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When crime pays
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Today, there are quite a few writers, who have gone beyond the classic whodunit genre. A look at some of their works
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GONE ARE the days when crime fiction meant Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie or James Hadley Chase. Today, there are quite a few writers, who have gone beyond the classic whodunit genre.
The novels that have been hitting the stands in recent times are not just about blood, gore, investigation, trials and sentences, but provide deep psychological insights and paint a clear picture of the society we live in. Also, crime is no longer confined to British and American writers, and books from several languages are finding English releases.
Check these out:
Edge-of-the-seat suspense: Harlan Coben is the master of the `twist', and till the last page you never know what's happening. Sample his break-out novel "Tell No One". Dan Brown provides classic Hitchcockian situations, while getting into interesting digressions on all kinds of subjects. For instance, in "The Da Vinci Code", you get a lecture on the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci, the ubiquitous number Pi in Nature, symbology and much more.
Crime and modern society: Ruth Rendell and P.D. James are the grand dames of this genre. Their novels not just ostensibly talk about crime but also about the people, how they think and what they do. In fact, these novels could almost be classified as literary and there have even been a debate as to why James does not figure in the list of such prestigious prizes as the Booker. The hard-boiled books of James Ellroy and Michael Connelly explore the underbelly of Los Angeles and its environs while Alexander McCall Smith sets a lighter and humorous tone in his Botswana-based novels featuring the detective Precious Ramotswe.
Crime in translation: The most happening genre. Here one can talk about the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, who is the latest `star' (he's married to Ingmar Bergman's daughter and that should say it all!). Then, there is the Italian Andrea Camilleri, whose works are set in Sicily and have a typical sense of cynicism and humour. Other names that one can include are Russian Boris Akunin, Brazilian Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza and Spanish Jose Carlos Somoza.
The forensic procedural: These novels go into the details of forensic science. Patricia Cornwell is its most famous exponent while Jeffrey Deaver is a rising star.
The list of genres and sub-genres, which make up the world of crime fiction is never ending. But there's one thing. They say crime doesn't pay. Well, it definitely does, at least when it comes to books!
SAVITHA GAUTAM
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