2.  Mystery stories as we know them began in the mid- 1800s.  Edgar Allen Poe introduced mystery’s first detective in his story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in 1841.  Poe continued these stories and became known as the father of mystery.

3.  Charles Dickens also made many contributions to the beginnings of the mystery genre.  His most famous mystery is “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” written in 1870, because the author’s death left the story unfinished.  In 1878, Anna Katherine Green became the first woman to write a detective novel.  She wrote “The Leavenworth Case.”

4.  1887 brought the most famous mystery detective: Sherlock Holmes.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote “A Study in Scarlet” and began the Sherlock Holmes adventures.  Conan Doyle’s writing exhibited a new style to solving mysteries by making the act of deducing clues a science.

5.  Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. Watson quickly became indispensable to mystery readers everywhere.

6.  The 1920s brought about many more mystery writers.  The popularity of mystery fiction was at an all time high.  During this time, famous mystery author Agatha Christie began her stories. She wrote more than 80 novels and is probably the most well-known mystery writer in history.

7.  Radio mysteries became popular in the early to mid 1900s.  The 1940s brought mysteries to the television, with popular characters such as Perry Mason, Simon Templar, Columbo, and Jessica Fletcher of the “Murder, She Wrote” series.  Later television mysteries included “Dragnet,” “Hawaii 5-O,” and “Alfred Hitchcock.”

8.  More mystery stories began to be written for children, including Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown.  Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine (“Goosebumps”) began writing mysteries for children.  The game CLUE brought mystery to even more children.

9.  Today, mystery continues to be an ever- popular genre for both children and adults.  Here are some you may recognize: