Killing Women: Rewriting Detective Fiction

Australia’s foremost women writers of crime fiction become the imaginative readers of their own genre in this landmark critical study.

The conventions of crime fiction — and the rewriting of those conventions — are the central themes in this work that examines issues of femininity and criminality: women and violence; political correctness and private investigators… Presenting wide-ranging perspectives on Australian crime writing, this collection explores questions of women in crime fiction and women writers of crime fiction, providing provocative comparisons to women’s crime fiction in Britain and America.

Killing Women is introduced by Delys Bird, of The University of Western Australia, and Brenda Walker, herself the author of a crime novel, Crush. They provide an overview of current debates in the field of women’s crime writing, as well as an historical context for the contemporary writers’ essays. The current interest in crime fiction, particularly by women, makes this a timely collection.