Though the term "whodunit" was coined sometime in the early 1930s,[REF][REF][REF] it has been argued that the detective story itself has its origins as early as the 429 BC Sophocles play Oedipus Rex[REF] and the 10th century tale "The Three Apples" from One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) [REF].
Perhaps the first modern English work that can be classified as both historical fiction and a mystery however is the 1911 Melville Davisson Post story "The Angel of the Lord," which features amateur detective Uncle Abner in pre-American Civil War West Virginia [REF].