R. Austin Freeman
(London: 11th April 1862 – Gravesend, Kent: 28th September 1943)
Dr. Richard Austin Freeman was a British physician (a colonial surgeon practicing in the Gold Coast - now Ghana) and author. He was forced by ill health to retire from practice in 1904 and became an author.
He was the creator of the inverted detective story in 1912 with The Case of Oskar Brodski. In the classic detective story, not all of the details of the perpetrator of the crime are revealed until the story's climax. The reader is for the most part wondering who the perpetrator is and that is why these types of detective stories are also called "whodunit". In an inverted detective story, the crime is shown or described at the beginning often including the identity of the perpetrator. The bulk of the story describes the detective's attempt to solve the mystery. That is why they are sometimes referred to as "howdunit" or a "howcatchem".
