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African crime fiction is a new phenomenon. It falls into two categories: novels that show reality and novels that show a reality to which the continent aspires. According to literary critics, African literature mirrors African life in all its elements and diversity. This calls for not just telling, but telling the truth, situating an abject theme in the register of plausibility. In this game of representation, the singularity of the crime novel shines, to the detriment of other genres, notably through an explicit intertext that expresses various social discourses. To analyze contemporary crime fiction, this article outlines the history of the appearance and the revelations of African crime novels written in French, English and Portuguese.