TY  - BOOK
AU  - Scaggs, John
TI  - Crime fiction
T2  - The New Critical Idiom
SN  - 9780415318242
U1  - 823.087209 
PY  - 2005///
CY  - London
PB  - Routledge
KW  - Detective and mystery stories, English-History and criticism
KW  - Crime in literature
KW  - Detective and mystery stories, American
N2  - Crime Fiction provides a lively introduction to what is both a wide-ranging and hugely popular literary genre. Using examples from a variety of novels, short stories, films and televisions series, John Scaggs:

-presents a concise history of crime fiction - from biblical narratives to James Ellroy - broadening the genre to include revenge tragedy and the gothic novel
-explores the key sub-genres of crime fiction, such as 'Rational Criminal Investigation', The Hard-Boiled Mode', 'The Police Procedural' and 'Historical Crime Fiction'
-locates texts and their recurring themes and motifs in a wider social and historical context
-outlines the various critical concepts that are central to the study of crime fiction, including gender, narrative theory and film theory
-considers contemporary television series like C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation alongside the 'classic' whodunnits of Agatha Christie.
Accessible and clear, this comprehensive overview is the essential guide for all those studying crime fiction and concludes with a look at future directions for the genre in the twentieth-first century
ER  -