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.
