Crime Fiction Handbook

Peter Messent is Emeritus Professor of Modern American Literature at the University of Nottingham. A specialist on Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, and crime fiction, he has published numerous books and articles on a variety of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American writers. His most recent publication is the prize-winning book Mark Twain and Male Friendship (2009).

• Acknowledgments viiIntroductory Note ixPart 1 Introduction 1Part 2 The Politics, Main Forms, and Key Concerns of Crime Fiction 9The Politics of Crime Fiction 11The Types of Crime Fiction 27Classical Detective Fiction 27Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction 34The Police Novel 41Transgressor Narratives 50Vision, Supervision, and the City 60Crime and the Body 75Gender Matters 85Representations of Race 96Part 3 Some Key Works in Crime Fiction 107Edgar Allan Poe: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) 109Arthur Conan Doyle: The Sign of Four (1890) 116Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) 127Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930) 136Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939) 143James M. Cain: Double Indemnity (1936) 151Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) 159Chester Himes: Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965) 167Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö: The Laughing Policeman (1968) 176James Ellroy: The Black Dahlia (1987) 187Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs (1988) 198Patricia Cornwell: Unnatural Exposure (1997) 208Ian Rankin: The Naming of the Dead (2006) 218Stieg Larsson: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005) 227End Note 241References 243Index 253

“Summing Up: Recommended.  Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.”  (Choice, 1 September 2013)“Messent's readings are always perceptive and his book offers an excellent introduction to a diverse genre.”  (The Guardian, 8 March 2013)“Those interested in the more arcane byways of crime fiction will find this concise but intelligent volume invaluable, with its academic (but accessible) analyses of some of the key texts in the genre. What is perhaps the most valuable aspect of the book is the fact that Peter Messent has managed to unearth new insights into this much written-about subject — no easy task in the 21st century, when a considerable amount of analysis of the field (including, in a modest way, by this writer) is so endemic.”  (Crime Time, 27 February 2013) "...at a stroke this volume joins the library of key texts in the field." (Crime Time, February 2013) "... a good introduction to a prolific genre." (Times Literary Supplement, March 2013)