( also detective novel ) n
a story in which there is a murder or other crime and a detective who tries to solve it. The best-known British writers of detective stories include Arthur Conan Doyle , Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell . The older type of British detective story is often set in a large country house, and typically includes the discovery of a murder at the beginning, a small group of characters who are all suspected of having committed the murder, and a surprising solution at the end. In the US, detective stories more often involve the police or the adventures of a ‘private eye’ (= private detective), and are often more violent and realistic. Famous US writers of such stories include Dashiell Hammett , Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard . Detective stories are also known as ‘detective fiction’ or ‘crime fiction’ and informally as ‘whodunnits’ (or ‘whodunits’).