The centrality of crime fiction in American literary culture

This collection of essays by leading scholars insists on a larger recognition of the importance and diversity of crime fiction in U.S. literary traditions. Instead of presenting the genre as the property of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, this book maps a larger territory which includes the domains of Mark Twain, F.

Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy and other masters of fiction.

The essays in this collection pay detailed attention to both the genuine artistry and the cultural significance of crime fiction in the United States.

It emphasizes American crime fiction's inquiry into the nature of democratic society and its exploration of injustices based on race, class, and/or gender that are specifically located in the details of American experience.