Detective Fiction, the Police and Secrecy in Early Twentieth Century Siam

Abstract

The detective figure, literary and real, emerged in Siam between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to bring clarity to increasingly complex social and political situations. In early detective fiction including the Seup saphakan [ | Investigating it All] (1892–97) and Nithan Thorng-in [ | The Tales of Thorng-in] (1904–05) series this was certainly the case – mysteries were solved, secrets revealed. In real life, however, the state's deployment of an army of detectives did not so much clarify as codify mysteries. This paper examines the links between the literary and the real detective, arguing that the appearance of detective fiction provided the vocabulary for understanding and dealing with social and political change in early twentieth century Siam.

From Hamlet to Holmes: literary detective tradition

“…The gothic novel, developed from the darker aspect of romanticism, was mainly impacted by 'the reign of horror' during which the number of enemies of the kingdom was decreased by the increase of 'guillotines' on the corner of every district. The formation of police department accomplished the mission as Samson Lim states in 'Detective fiction, the police, and secrecy in the early twentieth century "…these new types of stories emerged in parallel with the development of an organized detective unit within the country's police force…" (Lim, 2012).…”

“…Generally defined as "…a story is written in prose that begins with a crime, usually a murder, or some other puzzling occurrence that is solved…" (Lim, 2012), detective stories, with a short history of an age, have been categorized in different dichotomies according to their characters, context, plot, and length. They are mainly known as hardboiled, historical, police procedural, inverted, courtroom, serial killer, a locked room, and supernatural or occult mystery detective stories with a good many confusing discoveries deserve praising the reasoning faculty of the detectives.…”

Local Attention: Melbourne on the Map in Fergus Hume’s Mystery of a Hansom Cab

“…Fitzgerald hires a hansom cab, and Gorby hops into the next cab, instructing the driver to follow. Samson Lim has argued that car‐chase scenes in developing cities necessarily emphasize those cities’ new infrastructures, such as paved roads and access to vehicles (87). Such is the case here where, like the murder route, the car chase underscores the modernity and development of the Melbourne setting by repeatedly enacting it as traversable space.…”