Crime Fiction Book

Excellent broad spectrum based analysis of Crime Fiction - covered in 6 chapters (over 143 pages) under the following headings:
A Chronology of Crime
Mystery & Detective Fiction (covers golden age classical crime)
The Hard-Boiled Mode
The Police Procedural
The Crime Thriller
Historical Crime Fiction

Most of the book is written in a style that a lay crime fiction reading person could understand - and discusses the main authors who wrote under that particular genre - however about 30% of the book does discuss academic themes especially at the beginning of Chapter 6 (Historical Crime Fiction) . If you are looking for reading recommendations then this book isn't likely to appeal as it main reason of being is to discuss the development of crime fiction - it's originals, genres, sub genres and themes within crime fiction that are linked to other genres e.g. gothic literature & westerns & across genres and sub genres and whether political/world events helped create this (sub) genres e.g. spy thriller. The author also links in films and TV series (mostly US) to particular genres to give a different slant from the reading public.

My only areas of criticism for this book - is that it concentrated too much on Hard Boilers & Police Procedural chapters (obviously the authors favourite areas of crime fiction). American authors and books that may have been more popular in the US - dominant the discussion to the exclusion of British authors. Few references are made to lesser known crime fiction authors. I would give this book 8.5 out of 10.