 Ann Radcliffe (1764 – 1823)
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) |
Creepy, supernatural tale of the evil secrets lurking in a Castle Udolpho – a huge hit with readers in the 1790s. One of the first Gothic novels and a masterpiece of the genre. |
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Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)
Northanger Abbey (1803) |
A comic mystery with a common-sense solution which directly parodies Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho. |
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Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851)
Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus (1818) |
Doctor Frankenstein creates a man – or has he created a monster? Like Doyle’s The Creeping Man, written a hundred years later, this classic horror novel suggests that in trying to rise above their own nature, human beings are apt to fall below it. |
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Nathanial Hawthorne (1804 – 1864)
Mr Higginbotham’s Catastrophe (1834) |
An unusual mystery story by the author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. |
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Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) |
This tale introduced the great detective, Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, and is often considered to be the first ever detective story. Conan Doyle makes reference to it in the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, where the arrogant Holmes dismisses Dupin as “a very inferior fellow”. Other well-known mystery stories by Poe include The Gold Bug (1843) and The Purloined Letter 1845) |
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Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 – 1865)
Mary Barton (1848) |
Elizabeth Gaskell’s first novel takes on great themes of class, privilege and the relationship between capitalists and workers. During a time of strikes and unrest, the mill-owner’s son is murdered – is it simply a case of jealousy? |
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Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)
Great Expectations (1861) |
Young Pip helps a convict, and is befriended by rich, eccentric Miss Havisham and cold, beautiful Estella. Later, he is told that he is to come into a fortune. Who is his mysterious benefactor? |
| The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) |
Dickens’ last novel is the ultimate mystery story as it was never finished – he died whilst writing it. Every new reader can create their own solution and decide for themselves what happened to Edwin Drood. |
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Charlotte Bronte (1816 – 1855)
Jane Eyre (1847) |
After leading a hard life, orphan Jane Eyre falls in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester. They are to be married – but Mr Rochester has a secret… This gripping novel combines romance and suspense. |
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Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881)
Crime and Punishment (1866) |
Not strictly a mystery novel, as we know “whodunnit” throughout. Nevertheless this is a brilliant study of crime and detection from the criminal’s point of view. Due to the genius of Dostoevsky’s writing, Raskolnikov, a young man who murders an old woman with an axe, is made to be a sympathetic character. |
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Wilkie Collins (1824 – 1889)
The Woman in White (1860) |
A gripping Victorian thriller. The two central female characters, Laura and her “ugly” cousin Marian, are classic examples of the dependent, frail woman of Victorian fictional tradition (Laura) and the new, strong, independent woman (Marian). It is interesting to study the male narrator’s attitude towards these types. The evil genius Count Fosco may be compared to Doyle’s Professor Moriarty. |
| The Moonstone (1868) |
A detective, Sergeant Cuff, sets out to solve the mysterious disappearance of a priceless jewel. Described by T. S. Eliot as “The first, the longest and the best of modern English detective stories.” |
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Emile Gaboriau (1832 – 1873)
Monsieur Lecoq (1868) |
Gaboriau was the first French author to write detective stories. Arthur Conan Doyle credited Gaboriau with having supplied the idea of the well-knit plot. This atmospheric mystery novel begins on a night of stifling fog after a snowstorm in Paris – just as foggy London was to become Conan Doyle’s setting for the Sherlock Holmes stories. |
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Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894)
The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) |
Doctor Jekyll creates a drug which creates a monster, the evil Mr Hyde, from the dark side of Jekyll’s own character. Like Frankenstein and The Adventure of the Creeping Man, this novel warns of the dangers of experimental science. |
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Ernest William Hornung (1866 – 1921)
The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
The Black Mask (1901)
A Thief in the Night (1905)
Mr Justice Raffles (1909) |
All of these books tell of the adventures of Raffles, the gentleman thief – a cynical anti-hero who usually contrives to get away with his crimes against all odds. It is interesting to compare Raffles with Holmes. Like Holmes, Raffles is a master of disguise, and tends to work not just for money, but for his pure love of a challenge. Raffles also has a “Moriarty” figure – his formidable rival Inspector Mackenzie – and a “Watson” figure – his loyal friend Bunny. |
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G. K. Chesterton (1874 – 1936)
The Man who was Thursday (1907) |
A policeman infiltrates a secret organisation of anarchists |
The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)
The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914)
The Incredulity of Father Brown (1926)
The Secret of Father Brown (1927)
The Scandal of Father Brown (1935) |
A series of stories featuring Father Brown, a great detective who was also a Catholic priest. An innocent man, Father Brown nevertheless has the ability to put himself into the mind of his suspects in order to solve their crimes. |
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Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930)
A Study in Scarlet (1887)
The Sign of Four (1889)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
The Valley of Fear (1915)
His Last Bow (1917)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927) |
And many more! |
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