From a young age, children are enthralled by fictional characters who go on crime-solving adventures that nurture the imagination. Instead of detective fiction diminishing in popularity as we get older, the genre seems only to increase in popularity. After all, who can resist an Agatha Christie thriller, or a classic from the venerable Arthur Conan Doyle?

But what makes these crime mysteries so attractive to readers across the globe? Simply, because it meets with so many criteria that allow a reader to lose themselves in the writing. More specifically, detective fiction fulfills the following criteria:

Black And White

Detective stories clearly define the lines between right and wrong, good and bad and innocent and guilty. This makes it easy for the reader to identify who is right and who is in the wrong and attribute the necessary ethical and moral characteristics to the relevant characters.

Character Identification

Assigning these characteristics does not necessarily mean that the crime investigating ‘good guy’ has no darker personality traits. It has become increasingly popular in modern detective tales to include character flaws in the hero of the story to make them easier for the reader to identify with. These character flaws can however not in any way detract from the hero’s ability to solve the crime.

Readers may also identify with any of the other characters involved in the telling of the tale. They could see themselves as a lover, a friend, a confidante, a side-kick or even the criminal.

The Scene Of An Accident

Ever driven by the scene of an accident and been unable to divert your eyes? Detective novels have the same effect where often gruesome and macabre crimes offer the greatest attraction. The more horrifying the crime, the more a reader will want to follow the detective in solving the mystery.

The Puzzle

Readers are often attracted to detective fiction to test their own crime solving abilities. They like to see if they can identify ‘whodunnit,’ how the crime was enacted and why the act was committed as early in the novel as possible. Each piece of the puzzle is carefully analyzed and categorized as to it’s importance in the entire plot. Pages are often re-read to find details that may have been missed and then the reader can’t wait to get to the end of the book to see if they were right.

The Facts

Detective novels that are factual in nature increase the popularity of the genre. Readers like to get involved in the processes and procedures used by the investigator in solving the crime. It is more than likely true that the stories involved in the genre are probably far from the reality of the investigation work done by an actual private detective. However, it is not necessary that the fiction needs to be based on real events, only that the investigating process needs to follow real life as closely as possible.

In other words, the fantasy must be somehow based in reality. Each mystery must pass the scrutiny of the reader to gauge how possible the action is and whether it could be performed in reality. Too many holes in the plot will fail to captivate the reader and detective novels that don’t pay homage to the facts are less popular.

However, this does not mean that the mystery surrounding the crime should not be incredibly creative and innovative. One of the main attractions of crime stories is the ability to solve the mystery, no matter how far-fetched the actual crime may seem.

The Revelation

Revealing the perpetrator is the climax of the novel but the story never ends there. Not only does the detective have to solve the crime but they need to catch the bad guy or gal and find out why they did it. This allows the reader to be captivated by the need to answer more than one question throughout the tale.