The following books were generously provided to the judges of the Fourth Annual International Crime Fiction Association Book Prize for non-fiction books on crime fiction published in 2021. All books reviewed were worthy entries in the contest, and the range and creativity of the volumes attest to the deep interest in crime fiction scholarship.
The following books were generously provided to the judges of the Fourth Annual International Crime Fiction Association Book Prize for non-fiction books on crime fiction published in 2021, listed in alphabetical order by author/editor. The range and creativity of the volumes attest to the deep interest in crime fiction scholarship. Please consider ordering some for your libaries.
Andrew, Lucy, and Samuel Saunders. The Detective's Companion in Crime Fiction: A Study in Sidekicks. Palgrave Macmillan.
Betz, Phyllis. Reading the Cozy Mystery: Critical Essays on an Underappreciated Subgenre. McFarland.
Beyer, Charlotte. Contemporary Crime Fiction: Crossing Boundaries, Merging Genre. Cambridge Scholars.
Beyer, Charlotte. Murder in a Few Words: Gender, Genre And Location in the Crime Short Story. McFarland.
Brody, Howard. Doctor-Detectives in the Mystery Novel. Cambridge Scholars.
Cohen, David. Inspecting Psychology: How the Rise of Psychological Ideas Influenced the Development of Detective Fiction. Routledge/Taylor and Francis.
Grydehøj, Anne. Contemporary French and Scandinavian Crime Fiction: Citizenship, Gender and Ethnicity. University of Wales Press.
Hamilton, Cynthia. Sara Paretsky: Detective Fiction as Trauma Literature. Manchester UP.
Hopkins, Lisa. Burial Plots in British Detective Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan.
Miklitsch, Robert. I Died a Million Times: Gangster Noir in Mid-Century America. University of Illinois Press.
Molinaro, Nina L. Policing Gender and Alicia Giménez Bartlett’s Crime Fiction. Routledge/Taylor and Francis.
Panek, LeRoy. Nineteenth Century Detective Fiction: An Analytical History. McFarland.
Saunders, Samuel. The Nineteenth Century Periodical Press and the Development of Detective Fiction. Routledge/Taylor and Francis.
Watson, David Riddle. Truth to Post-truth in American Detective. Palgrave Macmillan.
Whited, Lana A. Murder, in Fact: Disillusionment and Death in the American True Crime Novel. McFarland.
The IFCA Book Prize recognizes ingenuity, innovation, and scholarship in the academic study of crime fiction and crime writing in its widest sense. In response to these criteria, the judges first made a short list, followed by a determination of the winner. The short list included the following works:
1. Andrew, Lucy, and Samuel Saunders. The Detective's Companion in Crime Fiction: A Study in Sidekicks. Palgrave Macmillan.
Through a series of case studies of crime fiction and film, this collection is an innovative approach to an understudied participant in crime solving—the sidekick. The sidekick in his or her many guises is more than the stereotypically “stupid” friend of the brilliant detectiveas seen in Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, or Hercule Poirot and Colonel Hastings. The essays investigate works from the nineteenth century (Sherlock, The Moonstone) through contemporary works such as Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins novels and print and televised works like Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse series, challenging the formulaic and stereotypical view of an underappreciated yet ubiquitous character.
2. Betz, Phyllis. Reading the Cozy Mystery : Critical Essays on an Underappreciated Subgenre. McFarland.
This collection of essays does exactly what it says in the subtitle: it sheds light on an underappreciated genre. Cozy mysteries have been a staple of crime fiction, but they have so far received little academic attention. With its twelve essays plus a detailed introduction, this book remedies this lack of critical attention and analyses recurring motifs and themes in cozy mysteries and shows how the genre borders on other genres, such as Southern Gothic. The individual essays cover, among other topics, archetypes of home and heroism, historical crime set in the 1920s and 30s, the paradoxical cozy setting, cozy England alongside a few, partly unexpected, case studies such as Agatha Christie and Columbo. The cozy mystery is thus approached in its full variety. Besides providing a broad overview of the genre, this books is also very well compiled and edited and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
3. Grydehøj, Anne. Contemporary French and Scandinavian Crime Fiction: Citizenship, Gender and Ethnicity. University of Wales Press.
This book was chosen partly for its scope. While so much has been written about Nordic crime fiction, French crime fiction has tended to be ignored. This book redresses this balance wonderfully. Basing the discussion in social realities, addressing social issues and politics, this book looks at issues around class and the welfare state. This is particularly useful in the discussion of French crime fiction as these topics have been so well documented for Scandinavian and/or Nordic works. The concept of the French Republic is shown to also be influential in the creation of a localised French crime fiction tradition. However, rather than just identifying local crime fictions, this book casts its scope more widely and as well as the case studies explored being seen as contributing to fictions based in specific settings, it also examines nuances and contestations which exhibit social and identity struggles including those around gender, ethnicity, and class. We thoroughly enjoyed this book.
We are pleased to announce that the winner is Betz, Phyllis. Reading the Cozy Mystery: Critical Essays on an Underappreciated Subgenre. McFarland.
Congratulations to all the authors and editors of these outstanding volumes of crime fiction scholarship.
University of Scranton
Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States
Otto-Friedrich Universität
Bamberg, Germany
Falmouth University
Falmouth, England
