AbstractThis chapter identifies common features of detective fiction and provides an overview of the history of the genre in order to explain the strong conceptual link between lists and detective fiction. The chapter explains how the idea of lists as an ordering principle is rooted in the genre’s history, and it illustrates the clearly marked reader positions that develop across various subgenres. Particular attention is paid to the Newgate Calendar, to the central role that Edgar Allan Poe and French detective fiction played in establishing the genre in Great Britain, to the genre’s close relation to sensation fiction, and to the role of the police. The chapter also discusses the influence of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and the importance of genre rules established during the Golden Age of detective fiction. It concludes with the numerous rule catalogs produced by writers in the Golden Age period that highlights the genre’s affinity to enumerative forms.