BBC Radio 4 “Women’s Hour” recently carried an item about crime fiction and its growing popularity with women readers. The guests invited to discuss this with presenter Jenni Murray were Scottish crime writer Denise Mina (recent winner of the Theakstons Old Peculiar crime novel of the year award) and well-known crime editor and facilitator of writers such as Mo Hayder and Tess Gerritsen, Selina Walker.
The main thrust of the discussion was why were more women readers following modern crime fiction, and what had changed?
Denise and Selina said that crime fiction is now much wider in scope, far removed from merely solving a mystery. The woman as the detective or as they put it – “the woman as the good guy” is no longer a sub-genre. With the popularity of the emotionally intense Danish series “The Killing” it has become more mainstream, said Denise. She acknowledged Sara Paretsky as deserving of credit for helping to bring this about. For Selina the trajectory of the narrative drive was toward the woman coming out on top in the end, not as unredeemed victims. Selena also pointed to Kathy Reichs début Deja Dead as the key crime novel that deserved credit for bringing about this change. It contained many of the elements that more recent writers try to emulate.
This move toward feminism at the centre, or off centre, in crime fiction meant that personal and social themes found in say Sara Paretsky’s novels were no longer the territory of these “woman on the case” writers. They are crept in mainstream. Selina also pointed to Ruth Rendell for her amazing skill and ability to produce novels that are really of the moment. For myself I cannot understand why she has never won the MAN-Booker.
For summer reading Denise recommended recent books by American procedural writer Laura Lippman and the interesting Scottish writer Louise Welsh. Selena choose Karin Slaughter’s Criminal,the new books by Sophie Hannah and Tess Gerritsen.
However, while I agree with Denise and Selina about a feminist viewpoint being more mainstream they do not say anything about the emergence of another younger group of female noir writers, such as Meg Abbott in the USA and Cathi Unsworth in Britain. They spring from a more rebellious streak in the genre found in the likes of male writers James Crumley and James Carlos Blake in America and the late Derek Raymond in Britain. But that is another story….
Here is the link to the BBC Radio 4 discussion. It is at the end of the item.
