His detective fiction, an escapist genre. The marketing for today's thrillers and cozy

mysteries that encourages us to get away from the real world for a while by reading about

fictional crimes would suggest that it is. Expecting to be soothed by plots that center

on violent death might sound counterintuitive, but it's the structure around the crimes,

the power of the detective to create order out of chaos that is comforting.

Underlying all of this are assumptions about justice.

That through the investigations of a detective, the wicked perpetrators will receive their

just desserts and balance will be restored to the universe. And by and large,

it is a police force that enforces this justice. Even if it is an amateur or private detective

like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot who has cracked the mystery. It's the police who will

lead the culprit away to a cell after the dramatic denumer. Whether individual officers are portrayed

as whip smart or bumbling, the police as a whole are a default part of crime fiction.

Their presence is rarely questioned. But interactions with the police in real life are not always

as straightforward or fair as their portrayed in mysteries. For some people and groups, calling

the police has historically made their situation worse, not better. Whether that's because of racism,

sexism or other forms of prejudice. What would it look like if those stories and experiences

were reflected in detective fiction? That's what we're going to explore in today's episode.

Welcome to She Done It. I'm Caroline Crampton.

Detective fiction has always been closely intertwined with the police,

right from its beginnings in the 19th century. The two emerged around the same time and developed

in tandem. Eugene Francois Vidoc began organising an informal brigade of plain clothes law

enforcement officers in 1811. Two years later, the emperor Napoleon signed a decree that made

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