Main content
Whodunnit? Clever Pipe-Smokers
The most famous detective ever is a fictional character – Sherlock Holmes
The most famous detective ever is a fictional character – Sherlock Holmes, whose lineage goes back to another super-smart pipe-smoker, Edgar Allan Poe's detective Auguste Dupin. The continuing appeal of whodunnits as stories in which order conquers crime and instability, continued through the 20th-century in American "pulps" like Black Mask, which published Dashiel Hammett's Sam Spade stories.
More episodes
Â鶹Éç World Service Archive
This programme was restored as part of the World Service archive project