Crime and mystery writing as a genre have deep American roots, most notably with American Edgar Allen Poe’s (1841) Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered the original detective story and Anna Katharine Green’s (1878) The Leavenworth Case, considered the first American detective novel. In the last decades of the century American crime fiction has focused on realism, character development and psychological dimensions of action. Amateur and professional detectives, once urban males, have gained regional attributes and everyday problems, and increasingly include persons of color and women, as well as responses to social issues. They are also increasingly packaged as series, named by author, major characters or setting (Egyptian, Hollywood, etc.) in order to market to avid readers.

The most prominent category of American crime fiction and mystery is the murder mystery but detective stories, courtroom sagas, spy novels and stories of theft and assault are also popular. Although British authors have been popular (Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, etc.), most popular authors are American. However, settings may vary widely over time and place. Mystery series are also popular in children’s and teenage fiction.

Police investigators appear in mysteries set around the United States. On the West Coast one may find John Ball’s Virgil Tibbs, an African American detective from Pasadena or Susan Dunlap’s Detective Jill Smith from Berkeley On the East Coast one finds Lillian O’Dennel’s Norah Mulcahany or Archer Mayor’s Lieutenant Joe Gunther from Brattleboro, Vermont.

Private detectives and ex-cops, humorous amateurs and lawyers all make for popular lead characters in crime fiction. Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason series has given way to bestsellers Scott Torow, John Grisham and Steve Martini, who have created legal thrillers that weave together law, courtroom scenes and intricate problem-solving that often rescues the featured lawyer/sleuth from danger. Private investigators—consummate antiheroes—include classic pre-war works by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, as well as noirish series by Mickey Spillane and John T. MacDonald. Recent investigators also include journalists such as Sampson Dean, the African American reporter created by Mike Phillips.

Yet amateur sleuths, citizens caught up in events, are equally important in American crime fiction. Members of the clergy make detecting innocence and guilt take on special significance. These include Father Dowling, a Roman Catholic priest from the Chicago, IL area created by Ralph McInerny, Rabbi David Small, a creation of Harry Kemelman, or Sister Mary Ursula of the Order of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany, Los Angeles, CA created by H.H. Holmes. Husband-and-wife teams such as the Orthodox Jewish housewife Rina Lazarus and Los Angeles Police Department Detective Peter Decker, created by Fay Kellerman, mingle professional and amateur investigation.

The stewpot of American culture is reflected in the increasing diversity of detective characters. Such diversity is reflected by women such as Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, private investigator, Patricia Cornwell’s Virginia coroner Kay Scarpetta or Jean Hager’s Molly Bearpaw, an investigator for the Native American Advocacy League. Tony Hillerman has received an anthropological award for his depictions of Navaho and Hopi life and detection. Gay and lesbian figures move Joseph Hansen’s Dave Brandsetter novels and Michael Nava’s novels featuring Henry Rios.

Food plays a prominent role in detective fiction, as seen in Tamar Myers’ Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth (1994), Nancy Packard’s 27 Ingredient Chili con Carne Murders (1993) and the older, epicurean Nero Wolfe mysteries. Pets also appear in Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who…series and Susan J. Conant’s The Dog Lover series.

Other crime fiction subgenres include psychopathic killers, hospital settings, detective writers, academic settings and the underworld. Other authors of significance include Robert Campbell, Jane Langton and Mary Higgins Clark.

These bestselling books, generally seen as relaxation or beach reading, raise interesting questions about American attitudes towards crime and violence, worrisome in society and often attacked in mass-media representations. Mysteries have generally escaped this scrutiny to flourish as a major genre with strong Hollywood connections.