The last panel I attended at Theakstons Crime Writing Festival at Harrogate in July was the ‘Keeping it Real’ panel on Sunday morning. Â You can find my post about the panel itself Here.
What interested me and has kept nagging away at me since was a question put to the panel by a member of the audience at the end. The answer was laughter from all on stage. Basically, the panel was about whether crime fiction should mirror real life crimes or stay away from them and the question was about whether any of the writers had thought about writing anything other than murder. Onset lots of laughter and jokes about writing about bank robberies and stolen bicycles. (or some such other lesser crimes.) The mindset of the answering authors was that murder was the most serious of crimes and therefore the only crime that can really be written about to warrant a novel.
I wasn’t overly happy with the response, but couldn’t from the top of my head think of any crime novels where someone hadn’t been murdered.
Fast forward a little over a week and I’m reading The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. One of the highlights of my reading year so far. You can read my review Here. Definitely a crime novel. And not a murder to be solved or occurring anywhere in the book. I’m not spoiling anything by saying the novel is about an abduction. I’ve just read the blurb on Goodreads!
So what about the laughing Harrogate panel?
I think you can have a crime novel without a murder. It needs to be a very cleverly written book, but yes, absolutely.
What about you? What books have you read that don’t have murder within the pages but fall firmly within the crime fiction genre? I’d really love to hear your thoughts on this one.
Oh, that’s a great question, Rebecca!! I’ve read a few good crime novels that didn’t involve murder. For instance, Robert Pollock’s Loophole is about a major bank robbery, not a murder. There are lots of others, too.
Thanks Margot. I think I’m going to do another post listing the crime books that made it into the comments section that don’t have murders in 🙂
If Barbara Vine’s The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy has a murder in it it’s so tangential to the novel that I’ve forgotten it’s there.
I’ve not read it so I’m not sure, so thank you.
I have failed to come up with anything. I guess I don’t read too many bank robbery type of books. If you could gather up a list and share it with us that would be great, Rebecca.
I think I’ll do that. The comment section has now come up with some good ones. A great suggestion. Thanks.
I’ve neglected this corner of my writing, so I’ll refer to movies. Murder occasionally occurs, but isn’t the central feature. There is The Italian Job, The Thomas Crown Affair, and I never watched the Oceans series, but aren’t they all about heists. I seem to remember The Ladykillers involved digging from a woman’s basement into a safe or something. My favorite was Catch Me if you Can.
After heists it gets harder. Most of them become buddy movies like Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.
There were a couple of Wallstreet films too about insider trading and such.
Some good films there and I think if written well you could transfer them to books – if they’re not already the other way around!
But of course: the whole Mma Precious Ramotswe series is about minor crimes and misdemenours. And I’ve just finished reading Louise Penny’s latest, which is more a missing person’s case rather than a murder. Some early crime fiction is more about inheritance and fraud rather than murder: The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. And one of my favourite Dorothy Sayers’ book, Gaudy Night, contains no murder, although plenty of ugly and threatening deeds.
That’s quite a list Marina. Thank you. When the panel laughed I struggled to think of a book but I didn’t agree that the concept was correct. Thank you.
I am trying to think of a crime book that didn’t include murder. Even the ones like Timothy Hallinan’s Junior Bender that start out with a thief stealing paintings ends up with murder. Now, I’m going back to read the comments, see if anyone came up with one.
I struggled when I heard the panel and thought they must be right. But like I say, then I read The Good Girl. Some interesting comments are now appearing 🙂
I must admit I always feel a bit cheated if there isn’t a murder, or at the very least the threat of one! What this says about the state of my subconscious I prefer not to speculate… 😉
I thought that, then I read The Good Girl and it really is a brilliant book and it showed me there really doesn’t have to be a murder 🙂
Although one of the supporting cast is an imprisoned murderer, Karin Aflvtegen’s Shame is murderless too.
We’re getting a good list together here!
I’ll have to think about that Rebecca. Right now nothing pops up into my mind.
If I recall correctly, The Caller by Karin Fossum may fall within that category, Rebecca.
Thanks Jose. This is proving an interesting post.
I recently found Francis Dick, who’s a crime writer that doesn’t focus on murder. I’ve never been that interested in murder mystery books and it think it’s cuz I find them too formulaic and (script)writers relaying on gimmicks. Dick’s books (his and those of his son) and while yes people die in his books the main cases are not about the murders. Usually they’re simply a result of some larger case, drug smuggling or politics. And I love reading them because the sweep me into them from the beginning, he’s got great pose and I like the fact that the main characters (of those I’ve read so far) aren’t involved in law enforcement.
And then there’s also the show White Collar, which is all about White Collar crime. Forgeries and the like. Heist stories, would they be considered crimes? Cuz I’m reading a good one called Sex on the Moon about stealing moon rocks.
That is, *Dick Francis, not Francis Dick.
I figured! 🙂
Drug smuggling and politics is a good example of this. I haven’t read any of his books, though I know they’re popular. And yes white collar crime on the tv is a crime show.