The reader and the detective story

the long version

The Reader and the Detective Story is unique in the criticism of detective fiction, in the sense that it treats the detective story as a special case of reading, governed by special rules and shaped by a highly specialized formula. The method of interpretation is the application of the principles of Response Theory (especially those developed by Hans-Georg Gadamer, Wolfgang Iser, and Hans Robert Jauss) to the reading of a tale of detection. Dove shows how the "English" soft-boiled mystery and the "American" private eye story, although they have different settings and develop different plots, belong in the same subgenre and follow the same formula, inherited directly from Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The Reader and the Detective Story is bound to arouse controversy and to stimulate a reexamination of the nature and purpose of detective fiction.