Whodunit: what's the big deal with crime novels?

July 2010

Stephen Bowler and Angelica Michelis will air their views on why the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson are so popular, whilst Dave Bowden chairs the discussion to work out whodunit.

Stephen will focus on the crime novel as a genre whilst Angelica will then focus on the Millennium Trilogy crime novels by Stieg Larsson in particular. It might be said that crime does not pay but writing crime fiction certainly does! Topping recent and current bestseller lists crime narratives in all their different variations seem to capture the imagination of readers from nearly every social background and across all generations. However, as its history from the nineteenth century onwards shows, crime fiction has always been much more than purely light entertainment: its main genres such as, classic detective stories, hard-boiled crime fiction, the police procedural, novels focusing on serial killer and forensic pathology, lesbian crime fiction and the historical crime novel, to name but the best known, have always related to wider cultural practices and therefore been able to keep their readers hooked.

Whereas about a decade ago it was in particular serial killers and their counter player, forensic pathologists, that fascinated their readers’ minds with their specific cultivation of violent horror, the favourite read in 2009 was Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, and his books are still on top of many bestseller lists in 2010. Larsson’s untimely early death in 2004 and the drama surrounding his will and estate have only enhanced the interest in his three novels and their two unlikely ‘detective’ figures: Mikael Blomkvist, a left-wing Swedish journalist and Lisbeth Salander, a computer hacker with Asperger syndrome.

Their fight against political conspiracy and corruption places Larsson’s trilogy at the heart of Scandinavian Crime fiction which has cultivated a specific noir tradition based on the combination of bleak landscapes, depressed male detectives and crimes that are often directly related to social injustice. Although the Millennium trilogy crime novels may not be the best written novels when it comes to narrative, plot and character, they are nevertheless captivating crime novels. The trilogy offer a very clear cut moral division into good and bad characters which is unusual for contemporary (literary) crime fiction, often much more ambivalent about moral judgements. So why exactly has Larsson’s trilogy stormed the bestseller lists, and why does it keep its readers hooked and breathlessly ploughing through nearly 1500 pages until they can rejoice in the comeuppance of the baddies?

Anybody who loved reading the Millennium Trilogy, or was annoyed by it, and anybody who is interested in crime fiction in general should come along and join in the lively debate on crime fiction and its relation to social reality and fantasies.

Background readings

Seeing Sweden through the eyes of Stieg Larsson, spiked review of books, 28 October 2009.

Why Marlowe is still the chief of detectives, spiked review of books, 30 December 2009.

The Author Who Played With Fire by Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair, December 2009.

The social concerns of the thriller, by Sean O'Brien in Times Online, 20 January 2010.

In search of Stieg Larsson, by Finlo Rohrer in BBC News Magazine, 28 January 2010.

Writers should focus on true crime, says David Peace, by Alison Flood in Guardian Books, 10 February 2010.

The girl with the dragon tattoo, reviewed by Stephen Bowler for Manchester Salon Reviews 18 February 2010.

Inspector Norse: Why are Nordic detective novels so successful?, Economist 11 March 2010.

The girl who played with fire, reviewed by Stephen Bowler for FIPA review website 13 April 2010.

The girl who played with fire, reviewed by Dave Bowden for Manchester Salon Reviews 10 May 2010.

The girl who kicked the hornets' nest, reviewed by Angelica Michelis for Manchester Salon Reviews 20 May 2010.

The girl with the dragon tattoo film, reviewed by Anne Ryan for Manchester Salon Reviews 22 May 2010.

The Millennium Trilogy: Why journalists make great fiction writers, by Kate Harrison Whiteside 05 July 2010.