Victims

Victims spend the crime fiction text being resurrected and effaced by the detective. In narratives of violent crime, victims’ bodies are investigated for clues, as are their lives and personalities. This chapter examines the positioning and readings of the murder victim and the responsibility of the detective in crime fiction and scholarship. Victims inhabit a fluid position in the criticism of crime fiction, shifting from the centre of the reading to the margins, according to the theoretical framework applied. Narratological critics such as Heta Pyrhonen view the victim as a piece of the puzzle, a necessary point of contact between detective and crime. Commentary connects the frequently recurring victimisation of women to contemporary social contexts. The chapter concludes by discussing Dorothy B. Hughes’s noir novel, In A Lonely Place. This novel foregrounds young women’s victimhood rather than corpses, suggesting that the vulnerability of women can be addressed without graphic violence and abject horror.