Introduction: Globalization and the State in Contemporary Crime Fiction

Abstract

In the introduction, the editors look at the internationalization of crime fiction as a recent and historical phenomenon and consider what is at stake for writers who want to use crime fiction to critically reflect upon the changing nature of crime and policing in our contemporary world. We argue that the globalization of crime fiction should not be understood and celebrated as a one-way process whereby the genre moves to populate the globe. Rather, the global implications of the crime and policing practices being depicted, require new forms and strategies of representation to do justice to a rapidly changing world. As such, we pay attention to the ways in which contemporary crime novels thematize the actions of police detectives and their proxies in particular local and national settings across the world, as they grapple with complex crimes and investigations that cross state borders. But we also think about how the globalization of crime and policing is producing new hybrid forms of writing capable, not just of describing these transformations, but also subjecting them to scrutiny and critique.