The Sensational Course of Mystery Literature
Edgar Allan Poe is the acknowledged father of the detective story. His first tale of ratiocination, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" about C. Auguste Dupin appeared in the April 1841.isasue of Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia. In the Poe period, primary emphasis was placed on the intellectual branch of development (analysis and deduction) and secondary emphasis on the sensational branch (the "thriller").
But all other periods of mystery literature after Poe inevitably overlap and intermingle. In 1866, the first detective novel by Emile Gaboriau's L'Affair Lerouge was published. The sensational appearance of the Sherlock Holmes in 1887 started the Doyle period, with reversion of emphasis to the analytical and deductive school. 1907 was the rise of scientific detective story, reaching its peak in R. Austin Freeman's stories about Dr.Thorndyke. This represents a major change in the trend from 'whodunit' to the 'howdunit'.
In 1920 's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published introducing Hercule Poirot. When Agatha Christie died on January 12, 1976, the Ambassador theatre dimmed its lights before raising the curtain on her play 'The Mousetrap's 9612th performance.