Crime and noir fiction

The detective novel rests on a contract: a crime, clues given to the reader, a solution that must be verifiable. Conan Doyle made it a game of logic in the London fog, Collins invented the long form with a stolen diamond and several narrators. Then prohibition America overturned the contract: in Hammett the investigator is as dirty as the milieu, and the solution repairs nothing. Simenon keeps the enquiry but is interested in ordinary lives, Eco moves the reasoning into a medieval abbey.

works 9

• NovelThe Mysteries of ParisLes Mystères de ParisEugène Sue · 1843A prince disguised as a workman descends into the Parisian underworld and becomes a righter of wrongs there.LiteraturePublic domain
• NovelCrime and PunishmentПреступление и наказаниеFyodor Dostoevsky · 1866A novel of 1866: a poor student in Saint Petersburg kills a pawnbroker to test a theory, and has to live with his act.LiteraturePublic domain
• NovelThe MoonstoneWilkie Collins · 1868An Indian diamond disappears on the night of a young girl's birthday, in a house full of guests.LiteraturePublic domain
• NovelThe Hound of the BaskervillesArthur Conan Doyle · 1902A legendary beast on a moor, and an heir who must come to take possession.LiteraturePublic domain
• NovelThe Man Who Was ThursdayG. K. Chesterton · 1908A suburban quarrel over order and revolt, and a cellar where one of the two proves that he was not joking.LiteraturePublic domain
• NovelRed HarvestDashiell Hammett · 1929The detective novel is then a drawing-room puzzle. This book takes a nameless agency employee and lets him loose in a city in the hands of gangsters.LiteraturePublic domain
• NovelThe Snow Was DirtyLa neige était saleGeorges Simenon · 1948A young man in an occupied town commits gratuitous crimes, as if to see how far he can go.Literature
• Short storiesThe Wine-Dark SeaIl mare colore del vinoLeonardo Sciascia · 1973Thirteen Sicilian stories in which what matters is rarely said aloud.Literature
• NovelThe Name of the RoseIl nome della rosaUmberto Eco · 1980Seven days in a medieval abbey, where the monks die one after another.Literature