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The book deals diachronically with Irish crime fiction, from the picaresque of the 17th century up to the late 1990s when the «Emerald Noir» boom began. Irish writers, often without due recognition, have been instrumental in the development of the genre on an international level, and figures such as Le Fanu, Meade, Childers, Wills Crofts have been responsible for many of the innovations in crime fiction which have later become standard. This book examines Irish crime writing in its widest sense, from the detective mystery to the spy thriller, and seeks to vindicate the relevance of the Irish contribution to the field of crime fiction as well as stressing the importance of crime writing within the field of Irish Studies. This work traces Irish crime fiction from the early appropriation of the picaresque, which would gain resonance throughout Europe, through the gothic, the early detective tale, to the Irish contribution to the Golden Age mystery, to Irish hard-boiled pulp and inner-city police procedurals in which crimes committed by Irish criminals are investigated by Irish agents of detection.
List of contents
Contents: «that my Thefts might pafs undifcovered.» Picaresque, Rogue Tales, Broadsheets and Newgate Calendars - «The peasantry of Ireland have, for centuries, been at war with the laws by which they are governed.» The Early Nineteenth Century - «Wherever reserve exists there is mystery, and wherever mystery - guilt.» Le Fanu and the Gothic Crime Mystery - «Reader, you have seen the singular and extraordinary circumstances connected with the handkerchief, the sledge, and the sack.» Sensation and Mystery Fiction - «A history of crime seemed to be written on both their faces.» L. T. Meade and End of Century Detection - «I just go by the rule of thumb, and muddle and puzzle out my cases as best I can.» Detection and Mystery at the Turn of the Century - «Too sharp to be absolutely wholesome.» The Golden Age I: Freeman Wills Crofts - «A deceptive air of docility.» The Golden Age II: Nicholas Blake and Mrs Victor Rickard - «Among the poor the police are never regarded as the upholders of the common law, but as agents of the rich to oppress those without property.» Post-Revolutionary Ireland - «A kind of private eye and general trouble-shooter.» Irish Hard-Boiled and Pulp - «Not too quiet for crime.» Irish Crime Fiction in the Mid-Twentieth Century I - «The law after all is just a machine that suspects everyone on general principles.» Irish Crime Fiction in the Mid-Twentieth Century II - «His father had been on the wrong side in the Civil War.» Irish Spy Fiction in the 1960s and 1970s - «Being Irish, you had a certain innate guile that allowed you to think like a criminal and keep one step ahead of them.» Irish Crime Writing in the 1970s and 1980s - «It was the virus of my country's illness that felled him.» Northern Ireland - «The authority to dispose of anyone who stands in my way.» The 1980s and Early 1990s - «A surly-looking cop lounging at the security desk.» Northern Irish Crime Fiction in the 1990s - «Technically a private investigator.» Thrillers and the Diversity of Irish Crime Writing in the 1990s - «People loved reading about crime in Ireland.» The Police and Private Detective Novel in the 1990s - «Killers who chop up their victims, that's all very American, or at the very least English. In Ireland it would only happen by accident, like most things.» Towards the New Millennium.
About the author
David Clark is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of A Coruña and Director of the «Amergin» University Research Institute for Irish Studies. He has served on the executive committees of both national and international organisations for Irish studies and has published widely in the field.
