South African Crime and Detective Fiction in English: A Bibliography and Publishing History

Abstract

Against the general assumption that crime and detective fiction has only recently emerged as a genre in South African publishing, this essay will consider the publishing history of this genre in South Africa. The question that is considered is whether trade or general-interest publishers targeting a mass audience in South Africa have produced ‘whodunnits’ in addition to their output of cookbooks and romance fiction? The evidence of writers like June Drummond, James McClure and Wessel Ebersohn, at the very least, suggests that they have, but there is also an older history. This article aims to develop a bibliography and publishing profile of this genre. This will enable us to build a contextualised historical perspective and deepen our understanding of a very popular genre.