The convention of the loner in crime fiction

The representation of the sleuth as a 'loner' is one of the most dominant and durable conventions of crime fiction. Despite this, there is surprisingly limited scholarship on the wider sociological ideas that could be considered as the foundation of the convention. This paper draws together ideas such as Georg Simmel's notion of 'the stranger', Robert Park and John Irwin's studies of the city, Baudelaire's 'the flaneur', and the anthropological use of liminality and examines their possible relationship to the convention of the loner.