Armchair detective fan and bibliographer Allen J. Hubin." It was published from 1967 to 1997. Armchair detective An armchair detective is a fictional investigator who does not personally visit a crime scene or interview witnesses; instead, he or she either reads the story of the crime in a newspaper or has it recounted by another person. As the armchair detective never sees any of the investigation, the reader can attempt to solve the mystery on the same terms as the detective. The phrase possibly originates in a Sherlock Holmes story from 1893, "The Greek Interpreter", in which Holmes says of his brother
Jack Spratt (fictional detective) happily married with five children. In addition, he is shown in the beginning of "The Big Over Easy" to be an experienced and accomplished police detective, but low on self-confidence, virtually incapable of securing convictions and never recognized for the ones he does make. The reason for this is that police funding is based on public approval, which is in turn influenced by the news magazine "Amazing Crime Stories". This enormously popular "true crime" magazine prints glamorous police cases--usually involving noir clichés like secret societies, mafia assassins and baffling, meticulously planned murders--that are allegedly true and unedited, but actually largely