ABSTRACT

Who are the most important Canadian crime and detective writers? How do they help represent Canada as a nation? How do they distinguish Canada’s approach to questions of crime, detection, and social justice from those of other countries? The Routledge Introduction to Canadian Crime Fiction provides a much-needed investigation into how crime and detection have been, are, and will be represented within Canada’s national literature, with an attention to contemporary popular and literary texts. The book draws together a representative set of established Canadian authors who would appear in most courses on Canadian crime and detective fiction, while also introducing a few authors less established in the field. Ultimately, the book argues that crime fiction is a space of enormously productive hybridity that offers fresh new approaches to considering questions of national identity, gender, race, sexuality, and even genre.

part I|83 pages

Historical Confrontations

chapter 3|16 pages

Giles Blunt and the Canadian North

chapter 6|17 pages

Canada and the American Dream

Linwood Barclay's Promise Falls Series

part II|83 pages

Canadian Genre Play

chapter 7|18 pages

The Police Procedural

Registering Change with Peter Robinson's DCI Banks

chapter 8|14 pages

The Amateur Detective

Gail Bowen's Joanne Kilbourn as Canadian Revisionist

chapter 9|15 pages

The Gay Private Eye

Anthony Bidulka's Hardboiled Romantic, Russell Quant

chapter 10|17 pages

The Legal Thriller

Trauma and Resilience in Pamela Callow's Kate Lange Series

chapter 11|17 pages

The Postmodern Detective

Literary Detection in Timothy Findley and Carol Shields