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John Barlow
Professor Haas
Writing 37
11/6/14
Conventions of the Detective Genre
The detective genre as we know it was largely popularized due to Victorian Era
writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Conan Doyle created a character named Sherlock
Holmes who has become the iconic figure that people think of when discussing
detectives. Doyles stories have created a myriad of conventions of the detective genre
that still exist today. Due to the huge popularity of the detective genre, and Sherlock
Holmes in specific, numerous scholars have analyzed and written about the
conventions of the genre. Scholars such as Delamater, Dove, Binyon, and Panek have
all written about different conventions of Sherlock Holmes and the detective genre in
general. Their claims can be backed up with evidence from many, if not all of Doyles
short stories and novels.
One of the main conventions of the detective genre is the detectives ability to
observe, reason, and solve crimes. Holmes is considered a machine who uses his skills
to solve crimes and problems that leave the rest of us bewildered. Delamater calls
Holmes the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen
(Delamater 22). Holmes had such impeccable observational and reasoning skills that he
could be seen as a machine. Panek also compares Holmes to a mathematically
accurate crime-solving machine (Panek 82). Both of these scholars see Holmes in a
way that is almost inhuman. In A Scandal in Bohemia, a short story by Conan Doyle,

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Holmes says if a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black
mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge on the right side of his tophat to show where he has secreted his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not
pronounce him to be an active member of the medical profession. Holmes can take
one look at a person and immediately deduce what their profession must be.
The way the story and narrator interact with the reader is crucial to the detective
genre. Dove writes The reader cannot be excluded from the definition of the tale of
detection (Dove 1). If the story wasnt written with the purpose to keep the reader
interested and guessing, then the detective genre would not have been successful. The
story is presented in a way that piques the reader's interest and keeps them guessing.
Delamater says the story is narrated as it appears to the bewildered bystanders who
observe the crime and are to some extent threatened by it but who cannot arrive at its
solution (Delamater 1). The third party narrator who isnt the detective is also
immensely important to the story. This is where Watson becomes an incredibly
important figure in the Sherlock Holmes series. Binyon considers the creation of Holmes
a stroke of genius because no matter how unrealistic or outlandish the events he
narrates, they are still believable due to his calm and straightforward personality which
gives the events a sense of reality that they otherwise would lack (Binyon 10). Binyon
also believes the Watsonian narrative tone to be one of the four crucial elements when
attempting to imitate Doyles detective story (Binyon 12). Watson provides the
prospective that the reader needs. He isnt a genius like Holmes; hes someone who the
readers can relate to and put themselves in his position. In The Red-Headed League,
Watson says I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was always

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oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings with Sherlock Holmes. Here
I had heard what he had heard, I had seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it
was evident that he saw clearly not only what had happened, but what was about to
happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and grotesque. This says
that Watson can see everything that Holmes can see, but he cant immediately deduce
exactly what it meant. This is perfect for the reader as they can have Watson narrate
everything that Holmes sees, without immediately having Holmes give away his thought
process.
The conventions and structure of the detective genre are very obvious and the
reader can expect them in every detective story that they read or watch. These
conventions have made the genre enormously popular; it continues to grow even today
with cinema and television, while still holding true to the successful formula that Doyle
developed in the Victorian Era.

Works Cited:
Binyon, T.J. "Murder Will Out": The Detective in Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1989. PDF File.

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Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy, eds. Theory and Practice of Classic

Detective

Fiction. New York: Praeger, 1997.

Panek, Leroy. Doyle. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH:
Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987. PDF File.

Dove, George N. The Different Story. The Reader and the Detective Story. Bowling
Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1997. PDF File.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. "Adventure 1: A Scandal in Bohemia." The Adventures of

Sherlock Holmes. Lit2Go Edition. 1892. Web.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. "Adventure 2: The Red-Headed League." The Adventures of

Sherlock Holmes. Lit2Go Edition. 1892. Web.