Detective

For many years, the private eye held sway over both the crime novel and film, but there is absolutely no question that the police detective – and the format of the police procedural – has become the dominant element, both on screen and on the printed page. Examining the most important and influential protagonists in the field, past and present, Crime Uncovered: Detective is an examination – and celebration – of the most iconic police detectives in the long history of crime fiction and film. Including analyses of detectives as diverse as Inspector Morse and Sarah Lund, Rankin’s Rebus and P.D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh, each case-study identifies the individual characteristics that define these much-loved figures and discusses how they relate to their surroundings, country and class – as well as to the criminals they relentlessly purse.

Edited and curated by recognised crime-fiction expert Barry Forshaw, and featuring interviews with P.D James, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo, Ian Rankin and Håkan Nesser,as well as more general essays on the theme of the detective,  Crime Uncovered: Detective examines the changing role of the authority figure in crime fiction and film, and analyses how the most imaginative creators cleverly subvert the key elements of both the detectives themselves and the genre they inhabit.