What is a detetive novel?

Answer 1

I hope you meant detective novel.

This is a subset of the enigma story - where there is something to find or figure out. In this case there is a central figure that is responsible for the searching, investigating and figuring out the enigma. As it is a 'detective' novel the central character is often a private investigator or a police officer of lieutenant status (different countries will have different ranking of course). This isn't always so however Agatha Christie did much with 'Miss Marple', an elderly spinster that we were constantly surprised was still alive for another case. Very often (some of us think unnecessarily so) the novel is concerned with murder but again this doesn't have to be so. Edgar Allan Poe wrote one such about a 'Purloined Letter', as did Arthur Conan Doyle. Agatha Christie did at least one on stolen jewelery. Kidnapping has also been a common theme.