摘要

推理小说，是以推理方式解开故事谜题，大多数是找出杀人凶手的一种小说，通常故事都含有凶杀案与侦探，亦有部分并非以凶杀为主要剧情走向，诸如找寻失物或解开奇异事件的谜底等。侦探小说的一种，不过揭开谜底的并不总是侦探。
本文主要是从阿加莎•克里斯蒂与柯南•道尔这两位西方著名推理小说家的创作方式的区别来展开研究和讨论。通过剖析作者的作品、写作风格、人物性格、成长背景、影响力等从而来展现两位著名作家的辉煌及各自的特点、代表性。两位作者均为推理小说界的名匠，对推理小说在欧洲乃至世界的发展起着重要作用。

关键词：推理小说、阿加莎 克里斯蒂、柯南道尔、福尔摩斯、波罗

Abstract

Detective novel is to solve the puzzle through reasoning and to find out the murderer. Most of these novels usually contain homicide and detective. And there are also some other styles without murdering. Such as finding out the lost thing or finding out the answer of puzzles and so on. In a detective novel, it is not always the detective to solve the problem.
    In this paper, it mainly talks about the difference in creation between Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle. By analyzing these two authors’ works, writing style, personality, growing background, influence, etc and to show their brilliance and their respective characteristics, representative. These two authors are the master of detective novel area. They played an important role in the development of mystery stories.

Key Words：detective novels, Agatha Christie,  Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Hercult Poirot,

1. Introduction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term that is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective, either professional or amateur, investigates and solves a crime. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction. The term “mystery fiction” may sometimes be limited to the subset of detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle element and its logical solution, as a contrast to hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism. However, in more general usage “mystery” may be used to describe any form of crime scene fiction, even if there is no mystery to be solved.

 Although normally associated with the crime genre, the term “mystery fiction” may in certain situations refer to a completely different genre, where the focus is on supernatural mystery, even if no crime is involved. This usage was common in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, where titles such as Dime Mystery, Thrilling Mystery and Spicy Mystery offered what at the time were described as “weird menace“ stories – supernatural horror in the vein of Grand Guignol.