perfect crime, the wrongly accused suspect at whom circumstantial evidence points (in many cases, the bungling of the dim-witted police (in opposition to the cleverness of the private operator), the astonishing powers of observation and superior mind of the detective, and a startling and unexpected denouement (quite likely taking place in a parlor) in which the detective reveals how the identity of the culprit was ascertained ? seems a quintessentially Western concept.

Tags:Christie, Conrad, detective, stereotype, ethnocentric, detective novel

Abstract
This paper will argue that the key point of similarity between the two forms of detective fiction is the adherence of the authors to a formula. It will be seen that while the adult novels are undeniably more complex than the children's works, both generally present their audiences with the comforting familiarity of formulaic plot and repeating characters.

Abstract
This paper compares of the film version and the literary version of Walter Mosley's novel "Devil in a Blue Dress" to show the differences and similarities between the story elements in "Devil in a Blue Dress," the book and the movie.

From the Paper
"Walter Mosley's book Devil in a Blue Dress and the movie by the same name share some similar literary elements, but there are several vital situations and parts of the book's story that are not present in the film. Yet the movie downplays some of the more brutal parts of the book. "

Tags:Mosely, narrative, brutality, African-American, detective

Abstract
This paper aims at analyzing the 'metaphysical detective story', a genre that twists the conventions of the conventional Holmesian detective stories and slyly leaves philosophical questionings of 'reality', 'truth', 'self' and 'identity' in the texture of the text. The writer observes curious results when postmodernism with its characteristic indeterminacy and chaos is applied on to a genre that hinges on certainty and order. This genre is dissected in the context of three texts - Paul Auster's "City of Glass", Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" and Jorge Louis Borge's "Death and the Compass" where the detectives Daniel Quinn, Christopher Boone and Erik Lonnrot are caught in a perilous world and the case as well as the story is left unfinished. The mystery is never solved and the detective becomes a failure. The paper concludes that these queer consequences raise deeper philosophical questions and raises the detective genre, as a whole, from its 'popular' image to an 'avant garde' form of art.

Outline:

Chapter 1 - "A Cross-Section of the Metaphysical Detective Story". Chapter 2 - "Shattering Expectations: Paul Auster's City of Glass". Chapter 3 - "The Curious Case of a Doomed Detective:An analysis of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time". Chapter 4 - Pursuing the Pursuer: Jorge Louis Borges' "Death and the Compass"
Conclusion

From the Paper
"This new form of detective fiction is extremely self-reflexive where the author constantly reminds the reader of the construction and physicality of the text itself. It is metalinguistic in the sense that the text often critiques the linguistic medium that it employs and undermines its worth showing it incapable of fully constructing and conveying reality. This postmodern genre involves not only the detective figuring out what his purpose is in the text, but what his relationship to the author of the text is. Fictional boundaries are often transgressed and there is constant intermixing of the real with the fictional. The real world merges into the fictional world to the extent of being almost undistinguishable from one another, where, at times, the author himself (and other real life characters) enters into the fabric of the text and assumes the role of a character. At times he himself becomes one of the suspects. He creates a world where identities are not fixed. The detective fails to identify individuals, misinterprets texts and gets confounded and defeated at every step. In this kind of story, one character may have multiple identities and names."

Tags:Sherlock Holmes, sub-genre detection parody intertextuality self-reflexivity hermeneutics interpretation ontological

Abstract
The paper discusses how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Sign of Four" uses the landscape and atmosphere specific only to London in order to create a setting with the tension and mystery necessary for his detective novel. The paper describes how Doyle parallels the reflective atmosphere of London weather and the busy yet romantic nature of the city with the nature of Holmes' and Watson's unraveling mystery.

From the Paper
"Doyle parallels the reflective atmosphere of London weather with the nature of Holmes' and Watson's unraveling mystery; his use of pathetic fallacy is made possible only by London's temperamental weather, by its unpredictable gloom and sporadic spurts of sun. In the opening of the story, Holmes is without a case, and the weather is an instant reflection of Holmes' disposition. He is quick to moan about the bleak climate of London, saying "Stand at the window. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material?" (20 Doyle). Unoccupied by an unsolved puzzle, the Doyle uses London's weather to mirror Holmes' disheartening view of the world."

Tags:weather, crime, masses, romance, Watson, Miss, Morstan, atmosphere, tension

Abstract
This paper provides three short essays that relate to the topic of mystery and detection novels and film noir. The paper looks at the hard boiled detective found in these genres. The paper refers to the work of Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, Walter Mosley and others, as well as to select films.

From the Paper
"The novels of Raymond Chandler, hard-boiled detective fiction in the vein of Dashiel Hammett focus on the experiences of detective Philip Marlowe. If Chandler's novels featuring Marlowe like "The Big Sleep" have a moral, the moral appears to be that there are intelligent and stupid criminals and law enforcement officials and those that are the most intelligent usually wind up victorious."

Tags:Raymond Chandler, film noir, Dashiel Hammett, Walter Mosley, Ross MacDonald, hard boiled detective, myth of America

Abstract
In this article, the writer maintains that the twenties and thirties supported the proliferation of pulp detective fiction and that William Faulkner wrote novels and film to cash in. The writer studies Faulkner's work "Sanctuary" and compares the plot and writing style in this novel to Faulkner's other more literary titles. The writer discusses that in a sense "Sanctuary" ridicules the public interest in the sordid underbelly of American society of the Twenties. The writer maintains that Faulkner intended to pander to the commercial interests of the reading public, which were cheap and seedy, licentious and voyeuristic.

From the Paper
"These stories featured a private investigator or detective and the single plot movement for which the detective novel is well known today. Perhaps most importantly, The Maltese Falcon went into print in 1929, two years before Faulkner published Sanctuary. Clearly, current trends indicated the reading public's fascination with detectives, true crime, and criminal exploitation. And today, we still love it.
"A singleness of plot is a key characteristic in detective fiction. What this means is that the plot does not deviate from those elements that circulate around the crime and the detection process. This is why crime novels such as those mentioned earlier are often described as bleak, boiled down or sparse."
The Roaring Twenties saw a rise in public fascination with notorious figures such as Al Capone, Bugsy Segal and Jimmy Walker. The introduction of radio, tabloid newspapers and magazines helped fuel American's interest in the gangster underworld revolving around Prohibition. Automobiles and telephones helped increase access to gossip and stories and even some of the same places the gangsters frequented. Certainly one cultural phenomenon (public interest in true crime) inspired the other (tabloid newspapers and magazines). A social decadence surfaced.

Tags:pulp, fiction, detective, novel, roaring, twenties

Abstract
This paper looks at the hero detectives Sherlock Holmes and considers if there is a possibility he suffered from an obsessive disorder problem. It also discusses the Holmes' stories and certain aspects of his adversaries. Also examined is the story "The Hound of the Baskervilles" with a discussion on the setting of the actual scene within the novel and how the literature and atmosphere of the time along with the views and ideals of those reading the novel are affected by the atmosphere and descriptions of the authors? words. Also discussed are the "Stories of the Sussex Vampyre" and the "Final Problem".

From the Paper
"Sherlock Holmes is known through out the world as the model private detective, or as he is described a consulting detective since the first pages of a Study in Scarlet were published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887. Arthur Conan Doyle the creator of Britian's Master Sleuth wrote sixty original stories on Holmes' adventures, of these sixty, fifty six were short stories and four were full
To many Sherlock Holmes is the key man in any adventure story as he battles the menaces of evil using his superpowers that are purely based on his own observances and deductions, Holmes' methods can be learned by any person with a mind to open his eyes and use all of his senses rather than just what he thinks he sees."

Tags:detective, hero, moriarty, watson, murder, england

Abstract
This paper explains that Orhan Pamuk's 2002 novel "My Name is Red" illustrates the culture clash during the late 16th century between Islam and the West, both on an artistic level and on a personal and philosophical level. The paper describes the cultures of each tradition and Pamuk's writing style, which, according to the paper, does not show favoritism to either culture. The paper praises this novel but underscores that the reader must remember that "My Name is Red" is a modern version of the past, which is intrinsically from Pamuk's perspective.

From the Paper
"Blindness and self-mutilation are an annihilation of the self, unlike the ethos of the Western, Frankish style. The lack of self-idealization in Islam is one instructive aspect of this work to the modern reader, as it helps illuminate some of the reasons for an East-West culture clash, and actions on the part of Islamic fundamentalists that may seem inexplicable. "It was Satan who adopted a style." But Pamuk's techniques force the reader to come to the conclusion that an artistic identity must fuse both past and present, have some flexibility and personal style, yet innovate with the demands of modernity terms of the way tradition is presented."

Tags:faith, miniaturist art, voices characters, detective story

Abstract
This paper discusses how "The Sign of Four" is a novel that exemplifies many of the conventions of the classical detective genre. The paper looks at how, the latter passage of Jonathan Small's confession, inparticular, is effective because it represents many of these conventions. Of these, this paper addresses the conventions of the denouement, the deductive method of discovery, the 'villain' and morality, and the setting. It also analyses the effectiveness of the passage, and of the novel as a whole, in relation to Conan Doyle's use of classical detective fiction conventions.

From the Paper
"Sherlock Holmes' comment in the passage of "there is nothing at all new to me" implies that Holmes' was fully aware of the particulars of the case, despite not being the one to present the denouement. It appears apparent that Holmes knew the particulars of the case when he held the feast with Dr. Watson and Athelney Jones, though he did not divulge this at the time (80). This is an example of the ratiocinate nature of the detective. Holmes claims to know all about the specifics of the case, through what the reader can only assume is from deduction. This adds to the 'puzzle' convention of the detective genre, where the reader is invited to try to solve the puzzle before Holmes does. Holmes' great powers of deduction and reasoning are highlighted early on in the novel when he deduces that Dr. Watson had taken a trip earlier to the post office (9). "

Tags:Sherlock, Holmes, Dr., Watson