Crime Fiction in the Age of #MeToo

Informed by fourth-wave feminism, Crime Fiction in the Age of #MeToo presents acompelling and timely reading of crime fiction in the age of #MeToo. The book explores fivemajor fourth-wave feminist topics, #MeToo, rape culture, toxic masculinity, LBGTQ+perspectives, and transgender. These topics have been the subject of intense feministscrutiny and campaigning, and the book demonstrates how this attention is reflected incontemporary crime fiction and its generic and thematic preoccupations.The book opens with a chapter presenting an overview of existing critical perspectives andfeminist debates, demonstrating how fourth-wave feminist ideas and debates are inspiringinnovations in the genre, as well as generating fresh ways of reading past and present crimefictions. Providing an overview and context for both fourth-wave feminism and the #MeToomovement, the chapter establishes the critical and cultural framework for its analysis. Thechapter also outlines the book's methodology and approach, detailing the contents of thechapters. Each of the five subsequent chapters uses critical vocabulary and concepts fromfeminism and the #MeToo movement to reassess canonical works and present newreadings of contemporary crime fiction, producing compelling analyses of gender and genre.Canonical authors whose works are discussed include Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler,Josephine Tey, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, and Val McDermid. Examining selectedcontemporary novels and short stories, the chapters in Crime Fiction in the Age of #MeTooprovide fresh readings of both well-known and lesser-known crime authors. Thecontemporary authors whose work is examined are Lauren Henderson, Susan White,Jennifer Haigh, Allison Leotta, Y.A. Erskine, Heather Fitt, John Harvey, Dorothy Koomson,Pekka Hiltunen, Nekesa Afia, Michael Nava, Stella Duffy, Alex Reeve, V.T. Davy, andDharma Kelleher. Through its critical examination of crime fiction, Crime Fiction in the Age of #MeToo offers apowerful feminist analysis of the genre which draws links between literature and ongoingurgent social and cultural debates such as the #Metoo movement and fourth-wave feminism.