 The word detective did not exist at the time Poe wrote " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " , though there were other stories that featured similar problem @-@ solving characters . Das Fräulein von Scuderi ( 1819 ) , by E. T. A. Hoffmann , in which Mlle. de Scuderi , a kind of 19th @-@ century Miss Marple , establishes the innocence of the police 's favorite suspect in the murder of a jeweler , is sometimes cited as the first detective story . Other forerunners include Voltaire 's Zadig ( 1748 ) , with a main character who performs similar feats of analysis , themselves borrowed from The Three Princes of Serendip , an Italian rendition of Amir Khusro 's " Hasht @-@ Bihisht " . 
