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The mystery genre is one of the best-selling and its authors amongst the most loved. While various authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins wrote books that could be classified as mysteries, the author credited with popularizing the genre is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His creation, Sherlock Holmes, originally appeared in serial form. However, it quickly gained popularity across the world and catapulted both the detective and the author into stardom.
The success of Sherlock Holmes led to many authors attempting the genre. Some of the famous authors of crime fiction include Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton, Erle Stanley Gardner, Ellery Queen and Dorothy Sayers. These authors wrote many books usually featuring one of their fictional detectives. Their detectives were typically amateurs who solved crimes by their superior understanding of human character and their keen observational skills. The list of popular amateur detectives includes Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Father Brown, Donald Lam, Perry Mason and Lord Peter Wimsey.
On the other hand, authors like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Sue Grafton have followed the model of Arthur Conan Doyle and made their main character a private eye. Philip Marlowe, Kinsey Millhon, Sam Spade and Nero Wolfe belong to this set of detectives.
A third type of character favored by authors of detective fiction is the police detective. Popular police detectives of the past include Roderick Alleyn, Inspector Ghote, Inspector Morse and Inspector Wexford. Their authors are Ngaio Marsh, H.R.F.Keating, Colin Dexter and Ruth Rendell.
Some authors have specialized in writing detective fiction for children and younger readers. The most popular of these include Enid Blyton, Carolyn Keene and Franklin W Dixon.
The works of many of these authors are today considered classics. They have been translated into many languages and the detectives have made their transition to television and the big screen as well.
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