ABSTRACT
The modern detective genre was born in the nineteenth century, a time when scientific positivism was on the rise, naturalist sciences brought new discoveries about prehistory, and debates on topics ranging from optics to evolution were being popularised through public lectures and periodicals. This chapter presents a summary of key overlaps between crime fiction and modern science, with an emphasis on the French and anglophone traditions. In nineteenth century, new forensic technologies were increasingly used by police and the justice system for criminal identification. The visual icon of classic crime fiction may well be Sherlock Holmes’s magnifying glass. Evoking the scientific gaze of entomological precision, this optical instrument lends authority to the murder detective, rational solver of mystery and consummate “private eye”. Fred Vargas is the pseudonym of French historian, archaeozoologist and crime writer Frederique Audoin-Rouzeau.
