ABSTRACT
Locating and identifying the tendency within crime fiction opens up a space to consider the evolution of the genre as well as to highlight the importance of generic categories. As Ivo Ritzer and Peter W. Schulze argue in Genre Hybridisation, genres “shed light on the aesthetic, economic, and social dimensions of the particular conditions under which they were made and which they represent respectively”. As important a role as traditional crime fiction has played, because of their penchant for hybridisation, contemporary writers can deliver an even stronger message and reach different readers – a feat easier to accomplish when not writing in a given box. Crime fiction has long been recognised as a useful vehicle for social commentary as well as a mode of storytelling with mass appeal. In writing hybridised works, contemporary authors demonstrate the versatility of the genre while also making a case for its sustained cultural relevance and ensuring continued evolution of the genre.
