7 things I love about reading (and writing) crime fiction

As I noted in last month’s IWSG post, I write in several genres, and I will read almost anything, but I keep coming back to crime fiction. Why? Let me count the ways. But before I do:

Happy IWSG day! I participate in the monthly IWSG (a/k/a Insecure Writers Support Group) Blog Hop, which happens on the first Wednesday of each month. We offer words of encouragement to our fellow writers and share our doubts, fears, struggles, and triumphs. Thanks so much to our wonderful October co-hosts,  Tonja Drecker, Victoria Marie Lees, Mary Aalgaard, and Sandra Cox.

Each month our fearless leaders provide an optional question we can answer in our posts. This month’s question is: What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre? Which brings us back to crime fiction. So without further ado:

7 reasons I love to read and write crime fiction

• Infinite variety. Crime fiction includes tons of subgenres, from locked-room mysteries to legal thrillers, police procedurals to paranormal romantic suspense, cozy mysteries in which all violence happens off the page to stories with horror elements (check out Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes trilogy for a great example of the latter). And a crime novel can be set anywhere, from a small Southern town to Paris to Antarctica (as soon as I wrote that sentence, I had to see if there was, in fact, crime fiction set in Antarctica. And I’m thrilled to report that there is! Crime Reads posted an article called Research Station Noir: Crime Fiction in Antarctica. I’m going to read it as soon as I get done drafting this post, then add a bunch of Antarctic crime novels to my already bloated TBR pile). If it’s fiction and focuses on a crime, it’s crime fiction. Throw in true crime, and it doesn’t even have to be fiction.
• Diverse characters and authors. Representation is improving in crime fiction, thanks in part to organizations like Sisters in Crime, which started out focusing on women but now promotes diversity across the board. There’s still more work to be done, but Google diversity in crime fiction, and you’ll find some great examples.
• High stakes. People get killed in crime fiction. People have to fight for their lives. Find strength they never knew they had. So. Much. Drama! But rarely melodrama, because when you’re being chased by a serial killer, screaming your head off isn’t melodramatic. It’s expected.
• Suspense. All my life I’ve suffered from an internal conflict: I’m an adrenaline junkie but also a coward. So no skydiving, no bungee jumping, none of those life-and-death stakes for my real life. But in fiction? Bring ’em on! I want to be on the edge of my seat, gripping my book or my Kindle with white knuckles and a pounding heart. I want to forget where I am, what I’m supposed to be doing, even who I am in my desperation to read One. More. Chapter. For me, fiction is like food: if it’s bad for my blood pressure, I like it.
• Puzzles. A mystery is a puzzle by definition–whodunit?–but thrillers are often puzzles too, as you the reader try to figure out how to stop the villain right along with the protagonist. If I’m reading a good crime novel, my mind is engaged along with my adrenal glands.
• Catharsis and resolution. The world can be a scary place. I’ve been attacked. I’ve been afraid for my life (though thankfully not in a long, long time–unless we want to discuss Long-Suffering Husband’s driving). I read the news (*shudder*). In the real world, criminals often get away with their crimes. Sometimes they aren’t even acknowledged to be criminals. But in most crime fiction, you can tell the good guys from the bad guys even if the lines are blurry. And at the end of the white-knuckled, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat suspense fest, the mystery is solved, the good guys (usually) win, and some form of justice is done. Real life is rarely so tidy–or so fair.
• And finally: It’s fun to write for the same reasons it’s fun to read. I get to create terrifying villains, conflicted protagonists, life-and-death drama, clues and red herrings, then tie it all up at the end so both I and my readers feel satisfied.

What’s not to love?

I have to keep my post short this month, because I’m slammed with work (dang day job getting in the way of my writing). So I’ll wrap things up with a few laughs.

Memes

The many and varied joys of writing

Writing crime fiction gives me lots of opportunities for maniacal laughter.

I find some of my best motivation when I’m walking–which is how I almost walked into 2 parked cars yesterday. On the plus side, I wrote a couple hundred words of the short story I’ve been working on. I really need to buy a treadmill before I hurt myself.

This is beyond annoying. Also, I can’t go to book signings and bask in the adoration of my many fans if I don’t actually write a book.

Dammit.

Another fun thing about writing crime fiction: killing off people I don’t like without breaking any laws.

I love this one for a couple of reasons: 1) It makes the point that what’s considered “classic literature” has more to do with age, tradition, and snobbery than actual quality, and 2) “Legiterally” is a brilliant neologism that should legiterally be a word. Get on it, Merriam-Webster.

And since we’re talking about teenage girls and literature:

Fun with YA Lit

If only…

On a similar note:

And finally:

The lifespan of parents in young adult books is shorter than the lifespans of fictionalized versions of people I don’t like.

On that cheerful note, happy IWSG day! What’s your favorite genre to read or write in?