Crime Fiction Handbook

The Crime Fiction Handbook presents a comprehensive introduction to the origins, development, and cultural significance of the crime fiction genre, focusing mainly on American British, and Scandinavian texts. "An outstanding piece of work that deserves a wide audience. Peter Messent's The Crime Fiction Handbook is essential reading. I can imagine no better introduction to the genre." David Schmid, University at Buffalo With its compelling blend of murder, mystery, and detection, it should come as no surprise that crime fiction is a hugely popular literary genre. The Crime Fiction Handbook presents a comprehensive introduction to the origins, development, and cultural significance of the crime fiction genre, focusing mainly on its American, British, and Scandinavian forms. The book's first main section presents an overview of the subject, addressing the politics of crime fiction and exploring some of its main variants – classical and hard-boiled detective fiction, the private eye and the police novel, and fictions of transgression. The section concludes with an exploration of three key elements of the genre: the links between vision, supervision, and the urban landscape; representations of the body and the acts of violence done to it; and issues both of race and gender. In-depth readings of fourteen of the most important crime fictions in the Western tradition then follow, beginning with Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and proceeding from classic works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler to contemporary writings by James Ellroy, Thomas Harris, Patricia Cornwell, Ian Rankin, and Stieg Larsson. The Crime Fiction Handbook offers fascinating insights into the appeal of crime fiction while revealing how the genre both entertains and provides a mirror to the most pressing social issues of the day. The Crime Fiction Handbook presents a comprehensive introduction to the origins, development, and cultural significance of the crime fiction genre, focusing mainly on American British, and Scandinavian texts. Provides an accessible and well-written introduction to the genre of crime fiction Moves with ease between a general overview of the genre and useful theoretical approaches Includes a close analysis of the key texts in the crime fiction tradition Identifies what makes crime fiction of such cultural importance and illuminates the social and political anxieties at its heart. Shows the similarities and differences between British, American, and Scandinavian crime fiction traditions