Murder in a Few Words

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.

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

Charlotte Beyer
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 236
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2021
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7372-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4171-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments v
Preface 1
Introduction: Investigations 3
One. Reading the Crime Short Story 13
Two. Early Crime Short Stories and the Crime Trope 33
Three. Rise of the Detectives 53
Four. The Golden Age Crime Short Story 72
Five. The American Crime Short Story I: Domestic Noir 91
Six. The American Crime Short Story II: The ­Hard-Boiled Mode 110
Seven. Postcolonial Crime Short Stories I: Canadian Transgressions 129
Eight. Postcolonial Crime Short Stories II: Irish Mythology Reimagined 148
Nine. Reimagining Sherlock Holmes in the Postmodern Age 166
Ten. The Nordic Noir Crime Short Story 185
Afterword 205
Works Cited 207
Index 225