What is a detective in a movie. Detective genre

23.04.2019

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The first works of the detective genre are usually considered to be stories written in the 1840s, but elements of the detective story have been used by many authors before.

For example, in the novel by William Godwin (1756 - 1836) "The Adventures of Caleb Williams" (1794) one of central characters- amateur detective. A great influence on the development of detective literature was also exerted by E. Vidok's "Notes", published in 1828. However, it was Edgar Poe who created the first Great Detective - amateur detective Dupin from the story "Murder on the Rue Morgue". Then came Sherlock Holmes (K. Doyle) and Father Brown (Chesterton), Lecoq (Gaborio) and Mr. Cuff (Wilkie Collins). It was Edgar Poe who introduced into the plot of the detective the idea of a rivalry in solving a crime between a private investigator and the official police, in which a private investigator, as a rule, prevails.

Detective genre became popular in England after the publication of the novels by W. Collins "The Woman in White" (1860) and "The Moonstone" (1868). In the novels "The Hand of Wilder" (1869) and "Checkmate" (1871) by the Irish writer S. Le Fanu, the detective is combined with a Gothic novel.

The founder of the French detective is E. Gaborio, the author of a series of novels about the detective Lecoque. Stevenson imitated Gaboriau in his detective stories(especially in ("Diamond of the Rajah").

Usually, a crime appears as an incident in a detective story, the author describes its investigation and determination of the perpetrators, and the conflict is based on the clash of justice with lawlessness, ending with the victory of justice.

The main feature of the detective story as a genre is the presence in the work of some mysterious incident, the circumstances of which are unknown and must be clarified. The most frequently described incident is a crime, although there are detectives that investigate events that are not criminal (for example, in the "Notes on Sherlock Holmes", belonging to the detective genre, five stories out of eighteen crimes do not exist).

An essential feature of a detective story is that the actual circumstances of the incident are not fully communicated to the reader until the investigation is completed. The reader is guided by the author through the process of investigation, getting the opportunity at each stage to build his own versions and evaluate known facts.

The detective contains three main plot-forming element: crime, investigation and solution.

Features of the classic detective genre:

- completeness of the facts (by the time the investigation is over, the reader must have enough information to find a solution on its own)

- the ordinariness of the situation (the conditions in which the events take place are generally common and well known to the reader)

- stereotyped behavior of the characters (actions are predictable, and if the characters have any sharply distinguished features, then those become known to the reader)

- the existence of a priori rules for plotting (the narrator and the detective cannot be criminals)

A distinctive feature of a classic detective story is the inherent moral idea , or morality, which marks, to varying degrees, all works of this genre. The detective ends with the punishment of the criminal and the triumph of justice.

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Definition

The main feature of the detective story as a genre is the presence in the work of some mysterious incident, the circumstances of which are unknown and must be clarified. The most frequently described incident is a crime, although there are detectives in which events that are not criminal are investigated (for example, in the "Notes on Sherlock Holmes", of course, related to the detective genre, there are no crimes in five out of eighteen stories).

An essential feature of a detective story is that the actual circumstances of the incident are not communicated to the reader, at least in their entirety, until the investigation is completed. Instead, the reader is guided by the author through the investigation process, gaining the opportunity at each stage to build their own versions and evaluate known facts. If the work initially describes all the details of the incident, or the incident does not contain anything unusual, mysterious, then it should already be attributed not to a pure detective story, but to related genres (action movie, police novel, etc.).

In the opinion famous author of detectives Val McDermid, detective as a genre only became possible with the advent of evidence-based litigation.

Features of the genre

Important property classic detective story - the fullness of the facts. The solution to the mystery cannot be based on information that was not provided to the reader during the description of the investigation. By the time the investigation is over, the reader should have enough information to help him find a solution on his own. Only a few insignificant details can be hidden, which do not affect the possibility of disclosing the secret. Upon completion of the investigation, all riddles must be solved, all questions must be answered.

A few more signs of a classic detective in the aggregate were named by N.N.Volsky the hyperdeterminism of the detective's world("The world of the detective is much more orderly than the life around us"):

The ordinariness of the situation. The conditions in which the events of the detective take place are, on the whole, common and well known to the reader (in any case, the reader himself believes that he is confidently oriented in them). Thanks to this, it is initially obvious to the reader what of what is being described is ordinary, and what is strange, beyond the scope.
Stereotyped behavior of characters. Characters are largely devoid of originality, their psychology and behavioral models are quite transparent, predictable, and if they have any sharply distinguished features, then those become known to the reader. The motives of actions (including the motives of the crime) of the characters are also stereotyped.
The existence of a priori rules for plotting that do not always correspond real life... So, for example, in a classic detective story, the narrator and the detective, in principle, cannot turn out to be criminals.

This set of features narrows the field of possible logical constructions based on known facts, making it easier for the reader to analyze them. However, not all detective subgenres follow these rules exactly.

Another limitation is noted, which is almost always followed by a classic detective story - the inadmissibility of random errors and undetectable coincidences. For example, in real life, a witness may speak the truth, may lie, may be mistaken or misled, but may simply make an unmotivated mistake (accidentally confuse dates, amounts, surnames). In a detective story, the last possibility is excluded - the witness is either accurate or lies, or his mistake has a logical justification.

Eremey Parnov points to following features classic detective genre:

The first works of the detective genre are usually considered to be the stories of Edgar Poe, written in the 1840s, but elements of the detective story have been used by many authors before. For example, in the novel by William Godwin (-) "The Adventures of Caleb Williams" () one of the central characters is an amateur detective. A great influence on the development of detective literature was also exerted by E. Vidok's "Notes", published in. However, it was Edgar Poe who created, according to Eremey Parnov, the first Great Detective - amateur detective Dupin from the story "Murder on the Rue Morgue". Dupin subsequently fathered Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown (Chesterton), Lecoq (Gaborio) and Mr. Cuff (Wilkie Collins). It was Edgar Poe who introduced into the plot of the detective the idea of a rivalry in solving a crime between a private investigator and the official police, in which a private investigator, as a rule, prevails.

The detective genre became popular in England after the release of the novels by W. Collins "The Woman in White" () and "Moonstone" (). In the novels "The Hand of Wilder" () and "Checkmate" () by the Irish writer C. Le Fanu, the detective story is combined with the Gothic novel. The 30s - 70s are considered the golden age of detectives in England. 20th century. It was at this time that the classic detective novels of Agatha Christie, F. Biding and other authors were published, which influenced the development of the genre as a whole.

The founder of the French detective story is E. Gaboriau, the author of a series of novels about the detective Lecoque. Stevenson imitated Gaboriau in his detective stories (especially in The Rajah's Diamond).

Twenty Rules for Writing Detectives by Stephen Van Dyne

In 1928 english writer Willard Hattington, better known by his pseudonym Stephen Van Dyne, published his literary rules, calling it "20 Rules for Writing Detectives":

1. It is necessary to provide the reader with opportunities for unraveling secrets, equal to those of the detective, for which purpose it is clear and accurate to report all incriminating traces.

2. With regard to the reader, only such tricks and deception are permissible as can be used by the criminal in relation to the detective.

3. Love is forbidden. The story should not be a game of tags between lovers, but between a detective and a criminal.

4. Neither a detective nor any other professional investigator can be a criminal.

5. Should lead to exposure logical conclusions... Accidental or unfounded confessions are impermissible.

6. A detective cannot be absent from a detective who methodically searches for incriminating evidence, as a result of which he comes to a solution to the riddle.

7. Mandatory crime in a detective story is murder.

8. In solving a given mystery, all supernatural powers and circumstances.

9. Only one detective can act in a story - the reader cannot compete with three or four members of the relay team at once.

10. The perpetrator must be one of the more or less significant actors well known to the reader.

11. An unacceptably cheap solution in which one of the servants is the criminal.

12. While the perpetrator may have an accomplice, the main story is about the capture of one person.

13. Secret or criminal communities have no place in a detective story.

14. The method of committing the murder and the method of investigation must be reasonable and reasonable with scientific point vision.

15. For the quick-witted reader, the clue should be obvious.

16. In a detective story there is no place for literature, descriptions of painstakingly developed characters, coloring the situation with fiction.

17. A criminal can never be a professional villain.

19. The motive of the crime is always of a private nature; it cannot be an espionage act, seasoned with any international intrigues, motives of secret services.

The decade that followed the promulgation of the terms of the Van Dyne Convention finally discredited the detective as a genre of literature. It is no coincidence that we know well the detectives of previous eras and each time we turn to their experience. But we will hardly be able to name the names of figures from the Twenty Rules clan without going into the reference books. Modern Western detective has developed in spite of Van Dine, refuting point by point, overcoming limitations sucked from the finger. One paragraph (the detective should not be a criminal!), However, survived, although it was violated several times by the cinema. This is a reasonable prohibition, because it protects the very specifics of the detective, its core line ... modern novel we will not see a trace of the "Rules" ...

The Ten Commandments of Ronald Knox's detective novel

Also, Ronald Knox, one of the founders of the Detective Club, proposed his own rules for writing detective stories:

I. The perpetrator must be someone mentioned at the beginning of the novel, but it must not be someone whose train of thought the reader was allowed to follow.

II. As a matter of course, the action of supernatural or otherworldly forces is excluded.

III. The use of more than one secret room or secret passage is not allowed.

IV. It is unacceptable to use hitherto unknown poisons, as well as devices that require a long scientific explanation at the end of the book.

V. The work should not feature a Chinese person.

Vi. A detective should never be helped Lucky case; he should also not be guided by an unaccountable but correct intuition.

Vii. The detective doesn't have to be a criminal himself.

VIII. Having come across this or that clue, the detective is obliged to immediately present it to the reader for study.

IX. The detective's stupid friend, Watson in one guise or another, should not hide any of the considerations that come to his mind; by their mental capacity it should be slightly inferior - but only quite a bit - to the average reader.

X. Indistinguishable twin brothers and doubles in general cannot appear in a novel if the reader is not properly prepared for it.

Some types of detectives

Closed-type detective

A subgenre that usually most closely matches the canons of a classic detective story. The plot is based on the investigation of a crime committed in a secluded place, where there is a strictly limited set of characters. There can be no outsider in this place, so the crime could only be committed by someone present. The investigation is carried out by someone from the crime scene with the help of the rest of the heroes.

This type of detective is different in that the plot, in principle, eliminates the need to search for an unknown criminal. The suspects are there, and the detective's job is to get as much information as possible about the participants in the events, on the basis of which it will be possible to identify the culprit. Additional psychological stress is created by the fact that the criminal must be one of the well-known, nearby people, none of whom usually looks like a criminal. Sometimes in a closed type detective, a whole series of crimes (usually murders) occurs, as a result of which the number of suspects is constantly decreasing.

Examples of closed detectives:

Edgar Poe, Murder on the Rue Morgue.
Cyril Hare, A Purely English Murder.
Agatha Christie, "Ten Little Indians", "Murder on the Orient Express" (and almost all of the works).
Boris Akunin, "Leviathan" (signed by the author as "a hermetic detective").
Leonid Slovin, "Additional Arrives on the Second Path".
Gaston Leroux, The Secret of the Yellow Room.

Psychological detective

This type of detective story may deviate somewhat from the classical canons in terms of the requirements for stereotypical behavior and typical psychology of heroes and is the intersection of the genre with the psychological novel. Usually a crime committed for personal reasons (envy, revenge) is investigated, and the main element of the investigation becomes the study personality traits suspects, their attachments, pain points, beliefs, prejudices, clarification of the past. There is a French psychological detective school.

Dickens, Charles, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
Boileau - Narsezhak, "She-Wolf", "The One Who Has Done", "Sea Gate", "Outline the Heart".
Japrizo, Sebastien, "Lady with glasses and with a gun in the car."
Calef, Noel, Lift to the Scaffold.
Ball, John, "A Stuffy Night in the Carolina."

Historical detective

A historical work with detective intrigue. The action takes place in the past, or an old crime is being investigated in the present.

Eco, Umberto "The Name of the Rose"
Robert van Gulick, Judge Dee series
Agatha Christie "Death Comes at the End", "Five Little Pigs"
John Dixon Carr The Newgate Bride, The Devil in Velvet, Captain Slit
Ellis Peters, Cadfael Series
Ann Perry, Thomas Pitt Series, Monk
Boileau-Narsejak "In the enchanted forest"
Quinn, Ellery "The Unknown Manuscript of Dr. Watson"
Boris Akunin, Literary project"The Adventures of Erast Fandorin"
Leonid Yuzefovich, Literary project about the detective Putilin
Alexander Bushkov, The Adventures of Alexey Bestuzhev
Igor Moskvin, cycle Petersburg investigation 1870-1883

Ironic detective

The detective investigation is described from a humorous point of view. Often, works written in this vein parody and ridicule the cliches of a detective novel.

Agatha Christie, Partners in Crime
Varshavsky, Ilya, "The robbery will take place at midnight"
Kaganov, Leonid, "Major Bogdamir saves money"
Kozachinsky, Alexander, "Green Van"
Westlake, Donald, "The Cursed Emerald" ( Hot pebble), "The bank that gurgled"
Joanna Khmelevskaya (most of the works)
Daria Dontsova (all works)
Yene Reite (all works)

Fantastic detective

Works at the junction of science fiction and detective story. The action can take place in the future, an alternative present or past, or in a completely fictional world.

Lem, Stanislav, "Investigation", "Inquiry"
Russell, Eric Frank, "Everyday Work", "The Wasp"
Holm van Zaichik, cycle Bad people No"
Kir Bulychev, "Intergalactic Police" cycle ("Intergpol")
Isaac Asimov, Lucky Starr Cycles - Space Ranger, Detective Elijah Bailey and Robot Daniel Olivo
Sergey Lukyanenko, Genome
John Brunner, The Squares of the city,; Russian translation - )
Strugatsky brothers, Hotel "At the Dead Mountaineer"
Cook, Glenn, a series of fantasy detective stories about Detective Garrett
Randall Garrett, a series of fantasy detective stories about the detective Lord Darcy
Boris Akunin "Children's Book"
Kluger, Daniel, cycle of fantasy detectives "Magical Matters"
Edgar Alan Poe - Murder on the Rue Morgue
Harry Turtledove - Toxic Spell Dump Case

Political detective

One of the genres quite far from the classic detective story. The main intrigue is built around political events and rivalry between various political or business leaders and forces. It also often happens that the main character in itself is far from politics, however, while investigating the case, it stumbles upon an obstacle to the investigation by the "powers that be" or reveals some kind of conspiracy. Distinctive feature political detective is (although not necessarily) the possible absence of completely goodies, except for the main thing. This genre infrequently found in pure form, however, may be a constituent part of a work.

Agatha Christie, The Big Four
Boris Akunin, "State Councilor"
Levashov, Victor, "The Conspiracy of Patriots"
Adam Hall, Berlin Memorandum (Qwilleran Memorandum)
Nikolay Svechin, "The Hunt for the Tsar", "Demon of the Underworld"

Spy detective

It is based on the narrative about the activities of intelligence officers, spies and saboteurs both in war and in peacetime on the "invisible front". On stylistic boundaries it is very close to political and conspiracy detectives, often combined in the same work. The main difference between a spy detective and a political one is that in a political detective the most important position is occupied by the political basis of the case under investigation and antagonistic conflicts, while in espionage, attention is focused on intelligence work (surveillance, sabotage, etc.). A conspiracy detective can be considered a variety of both espionage and political detectives.

Agatha Christie, Cat Among Doves, Man in Brown Suit, Hours, Meetings of Baghdad (and most of the works).
John Le Carré, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold"
John Boynton Priestley, Haze Over Gretley (1942)
James Grady, Six Days of the Condor
Boris Akunin, "Turkish Gambit"
Dmitry Medvedev, "It was near Rivne"
Nikolay Dalekiy, "The Practice of Sergei Rubtsov"

One of my favorite genres literary works for many readers in our country it is a detective story.

A detective story (from the English detective, from the Latin detego - I reveal, I expose) is a cinematic or literary genre. The works of this genre consistently describe events that ultimately lead to the clarification of all the circumstances and the disclosure of the mysteries of the mysterious case. In most detective novels, a mysterious incident refers to murder or theft. They are the kind of catalyst that triggers the entire mechanism of further events.

Detective could not exist without criminals of different stripes: thieves, deceivers, maniacs, murderers. After all, it is they who "help" the authors of literary works to draw interesting stories and unusual stories not only from your imagination, but also from everyday life.

The history of the emergence and development of the detective genre

Edgar Alan Poe is considered to be the founder of detective stories. It was in his works that the reader for the first time was able to enjoy an ingenious plot, which was based on a mysterious incident - a crime. The works of Edgar Poe, in which the author introduces us to the detective Dupin, laid the foundation further development given literary genre around the world. TO famous books Edgar Alan Poe's The Mystery of Marie Roger (1843), The Stolen Letter (1845), The Murder on the Rue Morgue (1841).
In fairness, it should be noted that elements of the detective genre were present in the works of other authors. For example, these are the novels by W. Collins "The Moonstone", "The Woman in White", which were wildly popular in the 60s of the 19th century.

Some authors have mixed detective stories with others. literary directions... For example, American writer Anderson Cooper in his books for children talked about the life of the Indians. It is noteworthy that the author similarly described how the heroes of his books pursued their victim, what signs they paid attention to: a mossy stump, a broken bush, footprints on the ground, etc.

Charles Dickens made a significant contribution to the development of the world detective genre. Several works by this author were devoted to the detective business. For example, in his magazine Domashnee Slovo, Dickens published a series of articles focusing on the work of detectives at the time.

Another author who has made a significant contribution to the development of the detective genre is Arthur Conan Doyle. The first work that had a strong effect on readers was "Study in crimson". It was followed by a series of short stories dedicated to the life and work of one of the most famous detectives of all times and peoples - Sherlock Holmes.

The development of the genre has led to the emergence of the scientific and medical detective subgenres. For example, the writer T.L. Mead in 1902 publishes the book "The Sorceress of the Strand", in which the author describes in detail the issues medicine: killing with x-rays and hydrocyanic acid, as well as somnambulism, hypnosis, etc.

In 1920, the first book by the eminent writer Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Accident at Styles, was published. Soon there will no longer be a single person in the world who would not be familiar with the cleverest detective Hercule Poirot and the noble Miss Marple. The works of Agatha Christie have rightfully won back the leadership in world cinema. During the years of perestroika, domestic readers enthusiastically plunged into Magic world detective.

Later, works by Russian authors appeared: Marinina, Shilova, Dontsova, etc. Each of the writers has her own own style... D. Dontsova writes in the genre of an ironic detective story. From under the pen of Marinina come out quite realistic series, which allows her books to be wildly popular.

I would like to note that detective stories will always be popular, regardless of the time. Each reader decides for himself which genre (classical or modern) he prefers!

Definition

Detective story - the meaning and definition of the term, a dictionary of literary terms :: Textologia.ru

DETECTIVE(English - detective; from Latin - disclosure) - work of fiction with a special type of plot associated with solving mysterious crimes, the confrontation between good and evil, where, as a rule, good triumphs over evil. The detective story as a genre is characterized by the following main restrictive features: 1) the presence of a secret of a crime (most often murder); 2) a moral and physical collision on this basis between a professional detective or an amateur detective and a criminal; 3) the investigation process, in which different versions of what happened are checked and worked out, different suspects and the investigator himself are tested; 4) establishing the identity of the offender; 5) restoration of all the circumstances of the crime.

This literary genre has a long history in European literature... Its founder is considered to be the American writer Edgar Alan Poe, who, in the novel Murder on Morgue Street (1841), first brought up the image of an amateur detective endowed with outstanding abilities for logical analysis.

D.N. Ushakov, Bolshoi explanatory dictionary modern Russian language (online version)

DETECTIVE dete, detective, ·husband. (· English. detective). Detective, detective police agent.

Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. M .: Russian language from A to Z. Publishing house<ЮНВЕС>... Moscow. 2003.

DETECTIVEEnglish - detective.

Latin - detego (discover).

The word "detective" was borrowed from English in the second half of the 19th century. It has two meanings. The first is the "detective", the second is the "genre of literarya work or a movie ".

Derivative: detective.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Detective(eng.detective , from lat.detego - disclose, expose) is mainly a literary and cinematic genre, the works of which describe the process of researching a mysterious incident in order to clarify its circumstances and solve the riddle. Usually, a crime is such an incident, and the detective describes its investigation and the determination of the perpetrators, in which case the conflict is based on the clash of justice with lawlessness, ending with the victory of justice.

Detective genre features

The main feature of the detective story as a genre is the presence in the work of some mysterious incident, the circumstances of which are unknown and must be clarified. The most frequently described incident is a crime, although there are detectives in which events that are not criminal are investigated (for example, in the "Notes on Sherlock Holmes", of course, related to the detective genre, there are no crimes in five out of eighteen stories).

An important property of a classic detective story is the completeness of facts. The solution to the mystery cannot be based on information that was not provided to the reader during the description of the investigation. By the time the investigation is over, the reader should have enough information to help him find a solution on his own. Only a few insignificant details can be hidden, which do not affect the possibility of disclosing the secret. Upon completion of the investigation, all riddles must be solved, all questions must be answered.

Several Yet signs of a classic detective collectively were named by N.N.Volsky the hyperdeterminism of the detective's world("The world of the detective is much more orderly than the life around us"):

The ordinariness of the situation. The conditions in which the events of the detective take place are, on the whole, common and well known to the reader (in any case, the reader himself believes that he is confidently oriented in them). Thanks to this, it is initially obvious to the reader what of what is being described is ordinary, and what is strange, beyond the scope.
Stereotyped behavior of characters. Characters are largely devoid of originality, their psychology and behavioral models are quite transparent, predictable, and if they have any sharply distinguished features, then those become known to the reader. The motives of actions (including the motives of the crime) of the characters are also stereotyped.
The existence of a priori rules for plotting that do not always correspond to real life. So, for example, in a classic detective story, the narrator and the detective, in principle, cannot turn out to be criminals.

Eremey Parnov points out the following features of the classic detective genre:

the reader of the detective story is offered complicity in a kind of game - solving the mystery or the name of the criminal;
« gothic exotic» -

From the infernal monkey, the founder of both genres (fantasy and detective) Edgar Poe, from the blue carbuncle and the tropical viper Conan Doyle, from the Indian moonstone of Wilkie Collins, to the secluded castles of Agatha Christie and the corpse in the boat of Charles Snow, the western detective is incorrigibly exotic. In addition, he is pathologically committed to the Gothic novel (the medieval castle is a favorite stage on which bloody dramas are played out).

schematic -

Unlike science fiction, a detective is often written only for the sake of a detective, that is, a detective! In other words, the criminal adjusts his bloody activities to the detective, just as an experienced playwright adjusts the roles to specific actors.

Typical characters

Detective - directly involved in the investigation. The most different people: law enforcement officials, private detectives, relatives, friends, acquaintances of the victims, sometimes completely random people... An investigator cannot be a criminal. The figure of the detective is the central one in the detective story.
A professional detective is a law enforcement officer. Can be a very expert high level, and maybe - and an ordinary, of which there are many, a police officer. In the second case, in difficult situations sometimes seeks advice from a consultant.
A private detective - for him investigating crimes is his main job, but he does not serve in the police, although he may be a retired police officer. As a rule, he is extremely highly qualified, active and energetic. Most often, a private detective becomes a central figure, and to emphasize his qualities, professional detectives can be brought into action, who constantly make mistakes, succumb to the provocations of a criminal, get on the wrong track and suspect innocent people. The opposition "a lone hero against a bureaucratic organization and its officials" is used, in which the sympathies of the author and the reader are on the side of the hero.
An amateur detective is the same as a private detective, with the only difference that investigating crimes is not a profession for him, but a hobby that he turns to only from time to time. A separate subspecies of an amateur detective - an accidental person who has never engaged in such activities, but is forced to conduct an investigation due to urgent need, for example, to save an unjustly accused loved one or to divert suspicion from yourself. The amateur detective brings the investigation closer to the reader, giving him the impression that "I could figure it out too." One of the conventions of a series of detectives with amateur detectives (like Miss Marple) is that in real life a person, if he does not investigate crimes professionally, is unlikely to encounter so many crimes and mysterious incidents.
A criminal commits a crime, covers his tracks, tries to resist the investigation. In a classic detective story, the figure of the criminal is clearly indicated only at the end of the investigation; up to this point, the criminal can be a witness, a suspect or a victim. Sometimes the actions of the criminal are described in the course of the main action, but in such a way as not to reveal his identity and not to inform the reader of information that could not have been obtained during the investigation from other sources.
Victim - the one against whom the crime is directed or the one who suffered as a result of a mysterious incident. One of the standard options for a detective's denouement is that the victim turns out to be a criminal himself.
Witness - a person who has any information about the subject of the investigation. The perpetrator is often first shown in the description of the investigation as one of the witnesses.
An investigator's companion is a person who is constantly in contact with an investigator, participating in an investigation, but does not possess the abilities and knowledge of an investigator. He can provide technical assistance in the investigation, but his main task is to show more prominently the outstanding abilities of the detective against the background of the average level. an ordinary person... In addition, a companion is needed to ask the detective questions and listen to his explanations, giving the reader the opportunity to follow the detective's train of thought and paying attention to certain points that the reader himself might have missed. Classic examples such companions are Dr. Watson with Conan Doyle and Arthur Hastings with Agatha Christie.
A consultant is a person who has a pronounced ability to conduct an investigation, but does not directly participate in it himself. In detective stories, where a separate figure of the consultant stands out, she may be the main one (for example, the journalist Ksenofontov in detective stories

The main feature of the detective story as a genre is the presence in the work of some mysterious incident, the circumstances of which are unknown and must be clarified. The most frequently described incident is a crime, although there are detectives in which events that are not criminal are investigated (for example, in the "Notes on Sherlock Holmes", of course, related to the detective genre, there are no crimes in five out of eighteen stories).

Features of the genre

The ordinariness of the situation. The conditions in which the events of the detective take place are, on the whole, common and well known to the reader (in any case, the reader himself believes that he is confidently oriented in them). Thanks to this, it is initially obvious to the reader what of what is being described is ordinary, and what is strange, beyond the scope.
Stereotyped behavior of characters. Characters are largely devoid of originality, their psychology and behavioral models are quite transparent, predictable, and if they have any sharply distinguished features, then those become known to the reader. The motives of actions (including the motives of the crime) of the characters are also stereotyped.
The existence of a priori rules for plotting that do not always correspond to real life. So, for example, in a classic detective story, the narrator and the detective, in principle, cannot turn out to be criminals.

Another limitation is noted, which is almost always followed by a classic detective story - the impossibility of random errors and undetectable coincidences. For example, in real life, a witness may speak the truth, may lie, may be mistaken or misled, but may simply make an unmotivated mistake (accidentally confuse dates, amounts, surnames). In a detective story, the last possibility is excluded - the witness is either accurate or lies, or his mistake has a logical justification.

Typical characters

Detective - directly involved in the investigation. A wide variety of people can act as a detective: law enforcement officers, private detectives, relatives, friends, acquaintances of the victims, sometimes completely random people. An investigator cannot be a criminal. The figure of the detective is the central one in the detective story.
- A professional detective is a law enforcement officer. He can be a very high-level expert, and maybe even an ordinary one, of which there are many, a police officer. In the second case, in difficult situations, he sometimes turns to a consultant for advice (see below).
- A private detective - for him investigating crimes is his main job, but he does not serve in the police, although he may be a retired police officer. As a rule, he is extremely highly qualified, active and energetic. Most often, a private detective becomes a central figure, and to emphasize his qualities, professional detectives can be brought into action, who constantly make mistakes, succumb to the provocations of a criminal, get on the wrong track and suspect innocent people. The opposition "a lone hero against a bureaucratic organization and its officials" is used, in which the sympathies of the author and the reader are on the side of the hero.
- An amateur detective is the same as a private detective, with the only difference that investigating crimes is not a profession for him, but a hobby that he turns to only from time to time. A separate subspecies of an amateur detective is a random person who has never engaged in such activities, but is forced to conduct an investigation due to urgent need, for example, to save an unjustly accused loved one or to divert suspicion from himself. The amateur detective brings the investigation closer to the reader, giving him the impression that "I could figure it out too." One of the conventions of a series of detectives with amateur detectives (like Miss Marple) is that in real life a person, if he does not investigate crimes professionally, is unlikely to encounter so many crimes and mysterious incidents.
A criminal commits a crime, covers his tracks, tries to resist the investigation. In a classic detective story, the figure of the criminal is clearly indicated only at the end of the investigation; up to this point, the criminal can be a witness, a suspect or a victim. Sometimes the actions of the criminal are described in the course of the main action, but in such a way as not to reveal his identity and not to inform the reader of information that could not have been obtained during the investigation from other sources.
The victim is the one against whom the crime is directed or the one who suffered as a result of a mysterious incident. One of the standard options for a detective's denouement is that the victim turns out to be a criminal himself.
Witness - a person who has any information about the subject of the investigation. The perpetrator is often first shown in the description of the investigation as one of the witnesses.
An investigator's companion is a person who is constantly in contact with an investigator, participating in an investigation, but does not have the abilities and knowledge of an investigator. He can provide technical assistance in the investigation, but his main task is to more vividly show the outstanding abilities of the detective against the background of the average level of an ordinary person. In addition, a companion is needed to ask the detective questions and listen to his explanations, giving the reader the opportunity to follow the detective's train of thought and paying attention to certain points that the reader himself might have missed. Classic examples of such companions are Dr. Watson by Conan Doyle and Arthur Hastings by Agatha Christie.
A consultant is a person who has a pronounced ability to conduct an investigation, but does not directly participate in it himself. In detective stories, where a separate figure of the consultant stands out, she may be the main one (for example, the journalist Ksenofontov in the detective stories of Viktor Pronin), or it may turn out to be just an episodic advisor (for example, the detective's teacher, whom he turns to for help).
Assistant - does not conduct investigations himself, but provides the detective and / or consultant with information that he obtains himself. For example, a forensic expert.
Suspect - in the course of the investigation, it is assumed that it was he who committed the crime. The authors treat suspects in different ways, one of the often practiced principles is “none of those immediately suspected is a real criminal,” that is, everyone who falls under suspicion turns out to be innocent, and the real criminal turns out to be someone who was not suspected of anything. However, not all authors follow this principle. In Agatha Christie's detectives, for example, Miss Marple repeatedly says that "in life, it is usually the one who was suspected first that is the culprit."

Detective story

The detective genre became popular in England after the release of W. Collins's novels The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868). In the novels "The Hand of Wilder" (1869) and "Checkmate" (1871) by the Irish writer C. Le Fanu, the detective is combined with a Gothic novel. The founder of the French detective is E. Gaboriau, the author of a series of novels about the detective Lecoque. Stevenson imitated Gaboriau in his detective stories (especially in The Rajah's Diamond).