Synopses & Reviews
For most of the twentieth century, the private eye dominated crime fiction and film, a lone figure fighting for justice, often in opposition to the official representatives of law and order. More recently, however, the police have begun to take center stageandmdash;as exemplified by the runaway success of TV police procedurals like
Law and Order. In
Crime Uncovered: Detective, Barry Forshaw offers an exploration of some of the most influential and popular fictional police detectives in the history of the genre.
Taking readers into the worlds of such beloved authors as P. D. James, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbandoslash;, Ian Rankin, and Handaring;kan Nesser, this book zeroes in on the characteristics that define the iconic characters they created, discussing how they relate to their national and social settings, questions of class, and to the criminals they relentlessly pursue. Showing how the role of the authority figure has changedandmdash;and how each of these writers creates characters who work both within and against the strictures of official investigationsandmdash;the book shows how creators cleverly subvert expectations of both police procedure and the crime genre itself.
Written by a leading expert in the field and drawn from interviews with the featured authors, Crime Uncovered: Detectivewill thrill the countless fans of Inspector Rebus, Harry Hole, Adam Dalgliesh, and the other enduring police detectives who define the genre.
Review
"This book provides a much-needed shot in the arm for writing on British crime film. The colourful case-studies draw out the political complexities of this stalwart genre, opening up the films in insightful and often revisionary readings. Calling upon his compendious knowledge of the subject and injecting wit into his precise prose, Forshaw reinvigorates the field."
- Steven Peacock, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Synopsis
Presenting a social history of British crime film, this book focuses on the strategies used in order to address more radical notions surrounding class, politics, sex, delinquency, violence and censorship. Spanning post-war crime cinema to present-day "Mockney" productions, it contextualizes the films and identifies important and neglected works.
Synopsis
Reading the Animal in the Literature of the British Raj explores representations of animals during British rule in India-the tigers, elephants, boars, furs, and feathers that sometimes all but obscured the human beneath and behind them, and that were integral in the creation and maintenance of the hierarchies of colonialism. The book exists on two levels: one offers a sophisticated view of how power and oppression work within constellations of species, race, class, gender, and nationhood, and the other is a deeply suggestive meditation on our humanness and how we locate it within a spectrum of relations. Drawing on a range of texts including hunting narratives, stories, poetry, novels, photographs, journals, paintings, and cartoons, the argument builds with a lucid and beautifully unobtrusive feel for the telling example.
Synopsis
A comprehensive social history of British crime film by the UK's principal expert on crime film and fiction Presenting a stunning social history of Britain through classic crime film, Barry Forshaw, one of the UK's leading experts on crime fiction and fiction, focuses on how crime films have portrayed our changing attitudes towards class, politics, sex, delinquency, violence and censorship. Focusing on these key issues, British Crime Film examines strategies used by film makers in order to address more radical notions of society's decline. Spanning post-war crime cinema, from Green for Danger to Get Carter, from The Lady Killers to Layer Cake, from The Long Good Friday to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, British Crime Film contextualizes the movies and identifies important and neglected works which will delight and intrigue film fans of this well-loved genre.
About the Author
BARRY FORSHAW is a writer and journalist specializing in crime fiction and cinema. His books include The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Life and Works of Stieg Larsson(2010), British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia(2008), The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction(2007), Italian Cinema: Arthouse to Exploitation(2006) and Death in a Cold Climate: A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction(2012), and he has contributed to the Directory of World Cinema. He has also written for a variety of national newspapers as well as for Movie Mail, Waterstone's Books Quarterly and Good Book Guide and is editor of the online Crime Timemagazine. He is also a talking head for the ITV Crime Thriller author profiles and BBC TV documentaries, and has been Vice Chair of the Crime Writers' Association.
Table of Contents
A Social History of the Crime Film
The Age of Austerity: Post-war Crime Movies
Class and Crime: Social Divisions
Between Left and Right: Politics and Individuals
Heritage Britain
Shame of a Nation: Juvenile Delinquents and Exploitation
The New Violence: The Loss of Innocence
Scourging the Unacceptable: Censorship Battles
Metropolitan Murder: London
The Regions
Breaking Taboos: Sex and the Crime Film
Corporate Crime: Curtains for the Maverick
Mockney Menace: The New Wave
The Age of Acquisition: New Crime
21st Century Hybrids
The Directors: Makers of Key Crime Films
APPENDIX I: TV Crime
APPENDIX II: Crime and Espionage
Index