Like a private eye waiting in the alleyway across the street, detective fiction lurks at the heart of modern storytelling. Not only do its tales infiltrate every genre, but the very nature of the detective story itself helps us understand how we build and share knowledge. Now, the rising digital age ushers in changes more quickly than we can understand them. We face fundamental shifts in communication, family, entertainment, society, and even the way we think.

Media scholar Brendan Riley demonstrates how contemporary detective fiction will help us solve these mysteries. By leveraging the tools of literature and media studies, we can uncover clues about modern phenomena like conspiracy theory, groupthink, and the nature of our digital identities. The Digital Age Detective: Mysteries in a Changing Landscape of Literacy shows how these clues help us solve the mystery of the future.