The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction

by Ian Rankin, Rough Guides, Barry Forshaw

The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction takes the reader on a guided tour of the mean streets and blind corners that make up the world's most popular literary genre. The insider's book recommends over 200... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1843536544
• ISBN13: 9781843536543
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.5" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

A guide? Well, roughly....

I like crime fiction. The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction by Barry Forshaw, therefore, is right up my alley. Although designed as a reference text, it is only adequate in that respect. What it is better at, however, is giving mystery fans new directions to go in. After a brief preface, Forshaw divides most of the rest of the book into different crime fiction subgenres such as cop fiction, private eye fiction and historical fiction. In each one of these chapters, he has a brief introduction and then provides a sampling within that category. For example, under "Hardboiled and Pulp", his recommendations (alphabetical by author) include The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett, Kiss Me Deadly by Mickey Spillaine and The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich. There are also occasional pictures and sidebars, either about a particular author or a movie based on a book. Overall, this a decent enough book but also imperfect. Those familiar with the books mentioned will find occasional errors (for example, he seems to refer to James Bond villains Dr. No and Goldfinger as being associated with SPECTRE; in fact, they worked with SMERSH). Also, although there are some exceptions, Forshaw tends to focus mostly on recent material (2000 or later). There seems to be a bias to include more English authors than probably merited, and any crime fiction fan will find numerous omitted authors (including Ridley Pearson, Randy Wayne White, Ken Follett, David Morrell, Stephen White, Richard North Patterson, Faye Kellerman, Vince Flynn, T. Jefferson Parker and John Katzenbach). Of course, a book like this is very subjective, but I think Forshaw could have done a better survey of the genre. Nonetheless, for what it does offer - in particular, a chance to be exposed to new writers - and the fact that it is reasonably entertaining to read, I am giving this a low four stars. If you're a crime fiction fan, this will be an interesting but nonessential book.