This volume contains fourteen essays by authoritative academics studying the field of mystery and detection fiction. The essays all concentrate on the first novels in established series, analyzing ways in which the opening books of the series do or do not create patterns followed in succeeding novels. Some of the essays comment in detail on the formulae adopted by the particular author, setting the earliest in a context.

Others concentrate more on analysis of the subject novel itself, indicating more briefly how that book relates to those which follow it. Some discuss such questions as what exactly is the first novel in some rather complex series and in several cases more than one initiating book is discussed. No attempt has been made to include consideration of a representative sample of the various types of detective series, but a variety of authors is covered, ranging from such classics as Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, and Dorothy L. Sayers, to more recent authors like James McClure, Joseph Hansen, and Colin Dexter.

Male and female writers and detectives, gay and straight, majority and minority detectives are included, and traditional, hard-boiled, police-procedural subgenres are represented.