When he published "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Edgar Allan Poe established a new literary genre. Despite the fact that mysteries were not a new literary genre, Poe was the first to establish a character that solved the mystery by evaluating the facts of the case. Before Poe, writers usually presented their stories without explaining how the characters arrived at their conclusions; as a result, readers were often left wondering what really happened in the story. Mystery stories are stories where everything is not exactly what it seems. The reader does not know who or what committed the crime until the end of the story. In order to solve the mystery, the protagonist needs evidence that can help determine the truth about the matter. For example, in "A Murder Was Committed" by Agatha Christie, everyone believes that Mrs. Van Hopper's death was an accident. However, there is evidence that suggests otherwise: a broken lamp, signs of struggle, and blood stains on her clothing. Therefore, Mrs. Van Hopper must have been murdered. Mystery stories were first used in literature in the late 18th century. The first known use of the term "mystery story" was in 1798 when John Nichols described Arthur Murphy's "Poetical Mysteries" as such. Poe was the first to use this type of story extensively in his work.