I belong to several online
readers groups and there’s a question that has been coming up frequently,
lately:
Is crime fiction entertainment?
This is a thorny issue, right?
But I’m glad to see it being discussed. For me – no. I DON’T read crime fiction
for entertainment. When I pick up a crime novel as a reader, I want to see
intelligent treatment of societal evils that focuses on bringing awareness to
problems and proposing activist solutions.
That’s my goal as an author,
too.
My Huntress Moon series
is intense, page-turning psychological and procedural suspense. I worked as a Hollywood screenwriter for ten
years before I wrote my first novel, and I’m well aware that I need to deliver a
satisfying genre experience to my readers. If they’re not biting their nails
and staying up way past their bedtimes, I’m not doing my job.
But within the context of a ripping thriller, I am writing
about issues I care passionately about and want to eradicate for good – meaning
the good of everyone on the planet. Violence against women. Child sexual abuse.
Human trafficking.
The last thing I want to do is show these scenes in a way
that anyone could get pleasure out of. The few times I show anything on the
page, it’s very brief and absolutely not there for entertainment. I think we all understand that rape is
horrific – we don’t need to see graphic scenes to understand that. And I am
very suspicious of any book that starts with a beautiful woman obviously being
set up to be raped and tortured. Sexualizing rape and torture is not solving
any problem – it’s actually contributing to the atrocity of sexual abuse. Personally I won’t support any book or author
that sexualizes scenes of abuse.
I suppose as an author you can avoid these tough issues by
writing cozies, or another genre entirely. But I don’t read cozies, and I
wouldn’t know how to write one. I used to teach in the Los Angeles County prison
system. I want to explore the roots of crime, not soft-pedal it. For better or
worse, my core theme as a writer is “What can good people do about the evil in
the world?”
So my choice is to confront the issue head on.
The fact is, one reason crime novels and film and TV so
often depict women as victims is because it’s reality. Since the beginning of
time, women haven’t been the predators – we’re the prey. Personally, I’m not
going to pretend otherwise.
But after all those years (centuries, millennia) of women
being victims of the most heinous crimes out there… wouldn’t you think that someone would finally say –
“Enough”?
And maybe even strike back?
Well, that’s a story, isn’t it?
So my Huntress Moon
series is about just that.
The books take the reader on an interstate manhunt with a
haunted FBI agent on the track of what he thinks may be that most rare of
criminals – a female serial killer.
And here’s what’s really interesting. Arguably there’s never
been any such thing as a female serial killer in real life. The women that the
media holds up as serial killers operate from a completely different psychology
from the men who commit what the FBI calls “sexual homicide” (including most of the famous serial killers you know of: Bundy, Tobin, Kemper, Gacy, Tobin, Nilsen, Sutcliffe, and yes, Jack the Ripper…)
So what’s that about? Why do men do it and women don’t?
Women rarely kill, compared to men — but when it happens, what does make a woman kill?
Within the context of my Huntress series I can explore those
psychological and sociological questions, and invite my readers to ask – Why? I can realistically bring light to crimes
that I consider pretty much the essence of evil – and turn the tables on the
perpetrators.
And I’ve created a female character who breaks the mold –
but in a way that makes psychological sense for the overwhelming majority of
people who read the books.
Whoever she is, whatever she is, the Huntress is like no
killer Agent Roarke – or the reader – has ever seen before. And you may find
yourself as conflicted about her as Roarke is.
Because as one of the profilers says in the book: “I’ve always wondered
why we don’t see more women acting out this way. God knows enough of them have
reason.”
So what do you think?
Readers, do you read crime fiction for entertainment? Are you looking for
something that goes farther and examines the root of crime, and maybe even
solutions? Are you concerned about scenes of violence against women being
presented as sexualized entertainment?
Authors/writers: is this an issue you grapple with? Have you found ways
of exploring real-life issues of violence against women and children that both
fulfill the conventions of the thriller genre and avoid brutalization for
entertainment?
I’m always interesting in hearing!
- - Alex
SALE ALERT: The first three books in the
HUNTRESS MOON series, and my witchy supernatural thriller BOOK OF SHADOWS are all on
sale on Amazon UK this month for just 99p each.
