The popularity of crime fiction is a fairly recent phenomenon. Only 20 or 30 years ago you didn’t see too many crime novels on the bestseller list. Once derided as “cheap” or “pulp” fiction, crime novels now regularly make up over 50% of bestseller lists and account for up to 25 percent of fiction sold around the world. Traditionally a genre of appeal to male readers one of the reasons for the rising popularity of modern crime writing has been the increase in female writers, characters and readers. The genre has also expanded and diversified to include a raft of sub genres such as Detectives, Legal and Courtroom Drama, Police Procedurals, Historicals, Brit Grit, Victorian Detectives, Forensic Psychologists, Psychopaths and Women Detectives.
Wikipedia has a speculative list of “The 100 top Crime Novels of All Time” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top_100_Crime_Novels_of_All_Time.
Marrickville Library has a healthy collection of crime fiction and during July is highlighting one of the more recent sub genres to develop, Scandinavian writers. Authors represented in the collection include Steig Larsson, Hakan Nesser, Henning Mankel, Lars Kepler, Leif Persson, Jo Nesbo, Karin Fossum, Sigurdardottir Yrsa, Arnaldur Indriðason and Peter Hoeg.
The State Library of NSW Readers Advisory twitter service is also discussing crime books in July via the hashtag #whodoneit. More information is available at http://readit2011.wordpress.com/july/.
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I don't like female detectives - I also don't like them having names that could be male or female e.g. Charlie Flint in Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid (this one is female) or characters with initials so again is it a man or a woman? For example V I Warshawski (female) in Sara Paretsky's series. And in so many pairings of detectives one is a woman and so often the boss and completely unbelievable. I do worry that authors have used these gender crossing names because they worry that a definite female name wouldn't attract male readers or publishers. (I'm female by the way)
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