Murder in a Few Words: Gender, Genre and Location in the Crime Short Story

by Charlotte Beyer

Overview

The clue-puzzle, legal thriller, and classic whodunit are just a few of the subgenres within the widely popular crime fiction genre. However, despite its popularity among readers, the crime short story genre has yet to be fully explored by scholars. This book offers a deep-dive into crime short stories written by a wide range of authors, tracing the history and evolution of the crime short story. The book offers an accessible and original examination of crime short stories, focusing on compelling themes such as miscarriage of justice, feminism, environmental crime and toxic masculinity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476673721
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	12/14/2020
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.47(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Charlotte Beyer is a Senior Fellow of HEA and lectures at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. She is a widely published crime fiction specialist.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments v

Preface 1

Introduction: Investigations 3

1 Reading the Crime Short Story 13

2 Early Crime Short Stories and the Crime Trope 33

3 Rise of the Detectives 53

4 The Golden Age Crime Short Story 72

5 The American Crime Short Story I: Domestic Noir 91

6 The American Crime Short Story II: The Hard-Boiled Mode 110

17 Postcolonial Crime Short Stories I: Canadian Transgressions 129

8 Postcolonial Crime Short Stories II: Irish Mythology Reimagined 148

9 Reimagining Sherlock Holmes in the Postmodern Age 166

10 The Nordic Noir Crime Short Story 185

Afterword 205

Works Cited 207

Index 225