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Home , Crime fiction, Detective fiction, Fictional detectives, Police procedural, Private investigator

INTRODUCTION

▪ This project links to the summer scheme of work on Victorian . ▪ The Victorians like Edgar Allen Poe (American) and (British) made or hugely popular and created the blueprint for the modern fictional detective. ▪ And the reading public loved it and they Around 60 million copies of 'The Adventures of love it today. If you can create a popular ' had been sold from 1887 till mid- Detective or Crime you have a 2014! Also, the book has been translated into at least languages And mind you, we're only talking about product that will sell. 60 ONE out of the NINE Sherlock Holmes books out there! WHY AM I DOING THIS?

▪ This project links to your GCSE as in your GCSE’s you actually study 2 Fictional and 3 stories involving crime. (The Sign of the Four, An Calls and Macbeth.) Detectives and Crime are popular.

▪ Detection, crime and mystery often feature in GCSE language as well. So Successful a good knowledge of the will completers receive a give you a connection advantage. certificate of excellence and lots of achievement points.

▪ It’s popular. The Americans invented it, the British popularised it, everyone knows about it and millions of people love it. This project will give you zillions in cultural capital. ▪ Sub-genre Sub means lower level, so beneath the genre of you have sub- such as Genre is closely related to genus, a word you may have or Investigation encountered in biology class. They indicate that everything in a particular category belongs to the same "family" and has the same origins. Genres of literature would include: detective , sci-fi ▪ Other key words to know or revise. If novels, romance novels, and young-adult novels. you right click you should be able to look them up. Conventions, Feature and Elements of fiction. These words ▪ ▪ are used when differentiating between genres and have very amateur similar meanings, which can be confusing. They basically mean ▪ ▪ Era the same thing. The items that make up a particular genre. ▪ Conventions are the ways things are done; e.g., There ▪ ▪ Forensics has to be a detective. ▪ Detective ▪ procedural ▪ Features are the distinctive aspects to something. E.g. You expect to see a detective. ▪ Sleuth ▪ deduction Elements = a part of something. E.g. a detective is ▪ Fiction ▪ part of the Detective Novel. WHAT IS A PORTFOLIO?

A Portfolio is a collection of drawings, documents, etc., that represent a person's, especially an artist's, work. You are an artist of Detective Fiction! Think of it as your crime case file. YOUR DETECTIVE FICTION PORTFOLIO

▪ Your Portfolio needs to be made up of the following sections: 1. A history of the genre. 2. The Detectives 3. The types of mystery found in Detective Fiction 4. The plot features of Detective Fiction 5. Detectives of today

Quite a few sections, but don’t worry you will be guided through each section. SECTION 1 HISTORY OF THEWhat happened?GENRE When did it happen? So how do you do a history of the genre? Why did it happen?

Well, History, is the discipline that studies the chronological record of events based on a critical examination of source materials and usually presenting an explanation of their causes.

So, put simply you need a timeline of events of Detective Remember: Genre is closely related to genus, a word you may have encountered in biology class. They indicate that Fiction and what everything in a particular category belongs to the same "family" caused them. and has the same origins. Genres of literature would include: detective novels, sci-fi novels, romance novels, and young- adult novels. WHERE TO LOOK.

▪ The simplest way to do this is to hit your favourite search engine and search for ‘history of detection novels’ or crime fiction’ ▪ You need to be choosy though and make sure the web pages you visit will give you quality information. ▪ Try to find the earliest mention of crime fiction or the first book that started it all. ▪ Make notes or draft a timeline of the major publications or changes in the genre from the first novel to the present day. ▪ Also make note on why Detective Fiction started: What influenced it?/Why were the public so interested in it? ▪ Finally you are ready to create a neat and stylish version for you portfolio, you might want to do it now or when you have gathered your notes for the other sections. MODEL AND HELPFUL WEBSITES 1841 . Poe, an American, ▪ Links to websites wrote three stories about a detective in Paris ▪ https://www.britannica.com/art/detective-story- called Dupin. Dupin was an amateur detective narrative-genre who was highly intelligent and could use his ▪ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction creativity and intellect to imagine the mind of Edgar Allen Poe ▪ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_crime_fic the criminal. He investigated for amusement, tion to prove the innocence of an accused man and ▪ https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/a-brief-history- for money. of-the-mystery-novel Poe wrote the stories to make money. True ▪ https://subvertingthegenre.weebly.com/history-of-crime stories were extremely popular in the crime-fiction.html newspapers of the time and Poe used some of ▪ https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/oct/29/ those stories in his novels for example, "The crimebooks Mystery of Mary Rogêt.” ▪ https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and- Auguste Dupin in "The victorians/themes/crime-and-crime-fiction 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle … Purloined Letter" SECTION 2 THE SLEUTH OR DETECTIVE CHARACTER A character is a person represented in a film, , or story.

A character type is a person who seems to represent a particular group of people, having all the qualities that you usually connect with that group.

So, in this section you need to explain the character type of the Sleuth or Detective in Fiction and how they are represented and how they have changed over time.

You will have already found some in your history section such as Sherlock Holmes. And will have a good idea of the different types of detective and when they were written about. This is your previous knowledge and you can use that to help you with this section. WHERE TO LOOK ▪ Again the simplest option is to do a general search for ‘fiction detectives’ ▪ What I would do next is then focus on each character as they came up starting with the earliest detectives. ▪ There are lots of lists of the most famous fiction detectives. These would be a good starting point. Next you could research some of the most famous. Make a note of when they were written about so you can track the changes over time. ▪ You need a good idea of their personality types. The things they say and do. ▪ If you do a timeline of detectives then you can easily see how they have changed over time. IF YOU GET STUCK

▪ The timeline detectives you should research Early Era: are(choose at least 1 one from each era): Ed McBain () ▪ Victorian Detectives Era : John Ball (Virgil Tibbs) ▪ Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin Sjowall and Wahloo () ▪ Sherlock Holmes British Police Detectives Era: ▪ Golden Age Detectives Era1920 - 1939: Inspector Morse ▪ (The British ‘Cosy' detectives) ▪ Inspector Wexford ▪ Modern Detective Era: ▪ Harry Bosch ▪ (The American ‘Hard Boiled’ Detective) Lincoln Rhyme ▪ Phillip Marlowe John Rebus Lisbeth Salander ▪ Bertha Cool There are also hundreds of TV detectives. ▪ Phillip Marlowe: hat, suit, gun and a grimace.

WEBSITES AND MODEL is a typical example of the Hard Boiled Detective. He is an ex who was sacked from the force for criticising police corruption. https://www.crimeculture.com/?page_id=135 He is disillusioned as he has to do boring cases like He is often kidnapped, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Det finding runaway children or beaten up and shot at by ective_Fiction runaway wives. He drinks both criminals and the and smokes a lot and police. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_procedural makes lots of wisecracks He always falls in love with for example, “Neither of the the Femme Fatal (a https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M two people in the room paid criminal women who uses ain/HardBoiledDetective any attention to the way I him for her own came in, although only one advantage). However he of them was dead.” usually outwits both and solves the case in the end. SECTION 3 SUB GENRES OR TYPES OF MYSTERY ▪ There are several sub- genre or different types of mystery in Detective fiction. All detective fiction has features in common such as a detective and ▪ For example, In the cosy mystery genre, the a criminal. Some detective is usually an amateur, the is features are different never described in detail, and the setting is often a or brought to the fore small town. The detective uses their of front, such as forensics observation and deduction, as well as an excellent in a Police Procedural. general knowledge to solve the crime. Think Miss Marple. FOR YOUR PORTFOLIO

▪ Research the sub-genres of Detective Fiction and their Features. ▪ Write up a guide to the sub-genres include examples and images.

▪ Websites to help you:

▪ https://www.writersbureau.com/writing/crime-novels.htm ▪ https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/differences- crime-novel-mystery-novel--novel ▪ https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/ultimate-guide- navigating-genres-subgenres/ SECTION 4 PLOT FEATURES OF DETECTIVE FICTION ▪ Plot, the storyline — what happens when. This is very important in detective fiction because for the reader to enjoy the novel they must be kept in suspense — this means fearful or curious or excited to find out what happens next. The bigger the surprise or shock is, the more exciting and enjoyable the plot is for the reader. ▪ Over the years writers have built up features for Detective fiction plots that work really well. So rather than reinvent plots writers will use the same ones but dress them up in different ways or add their own twists to them. ▪ Therefore, there are several features that appear in all Detective fiction novels and some that only appear in certain sub-genres. FOR YOUR PORTFOLIO ▪ So for your portfolio research the plot features for Detective fiction. ▪ List them in your portfolio with descriptions, explanations, examples and images. ▪ Websites to help:

▪ https://penandthepad.com/elements- detective-fiction-8543768.html ▪ https://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/e /elements-of-detective-fiction MODEL: FEATURE SETTING

▪ The setting in Police fiction has to contain elements of mystery. In a cosy mystery there is usually a large mansion with secret passageways and old relics surrounded by dark woods. ▪ In a Hard Boiled Story it is the mean streets of a city such as LA and most of the scenes are shot at night in the rougher parts of town; there is often a cheap motel or bar involved. ▪ A police procedural will alternate between the , in front of crime boards, and crime scenes where a has taken place or where the criminals have been. There is usually a scene in the forensics laboratory to show how clues are discovered on a body or a weapon. SECTION 5 - MODERN EXAMPLES OF DETECTIVE FICTION ▪ In this section you need to investigate the latest detective or crime . These can be from books, comics, TV programs, plays, Internet stories, and film, even gaming.

▪ For each one you need to explain the type and features of: ▪ Sub-genre ▪ The type of detective. ▪ The type of mystery. ▪ The plot features. ▪ How it is influenced by earlier Detective Fiction. EXAMPLE: LINE OF DUTY TV SERIES

Sub-genre: Police Procedural.

Type of Detective: Police corruption investigators.

Mystery: Abductions, , police conspiracies, tampering.

The plot: Usually one officer goes undercover in the corrupt department, whilst one openly investigates. Typically, the department begins to suspect someone within their own department of misleading the case. Many twist, turns, red herrings and costly mistakes are made before the case is eventually solved.

Influences: Early American Police procedurals, The cites his influences as: , Between the Lines, death of Jean Charles de Menezes. CONCLUSION

Hopefully by now you will have all your research in place and you can assemble your portfolio to the best of your creative ability. Or you may have finished the whole project. Wherever, you are at remember to review your document. This means to check it over for mistakes or areas you feel aren’t quite nailing the brief. Once you have done this congratulations! You are now an expert in the Detective Fiction Genre and all its many sub- genres. You also have a great revision resource to help you with assessments and exams next year.

Now you can print your certificate and get it signed. Bring your certificate and portfolio to school in September and exchange it for lots of Achievement Points. CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE

This Certifies that student:

Has successfully completed the training programme requirement for

DETECTIVE FICTION PORTFOLIO

DATE PARENT ON BEHALF OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT