In this series we turn the pages of classic short stories to put together the literary building blocks of how a particular genre or theme began, how it built its foundations to become the well-loved and well-worn genre that it is today.

Do authors have the same ideas at more or less the same time? Or can they sniff out an opportunity as to which way the tastes of an audience are moving.

Success undoubtedly builds success and in literary terms we can more politely say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the surest way to reach a hungry readership is to build on the fortune and flair of your literary colleagues.

The Whodunit is one of the great themes of literary fiction. We all believe that given the right clue at the right time we can deduce and logically unmask the killer. Unfortunately, our authors are not the most helpful of co-workers in this regard. With their more than liberal use of plot twists, red herrings and McGuffins they merrily ensure that the only one who really knows is them and them alone until it is time to reveal who really did the deed, and how.

01 - Foundations of Fiction - Murder Mystery - An Introduction

2 - The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe

3 - Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson

4 - A Thousand Deaths by Jack London

5 - The Trial for Murder by Charles Dickens

6 - A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell

7 - Better Dead by J M Barrie

8 - The Cone by H G Wells

9 - The Hounds of Fate by Saki

10 - The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railroad by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

11 - The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce

12 - The Corpse Light by J E Preston Muddock writing as Dick Donovan

13 - A Thing That Glistened by Frank R Stockton

14 - Nightmare in Yellow by Fredric Brown

15 - Was It An Illusion. A Parson's Story by Amelia Edwards

16 - A Twin Identity by Edith Stewart Drewery

17 - In A Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

18 - The Snow by Hugh Walpole

19 - August Heat by W F Harvey

20 - Allelulia by T F Powys

21 - Juggernaut by D K Broster

22 - The Bundle of Letters by Móritz Jókai

23 - The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe