The Crime Novel : A Deviant Genre - Tony Hilfer

In this book Tony Hilfer explains the crime novel as a genre of its own, contrary to classic detective novel in England and hard-boiled variation in America, where there is a detective who investigate a crime and upon completion restore social order, whereas in crime novel that kind don't exists, we follow the path of the criminal, morality is often relative, and justice fails. In subsequent chapters author gives us an example of either a killer, a victim, a gulty bystander and someone falsely accused. Works by authors such as Patrick Hamilton, Shelly Smith, Cornell Woolrich, Marie Belloc Lowndes, John Franklin Bardin and James M. Cain are analyzed in each chapter. Final chapter is dedicated to Georges Simenon, Patricia Highsmith, Margaret Millar and Jim Thompson. Written in user friendly language, this book is fun to read and lovers of crime fiction will surely enjoy it.