who is credited with creating the prototype of the mystery story?

[mary swanson]

  Who is credited with creating the prototype of the mystery story?

[LeMarchand]

It could be Edgar Allan Poe, whose story "The Murders of the Rue Morgue" (in 1841) contained the first fictional detective: C. Auguste Dupin.

[Peter Pedant]

Wilkie Collins, Woman in White annd the Moonstone?

All these three are worth a read by the way

Murders because of the Freudian overtones (freud not having come up with his theories by then)

The woman in white because fo the way in which it is written.

Moonstone because of the novel cashes in on the fashion of interest concerning India. It also has a detective, a re-enactment, and exciting scenes set around Limping Lucy and people drowning in the Grimpen Mire.

[LeMarchand]

I think Peter Pedant is right - I'm fairly sure (now he's said it!) that I've heard Wilkie Collins' name in this capacity.