Tangled Web UK Review June 2007
The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction by
Barry Forshaw
pbk out June 07
(Rough Guides)
at £7.99
Tourist Algarve in 300 paperback pages? Probably yes. But 150 years of
crime fiction? If that was the brief, then unsurprisingly, this really does not fill
the bill. But I doubt that it was. Barry Forshaw (editor of Crime Time, crime
reviewer for the Independent) instead provides an entertaining, accessible,
non-academic guide which will, I hope, provide the curious reader, sated by
today's best-sellers, with some interesting new avenues to explore.
Forshaw concentrates on the books, 200 of them, organised by time (origins,
the Golden Age) and by sub-genre e.g. Cops, Private Eyes, sleuths both
Amateur and Professional, Hardboiled and Pulp, Espionage etc. Other
headings include Organised Crime, Crime and Society and All in the Mind
(matters psychological). Each heading features a brief introductory
commentary. Interspersed and attached are brief profiles of key figures.
Representing the first 100 years are, for example Poe, Christie, Hammett,
Chandler and Highsmith; representing the 50 years since, amongst others are
P.D. James, James Lee Burke, Thomas Harris, Minette Walters etc. And for
extra accessibility Forshaw throws in the odd but relevant movie title.
From the critical and historical point of view, it is certainly a weakness of this
volume that over half of the titles selected for analysis were published in the
years since the millenium. Availability to the non-specialist (or even the too-
specialist) reader was, I guess, a key criteria. Thus admirers of Martina Cole
(three books featured) just might explore the options under Cops (Lisa
Gardner anyone?), Amateurs (Robert Goddard?) or Criminals (Alex Abella?).
Under Espionage, devotees of John le Carré just might trace his roots back to
Eric Ambler or forward to Robert Wilson. Fans of John Grisham just might be
drawn to George V. Higgins or Philip Margolin. Whilst followers of Alexander
McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe just might pick up on Mike Ripley or Kinky
Friedman. No? Well, it's just a theory.
That concentration on the modern crime novel also leads to a tendency to
paint a picture of the crime scene, the odd Hiaasen, Evanovitch or Guttridge
novel apart, as one rendered in various shades of noir. Extending the pre-
millenium list might have lightened things a little, especially were it to include
writers such as Colin Watson, Joyce Porter or Simon Brett. One or two more
female writers of the era might also have featured. Margaret Millar is a
surprising omission.
That said, this is a welcome volume. Forshaw has wide-ranging tastes, and
the critical and literary equipment to communicate his enthusiasms. And if his
endorsement of, amongst not a few of my own personal favourites, Miyuki
Miyabe's All She Was Worth, gets her a few more UK and US readers, that
will make the exercise all the more worthwhile.
(
Bob Cornwell
)
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