The crime story as we know it today was born in the 1890s with the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and has been evolving ever since.

The popularity of the crime narrative is inextricably linked to its spicy flavor, its power to ignite the reader's curiosity, and to absorb their attention while adhering to the genre's rules (as flexible as they have become).

Every era has created a specific type of crime fiction that serves as a characteristic sample of its particular habits and customs, from the sober and serious accounts that began to emerge in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes to the carefree police investigation that flourished in the 1920s and beyond.

With authors such as Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Carter Dickson, and Edmund Crispin, the exposition of the pattern of solving a mystery acquired a maximum degree of skill, authenticity, and ingenuity.

An increasing realism is visible in the post-war period, although without overlooking the element of entertainment. And as we approach the present, we see that the crime story has gradually adapted to accommodate other aspects of modern life, such as sadness, everyday love, or the inability to rehabilitate.

This collection of thirty-three short stories, as translated here by Oxford University Press, showcases the breadth, strength, and enduring fascination of the crime story and highlights its importance as a barometer of social trends and literary practices.

It gathers a wide range of short stories and authors who are among the elite of English crime literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.

[Excerpt from a text on the publisher's website]