Crime Fiction from a Professional Eye

There is a new category of authors blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction: women who work or have worked in criminal justice—lawyers, police officers and forensic investigators—who publish crime fiction with characters that resemble real-life counterparts. Drawing on their professional experience, these writers present compelling portrayals of inequality and dysfunction in criminal justice systems from a feminist viewpoint. This book presents the first examination of the true-crime-infused fiction of authors like Dorothy Uhnak, Kathy Reichs and Linda Fairstein.

Lili Pâquet is the author of several articles on crime fiction and popular literature. She teaches writing and rhetoric at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Lili Pâquet
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 213
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7287-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3403-6
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1
Introduction: The New Female Investigator 3
One. Dorothy Uhnak and the Trauma of Change 17
Two. Linda Fairstein: Language and the Law 42
Three. Kathy Reichs: The Female Forensic Gaze 104
Four. Australian Police Officers and Fiction as Therapy 147
Conclusion: Professional Authors in the Crime Fiction Genre 174
Chapter Notes 189
Works Cited 191
Index 205