Crime fiction’s state of the union

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Book Editor, Regis Behe, assembled a strong group of writers and watchdogs to talk about why this genre of ours is so damn popular at the moment:

“I think that writers are realizing the power of the crime novel,” says

Michael Connelly, the best-selling author of the Harry Bosch detective

series. “Obviously, it’s got a very high commercial side to it — if

you write a crime novel, you’re going to reach a wide audience. But

they’re also realizing the crime novel can be a mirror on society, and

it can be a form of reflection and ask questions about where we’re

going.”

“I think 50 years ago you would look at the literary novel as a

reflection of World War II,” Connelly says. “The crime novel, within

months of ⁹⁄₁₁, not only used it as a plot device, but used it to

comment on how life is different. The Patriot Act, significant changes

in our lives, are being discussed, questioned and explained in crime

novels.”

It’s not that literary novels aren’t addressing those topics.

Whether directly — Lorraine Adams’ “Harbor” or Nicholas Ranaldi’s

“Between Two Rivers” — or allegorically — as in Philip Roth’s “The

Plot Against America” and Thomas Keneally’s “The Tyrant’s Novel” —

provincial concerns and geopolitics continue to influence writers.

But crime novels seem to more easily tap into the current angst.

“In a post-⁹⁄₁₁ world, the crime novel reminds us of our

vulnerabilities in an uncertain world,” says William Edwards, an

associate professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco who

uses crime novels in his classes.

“It is the intrigue of everyday life that gets our attention

and provides substance for our reflections on the world we live in,”

Edwards says. “The routine hardly seems interesting. It is that which

is not routine that draws our attention. The reflective life is not one

contemplating the routine.”

Read on for further comments by Dennis Lehane, Kathleen George, and some blogger-type person.