1. what is ?
1.1. american literature is a written or produced in the United States of America and its preceding colonies (for specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States). Before the founding of the United States, the British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States were heavily influenced by English literature. The American literary tradition thus began as part of the broader tradition of English literature.
2. genre
2.1. crime fiction
2.1.1. what is ?
2.1.1.1. Crime fiction is a popular genre known for its strong narrative arc and material specificity.
2.1.2. When ?
2.1.2.1. 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century genre
2.1.3. Authors
2.1.3.1. 1. Peter James
2.1.3.2. 2. James Patterson
2.1.3.3. 3. Val McDermid
2.1.3.4. 4. Ian Rankin
2.1.3.5. 5. Agatha Christie
2.1.3.6. 6. Martina Cole
2.1.3.7. 7. Sheila Quigley
2.1.3.8. 8. R. C. Bridgestock
2.1.3.9. 9. Karin Slaughter
2.1.3.10. 10. Tess Gerritsen
2.1.4. History
2.1.4.1. Looking at the history of crime fiction as a serious genre, it didn't begin to be considered a serious genre until a round 1900. Crime fiction generally started in 1841 with the publication of Edgar Allan Poe's story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'. From there it gradually spread over the United States. By the turn of the century crime fiction was generally acknowledged as a new and special kind of literature.
2.1.5. books
2.1.5.1. The Woman in White (1854), Wilkie Collins
2.1.5.2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Agatha Christie
2.1.5.3. The New York Trilogy (1985-86), Paul Auster
2.1.6. Characteristics
2.1.6.1. An Interested Sleuth. ...
2.1.6.2. Unsavory Characters. ...
2.1.6.3. Danger and Tension.
2.1.6.4. Seemingly Unsolvable
2.2. subgenres
2.2.1. The whodunit. ...
2.2.2. The cosy mystery. ...
2.2.3. The police procedural. ...
2.2.4. High fantasy. ...
2.2.5. Low fantasy/Urban fantasy. ...
2.2.6. Fairy tales, folklore and mythology.
2.2.7. The hardboiled detective