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Female crime writers were not always given the same recognition as today. Edgar Allan Poe s detective story The Murders in the Rue Morgue´, written in 1841, is regarded as the beginning of the detective genre. In the following years, the genre was typically dominated by male authors. Since then considerable progress has been made, and female authors have created a very individual way of writing detective novels. However, experts still disagree on a clear definition of the female crime novel. The present study hopes to gain further insight into female detective novels coming from the USA and Great Britain. After giving basic information on the history of female detective novels and the ideal crime scheme, the study analyses the characteristics of female detective novels as opposed to male detective novels and the appeal of detective novels for women writers. Although female detective novels are not a separate sub-genre but rather a separate field within the genre of detective novels, women have given the genre new impulses.

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