Early German and Austrian Detective Fiction: An Anthology

Tannert and Kratz are two American scholars who have turned their attention to the existence of early detective fiction in Germany and Austria. Their anthology includes six samples of detective stories of varying length produced in the nineteenth century. They provide a brief introduction to the entire work, as well as even briefer prefaces to the six novellas they have selected in order to demonstrate the growth and popularity of the genre in the German‐speaking countries of Europe. Here and there they comment on the plagiarism which went on, wittingly or unwittingly, in this field of writing. Maximilian Bottcher, one...