First detective story is published

April 20, 1841

ON this day, Edgar Allen Poe’s story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, appeared in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine. The tale is generally considered to be the first detective story.

The story describes the extraordinary ‘analytical power’ used by Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin to solve a series of murders in Paris. Like the later Sherlock Holmes stories, the tale is narrated by the detective’s roommate.

Following the publication of Poe’s story, detective stories began to grow from short stories into novels like Wilkie Collins detective novel, The Moonstone, in 1868. While in 1887, Sherlock Holmes appeared in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel A Study in Scarlet. The cosy English mystery novel became popularised with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series in the 1920s.

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