Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction

Christiana Gregoriou's book explores three aspects of deviance manipulated by contemporary crime fiction: linguistic, social, and generic.

In detailed case studies of the work of James Patterson, Michael Connolly and Patricia Cornwell, Gregoriou investigates the ways in which crime fiction challenges linguistic norms, the boundaries of acceptable social behaviour, and generic conventions.

Through the examination of recurrent criminal archetypes such as the monster, the vampire and the spoilt child, and also through analysis of the ways in which crime fiction can be seen as a version of 'carnival', this study attempts to redefine the boundaries of an endlessly fascinating genre.