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Palgrave Macmillan

Deconstructing True Crime Literature

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Charlotte Barnes

    1. University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

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  • Interrogates the disingenuous nature of “true” crime
  • Explores narrative methods used in seminal True Crime texts
  • Breaks down the sub-genres within True Crime

Part of the book series: Crime Files (CF)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 1-8

  3. Time of Death: The Early Era of True Crime

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 9-20

  4. Writing the ‘I’ in True Crime

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 21-26

  5. Vincent Bugliosi’s Objectivity: Can We Side-Step Bias in True Crime?

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 27-50

  6. The Writer Inside Me: Does Ann Rule’s Proximity to the Serial Killer Celebrity Translate to a Reliable Retelling?

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 51-76

  7. Writing True Crime from a Safe Distance

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 77-82

  8. Truman Capote’s World of Make-Believe: How Does Figurative Language and Creative License Distort Truth in In Cold Blood?

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 83-110

  9. 3500 Files and an Unfinished Script: Is Well-Curated Research and Collaboration the Key to Truthful True Crime, Considered Through Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark?

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 111-139

  10. Writing Creative (True) Crime Narratives

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 141-146

  11. Manson’s Girls Make a Comeback: How (C)overt Is the Influence of the Charles Manson Case on Emma Cline’s The Girls, and Should Readers Be Expected to Ignore the Connections?

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 147-169

  12. Narrative Hybridity in True Crime: Is Maggie Nelson Integrating Poetry into the True Crime Genre?

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 171-198

  13. Conclusion

    • Charlotte Barnes
    Pages 199-207

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 209-212
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Keywords

About this book

This book provides a critical discussion of True Crime literature, arguing for the deconstruction of the genre into subgenres that better reflect a work’s contents. In analysing seminal and lesser-known works, the areas of authenticity, accuracy, and author proximity are considered to form a framework on which an individual publication’s subgenre (re)categorisation can be assessed. The book considers the likes of Ann Rule, Truman Capote, and Maggie Nelson, among other notable authors. Their works – those that fit into True Crime and those that defy categorisation within the genre as it exists – are reviewed, and their defining features critiqued. Topics such as narrative methodologies, figurative language, and utilisation of research are considered in support of this. These strands combine to a larger discussion regarding a deconstruction of True Crime, and the ways in which this will improve the social responsibility of the genre, and encourage a more conscientious consumerism of it.

Reviews

“Charlotte Barnes has put together a thoroughgoing and provocative study of true crime narratives, examining every aspect of the form with impressive insight and originality.” (Barry Forshaw, author of British Crime Film and Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

    Charlotte Barnes

About the author

Charlotte Barnes is a Lecturer in Creative and Professional Writing at the University of Wolverhampton. Charlotte has primarily researched crime fiction through practice-based means, and has since published ten novels in this genre. Charlotte explores representations of female violence, and the ways in which this area can critique and contribute both to creative writing and gender studies. 

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