Elements of mystery have always been represented in literature, but the  detective story didn't arrive on the scene until the mid 1800's.  Edgar  Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in 1841, was  the first.  The Murder's main character, C. Auguste Dupin, was a  brilliant detective who relied on superior deductive powers to solve the  crime.  He and his unnamed narrator companion solved this and two other  mysteries.