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when you think of mysteries, maybe you think of Sherlock Holmes with his

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deerstalker hat and magnifying glass. or maybe you go straight to the newer

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Benedict Cumberbatch model .but mysteries are way older than Benedict. [actor playing Sherlock Holmes pictured]

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heck they are even older than the original Holmes tracing their origins

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all the way back to ancient Rome. well the initial interest in mysteries wasn't

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kicked off by fictional stories but by real-life mysteries as presented by

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Cicero. well Cicero was a lot of things, a

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philosopher and orator a statesman and a whole bunch of other things that would [statue of Cicero pictured]

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give hand cramps to whoever had to engrave his bust. Oh what sorry bust dude

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and we left one off the list. he was also a lawyer. you might need a bigger plaque

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there. anyway some of the speeches he gave in courtrooms really got the public

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interested in mysteries and crime. for instance one case was about a guy

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accused of killing his father. already pretty juicy stuff right? well however [son mourns father in cemetery]

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Cicero argued that the murder wasn't committed by the accused, but by others

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who wanted to frame the son and steal his family's fortune. had Cicero

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specialized in tax law the surge of interest in mysteries might not have

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happened. well unpaid indirect taxes on salt evaporation ponds and really don't

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put butts in seats and movie theaters right? well when it comes to mystery [movie on taxes plays to empty theater]

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fiction it would take nearly 2,000 years for it to really get going with the work

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of Edgar Allan Poe. although you might know him more for his poem about that

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Raven, he essentially invented the detective fiction story with his tales

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of sea Auguste Dupin, laying the groundwork of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's

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iconic Sherlock Holmes. we hope Cumberbatch sends a thank you

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card to Poe. never known it .well mystery fiction continued on through the work of [modern Holmes pictured]

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Agatha Christie whose fictional detectives have cured wha-ho and Jane

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Marple solved more than their fair share of cases, and the tradition didn't stop

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there .rolling along through the writings of Dashiell Hammett, whose cynical trench

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coat wearing anti-heroes put a new twist on the genre. great for fans of mysteries

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but even better for people who sold trench coats. [ man grins from behind many trench coats]

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