A Companion to Crime Fiction

Crime fiction has enjoyed a great rise in output and in popularity over the past 30 or 40 years. This substantial and informative book covers a wide variety of themes within the genre and also a long time span from the eighteenth century to the present. Thus we have contributions on gangs and mobs and literature for young people alongside essays on The Newgate Calendar and crime, forensics and modern science. Scholars from both sides of the Atlantic have contributed an impressive series of original essays. An introductory essay sets the scene by reflecting on differences between crime and detective...