Introduction

The introduction argues that the development of crime fiction in Spain is bound up with the processes of national and cultural redefinition that occurred as Spain transitioned from a dictatorship to a democracy following the death of Franco in 1975. Combining criminological theories of crime and community with an analysis of the genre’s conventions, the introduction challenges the classification of Spanish crime fiction as texts written by Spaniards, set in Spain and with Spanish characters. Rather than simply ascribing nationality to specific texts, the introduction theorises the connection between the crime genre and the production of cultural and national identities.