Sentence:  Now , although the roots of the <WSD>mystery</WSD> story in serious literature go back as far as Balzac , Dickens , and Poe , it was not until the closing decades of the 19 th century that the private detective became an established figure in popular fiction . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a story about a crime (usually murder) presented as a novel or play or movie