Crime fiction now accounts for around 25-30% of the fiction sold around
the world, often making up at least half of the novels on best-seller
lists. Whether it's the classic works of Arthur Conan Doyle or the
contemporary writings of John Grisham, it seems that we just can't get
enough murder and mystery. So just what is it that makes this dark,
often bloody, world so compelling? Why do we "enjoy" such best-selling
novels as The Silence of the Lambs which stars a gourmet
cannibal! And why, over the past twenty years, has our taste for it
grown? Magnifying glass and notebook in hand, Peter Messent sets off to
investigate...
Searching for clues to explain the key components that make crime
fiction so popular, The
Crime Fiction Handbook gives the reader a comprehensive and
accessible introduction to its origins, development and political and
explores its cultural significance, focusing mainly on its American,
British and Scandinavian forms. Along the way, by examining more closely
the role played by a changing urban and political landscape, feelings
about the body, and issues of race and gender, it reveals how, at its
core, crime fiction is the genre that best speaks to our times, inner
anxieties, and fears about the world in which we live.
Of course, like any good detective, Messent provides plenty of
supporting evidence in the form of in-depth readings of fourteen of the
most important works in the Western tradition, from the works of Edgar
Allan Poe to Stieg Larsson with plenty more in between.
A must for anyone looking to probe more deeply into the crime fiction
world...
