Poe's detective stories featuring C. Auguste Dupin influenced many later mystery writers, most notably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes eventually eclipsed Poe's Dupin. The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All Four Novels and 56 Short Stories, published by Bantam Classic and Loveswept in 1998, demonstrates Doyle's mastery of the genre.

Investigative methods have advanced considerably since the mid-nineteenth century. Greg Fallis's Just the Facts, Ma'Am: A Writer's Guide to Investigators and Investigation Techniques, published in 1998 by Writer's Digest Books, details the modern techniques that police use when conducting investigations, as well as the personal traits needed to become a successful investigator today.

In more recent detective fiction, female private investigators have joined the field. One of the most notable is by Sue Grafton, whose alphabet series of mysteries—featuring the gutsy female private investigator, Kinsey Millhone—are some of the...