ABSTRACT
Textual analysis has confirmed that instead of viewing true crime as a corruption of journalism, true crime is a separate, legitimate art form that predates journalism and serves unique social functions. Consistent with the standard-fare police procedural qualities of Jim Thompson and Truman Capote, Ann Rule provides an over-the-shoulder view of the detectives as they solved what seemed like a motiveless crime in Baffling Murder of the Washington Lumber Tycoon. Dashiell Hammett's reputation as a great writer of detective fiction who only half-heartedly dabbled in true crime is safe. Riding the wave of popularity of true crime publishing, NBC's Dateline: To Catch a Predator has often been linked to the genre. If Helter Skelter is the prototype of true crime as an instrument of justice, Rule's The Stranger Beside Me stands as the archetype. True crime of the length and depth is informed by critical analyses of traditional novels from Mikhail Bakhtin, Jacques Derrida, and Roland Barthes.
