New writing HIT AND RUN Guest Editor LOUISE WELSH introduces her pick of poetry and prose on the theme of crime IMAGINE a party for the greats in crime fiction. Agatha Christie and Kinky Friedman, Walter Mosley and Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler and Sarah Paretsky. The unlikely pairings are infinite. The only thing we can guarantee is that there would be a lot of drinking and someone would object to it. There are myriad numbers of sleuths, styles and subdivisions sheltering under the crime genre umbrella. You can choose from a list that includes detective fiction, noir, whodunnits, thrillers and mysteries. So what categorises a work as crime fiction? Presumably it should have a crime at the centre of the text. So is Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment a crime fiction novel? How about Zola’s Thérèse Raquin? Parameters of the crime canon allow us to make a claim on both of these titles. One of the attractions of contemporary crime fiction is that there is no need for writers of genre to feel constricted. Criminals are confined by crime, not writers. In his essay, ‘The Decline of the English Murder’, George Orwell describes a blissfully peaceful Sunday afternoon. His subject settles down in a comfy armchair with a cup of tea and reaches for the newspaper. ‘What is it that you want to read about?’ asks Orwell. ‘Naturally, about a murder.’ The genre’s popularity is a huge incentive for crime writers. People want to read our work. It’s not that our readers are ghouls. The macabre may fascinate, but fiction also presents an opportunity to explore disturbing issues from a safe environment. For the complete essay, and for Louise's full selection of poetry and prose on the theme of crime, read issue 19 • Subscribe! Read a short story chosen by Louise Welsh: How to become a Rodeo Queen by Michelle Mach For more on LOUISE WELSH, go to www.canongate.net
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