The origins of the detective genre are archaic, found in the Bible, in the medieval Arab literature "Book of a thousand and one nights", in the medieval genre of Chinese literature "Huaben", etc. The weakening of the religious principle in the society led to a wide spread of the detective genre in literature, as well as to the appearance of such subgenre as a police detective. The modern Russian detective in the 1990's - early 2000's is experiencing an upsurge, development, and becomes the most mass genre attracting a diverse readership. That literary genre remains popular and relevant in the XXI century, as evidenced by numerous publications.