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Josephine Fung
Dr. Haas
Writing 37
6 October 2014
The Distinct Structure of the Detective Genre
Why have Sherlock stories been exceptionally popular over the years? Delamater and
Prigozy note in their excerpt, Theory and Practice of Classical Detective, the detective genre
adapts to changes through the years by finding themes or other influences that attract the
interests of many readers worldwide (Delamater and Prigozy 1). Notable scholars, such as T.J.
Binyon, Jerome Delamater, Ruth Prigozy, Leroy Panek, and George Dove, all observe many
elements that make detective stories distinct from other stories, however, not all scholars agree
with one another. In Conan Doyles short story, Silver Blaze, it exemplifies how Sherlock
Holmes observation and deduction skills are noteworthy. In the events in the story, Holmes and
Watson both travel to Kings Pyland in Dartmoor to investigate the disappearance of Silver
Blaze, a top pick in the Wessex Cup horse race, and the death of the horses trainer, John Straker.
Both Holmes and Watson team up with Inspector Gregory to try to solve this mystery, but
Inspector Gregory has a theory Holmes does not quite agree with; Holmes uses his knowledge
and skills to analyze the evidence, which ultimately leads to the solution of the murder case.
Both the scholars and Silver Blaze demonstrate how the structure of detective stories is
distinctive.
The structure of detective stories differs from other stories or genres. As mentioned
earlier, Delamater and Prigozy state that the detective genre revises itself as time goes on. This
relates to what award winning detective expert Leroy Panek says about how The new detective

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story aimed at entertaining what it perceived to be the middle-class male mind female readers,
too, latched onto the detective story (Panek 9). All three scholars agree that detective stories
attract the attention and interest of a variety of people. For example, not everyone would enjoy
reading childrens stories because these stories mainly attract the interests of children, but
detective stories appeal to a variety of people. In The Different Story, written by award
nominated author George Dove, he states, The detective story has four identifiable
qualitiesthe main character is a detective main plot of the story is the account of the
investigation and resolution the mystery is no ordinary problem but a complex secret that
appears impossible of solution the mystery is solved (Dove 10). This excerpt is true because
in all the Sherlock short stories, the main character is the detective, Sherlock. In Silver Blaze
by Conan Doyle, the main plot is Holmes and Watson investigating the death of Straker and the
disappearance of Silver Blaze. The complex secret behind this short story is that Straker had a
mistress, Derbyshire, and she indulges in Strakers money, which results in Straker being in debt.
As a result, Straker has to place a bet on another horse and attempt to lame Silver Blaze, but
Silver Blaze ultimately causes Strakers death. In the end, Holmes connects all these points
together and solves the mystery.
An example of a detective story is the Sherlock Holmes stories. In the Sherlock stories,
having Watson as the narrator allows the reader to think critically (because the average person
and Watson do not possess the intuitive skills Holmes does) and to connect the pieces of a
puzzle before the answer to the case is revealed. According to English scholar and crime writer
T.J. Binyon, There are only three stories which are not narrated by Watson universally
considered the weakest (Binyon 10). Without Watson narrating, the Sherlock stories seem to be
less successful. Both Delamater and Prigozy oppose and speculate, The story is first narrated as

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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 and Prigozy 1). Delamater and Prigozy are
more critical of detective stories than Binyon is and they state how having an unintuitive
narrator, such as Watson, is an unfavorable element because he has to rely on detective to find
the solution to the mystery. Without Watson narrating the story, the context and point of view of
the story would be different. For example, in The Hound of the Baskervilles by Conan Doyle,
Sherlock departs from Watson because he has business to attend to. This results in Watson (and
the reader) trying to solve the current case of the supernatural hound on his own. Therefore,
Watson narrates the story by extracting evidence and piecing the evidence together to form a
plausible link to solve the mystery. If Holmes narrated the story, there would not be much of a
case or story to read about, or Sherlock would recount the events that occurred from his point of
view. However, having Watson as the narrator allows both the reader and Watson to deduce
conclusions and to put the pieces of the case together, without the immediate help of Sherlock.
Finally, Sherlocks deductive and observational skills distinguish the detective as a main
character, from other main characters in other stories. In y, they suggest, deductive style of
reasoning follows the belief that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be true (Delamater and Prigozy 22). This relates to Holmess
reasoning in Silver Blaze: If left to himself [Silver Blaze] his instincts would have been either
to return to Kings Pyland or go over to. Why should he run wild upon the moor? Why should
gypsies kidnap him? These people always clear out when they hear of trouble, for they do not
wish to be pestered by the police (Silver Blaze) Holmes is eliminating possibilities as he
accumulates more and more evidence to arrive at a solution. This quote shows Holmess thought
process and deduction. This also ties in with how In examining his belongings I was fortunate

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enough to discover not only the method of the crime, but even its motives I at once concluded
that Straker was leading a double life, and keeping a second establishment. The nature of the bill
showed that there was a lady in the case, and one who had expensive tastes" (Silver Blaze).
Delamater and Prigozy would agree that Holmes does not think like the average person; he does
not overlook a single detail, which makes him extremely meticulous.
The structure of a detective story does not compare to other stories structures. The
beginnings of the detective genre starts with what happened during the classical stage of genre
development. Dove and Panek disagree about the purpose of detective stories. Panek speculates
The presence of half-successful in the late nineteenth century... lessened the pressure to make
the crime story into a moral tract (Panek 8), but Dove disagrees and states, The conventionality
of the detection genre is the chief source of that absence of stress which, according to Gadamer,
characterizes the play experience (Dove 29). Seeing that the police force in the Victorian era
was inefficient in their jobs, authors of received the opportunity to write about detective stories,
which is one of the reasons why the detective genre flourished in this point in time. Panek
supports his claim by elaborating how detective stories would not have been created without the
detective and how the increase of large cities directly resulted in demand for the police and
detectives (Panek 8). However, Dove notes that reading a detective novel is similar to doing a
crossword puzzle because both are stress-free and neither has a goal beyond itself (Dove 3).
Although both Dove and Panek do not agree on the same point, their arguments both note how
the themes of detective stories change, but the structure of detective stories stay the same (Dove
41). Although Conan Doyle popularized detective stories over a century ago, the detective genre
is still one of the most popular genres to this day.
Works Cited

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Binyon, T.J. "Murder Will Out": The Detective in Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1989. PDF File.
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sharon, MA: Higher Read, LLC 20143.
Kindle eBook. Online.
Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy, eds. Theory and Practice of Classic Detective
Fiction. New York: Praeger, 1997. Print. 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.
Panek, Leroy. Beginnings. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH:
Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987. PDF File.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. "Adventure 1: Silver Blaze." The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
Lit2Go Edition. 1894. Web.