The Crime Fiction Handbook

Acknowledgments vii

Introductory Note ix

Part 1 Introduction 1

Part 2 The Politics, Main Forms, and Key Concerns of Crime Fiction 9

The Politics of Crime Fiction 11

The Types of Crime Fiction 27

Classical Detective Fiction 27

Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction 34

The Police Novel 41

Transgressor Narratives 50

Vision, Supervision, and the City 60

Crime and the Body 75

Gender Matters 85

Representations of Race 96

Part 3 Some KeyWorks in Crime Fiction 107

Edgar Allan Poe: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) 109

Arthur Conan Doyle: The Sign of Four (1890) 116

Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) 127

Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930) 136

Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939) 143

James M. Cain: Double Indemnity (1936) 151

Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) 159

Chester Himes: Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965) 167

Maj Sj€owall and Per Wahl€o€o: The Laughing Policeman (1968) 176

James Ellroy: The Black Dahlia (1987) 187

Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs (1988) 198

Patricia Cornwell: Unnatural Exposure (1997) 208

Ian Rankin: The Naming of the Dead (2006) 218

Stieg Larsson: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005) 227

End Note 241

References 243

Index 253