Crime statments

• Crime stories have the capacity to thrill and excite
• Many crime stories unmask villainy and reward virtue
• Psychoanalytic readings might see crime as offering something unsettling - a dream or nightmare from which the reader can awake at the end
• All crime writing involves a puzzle of some sort. This might be a 'whodunit' or an unravelling of the mysteries of the human mind
• Often, a crime story starts with a crime which then has to be investigated
• Crime stories explore the relationship between three central characters: detective, villain and victim
• Crime stories often blur the lines between detectives and villians
• Crime stories sometimes complicate who readers consider a worthy victim
• The detective, although often taking part in semi-illegal or illegal activity must always be shown to be essentially moral; often to have a higher moral code than those around them
• In crime writing, the purpose of the detective is to resolve the crime by seeking justice for the victim
• The inclusion of the victim's suffering is often an important element of crime writing
• Crime stories tie up all the loose ends - nothing is left unsorted or unclear
• Crime stories frequently have urban settings
• Crime stories often have a 'faceless menace' intruding a safe or ordinary space
• Up until recently, crime writing was sometimes looked down on because as it operated within strict parameters and was seen as having limitations
• Writers such as Greene have helped smash this attitude through making works more closely resemble works of mainstream literary fiction
• Crime writing frequently borrows from the Gothic - particularly in the use of an unsettling setting
• Crime writing frequently borrows from the genre of Tragedy. In the case of Brighton Rock, Greene shows how both villain and detective are driven by a quest for vengeance
• often, victims are female