A Chronology of Crime Fiction 1800-1950.

(From Crime Fiction 1800-2000 by Stephen Knight, Palgrave MacMillan,

2004.)

1773 The Newgate Calendar: first major collection of crime without detectives
1794 William Godwin, Caleb Williams.
1798 Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland.
1827 Thomas Gaspey(?), Richmond: Scenes from the Life of a Bow Street Runner.
1827-8 Eugene Francois Vidocq, Memoires.
1828 Edward Bulwer, Pelham.
1830 Samuel Warren, Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician.
1838 Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist.
1841 Edgar Allan Poe, .Murders in the Rue Morgue.
1842-3 Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie-Roge
1844 Edgar Allan Poe, The Purloined Letter.
1849 William Russell, Recollections of a Police Officer.
1852 William Russell, Recollections of a Policeman.
1853 Charles Dickens, Bleak House.
1856 William Russell, The Recollections of a Detective Police Officer.
1860 Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White.
1861 Ellen Wood, East Lynne.
1862 Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret.
1864 Andrew Forrester Jun., The Female Detective.
1864 W. S. Hayward(?), Revelations of a Lady Detective.
1865 Charles Felix, The Notting Hill Murder.
1865 John B. Williams' (ed.), Leaves from the Note-Book of a New York Detective.
1866 Emile Gaboriau, L'Affaire Lerouge.
Mary Fortune, as 'W.W.' in The Australian Journal, may be the first woman
1866
writing self-conciously detective fiction
1867 Seeley Regester (Metta Fuller), The Dead Letter.
1868 Emile Gaboriau, M. Lecoq.
1868 Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone.
Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood: Dickens's last and unfinished
1870
novel was to involve mystery, disguise and--it seems--some detection.
1874 Allan Pinkerton, The Expressman and the Detective.
1878 Anna Katherine Green, The Leavenworth Case.
1881 Emile Gaboriau novels translated into English and published in London.
1886 Fergus Hume, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.
1887 Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet.
1891 Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal in Bohemia
1892 Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
1892 Israel Zangwill, The Big Bow Mystery.
1894 Arthur Morrison, Martin Hewitt, Investigator.
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.: more stories, but
1894
Holmes dies in the last, 'The Final Problem'
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles: Doyle resumes Holmes in
1901-2
The Strand, but sets story back before his death
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Empty House: Doyle revives Holmes in Strand
1902
Magazine.
1907 Maurice Leblanc, The Exploits of Arsene Lupin.
1907 Gaston Leroux, The Mystery of the Yellow Room.
1907 Jacques Futrelle, The Thinking Machine.
1907 R. Austin Freeman, The Red Thumb Mark.
1908 Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase.
1911 G. K. Chesterton, The Innocence of Father Brown.
1913 E. C. Bentley, Trent's Last Case.
Carolyn Wells, The Technique of the Mystery Story: first extended discussion
1913
of the genre
1920 Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
1920 Freeman Wills Crofts, The Cask.
1923 Dorothy Sayers: Whose Body?
1923 Dashiell Hammett starts publishing tough detective stories in The Black Mask
1925 Earl Derr Biggers, The House without a Key.
1926 Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
1926 S. S. Van Dine, The Benson Murder Case
Arthur Upfield, The House of Cain.: first novel starring the Australian
1928
aboriginal detective 'Boney'
1928 Patricia Wentworth, Grey Mask.
1929 Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest.
1929 Gladys Mitchell, Speedy Death.
1929 Ellery Queen, The Roman Hat Mystery
1929 W. R. Burnett, Little Caesar
1929 Mignon Eberhart, The Patient in Room 18.
1930 Margery Allingham, Mystery Mile.
1930 Dorothy Sayers, Strong Poison.
1930 Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage.
1931 Francis Iles, Malice Aforethought.
1932 Raymond Chandler publishes his first private-eye story in Black Mask
1932 Rudolph Fisher, The Conjure-man Dies.
1933 John Dickson Carr, Hag's Nook.
1933 Erie Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Velvet Claws.
1934 James M. Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice.
1934 Ngaio Marsh, A Man Lay Dead.
1934 Rex Stout, Fer de Lance.
1939 Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep.
1939 James Hadley Chase, No Orchids for Miss Blandish.
1940 Cornell Woolrich, The Bride Wore Black.
1943 Margaret Millar, Wall of Eyes.
1945 Lawrence Treat, V as in Victim.
1947 Mickey Spillane, I, The Jury.
1949 Ross Macdonald (as John Macdonald), The Moving Target.
1950 Julian Symons, The Thirty-First of February.