We Need More Leftist Crime Fiction

Crime fiction’s critics have long argued that the genre is inherently conservative. Nicholas Royle and Andrew Bennett elaborated on this in Introduction to Literature, Theory, and Criticism, noting that the genre’s strictures compel detectives to pursue individuals rather than institutions. As a result, society at large can never be the culprit, leaving less space for social critique. The story structure relies on the assumption of a harmonious status quo: a crime disrupts it and the detective is called upon to restore it by either killing or jailing someone. Moreover, crime fiction at least coexists alongside the more obviously reactionary genre of true crime, a steady diet of which convinces people that violent crime rates are perpetually soaring when they’re actually falling, eroding social trust and breeding reaction.