Teaching Crime Fiction

More than perhaps any other genre, crime fiction invites debate over the role of popular fiction in English studies. This book offers lively original essays on teaching crime fiction written by experienced British and international scholar teachers, providing vital insight into this diverse genre through a series of compelling subjects. Taking its starting-point in pedagogical reflections and classroom experiences, the book explores methods for teaching students to develop their own critical perspectives as crime fiction critics, the impact of feminism, postcolonialism, and ecocriticism on crime fiction, crime fiction and film, the crime short story, postgraduate perspectives, and more.

This collection of essays examines how college professors teach the genre of detective fiction and provides insight into how the reader may apply such strategies to his or her own courses. Multi-disciplinary in scope, the essays cover teaching in the areas of literature, law, history, sociology, anthropology, architecture, gender studies, cultural studies, and literary theory. Also included are sample syllabi, writing assignments, questions for further discussion, reading lists, and further aids for course instruction.

Each title in this series of teacher resource books, intended for use with students in Years 9-12, starts with a detailed definition of the genre, followed by an examination of a wide range of texts.

LEARN HOW TO WRITE GRIPPING CRIME FICTION. Do you have an idea for a gripping crime novel? Would you like to know how to plot your book flawlessly? Do you want to create beautifully crafted characters and nail biting twists? This book is designed for anyone who wants to write an unputdownable crime novel. Whatever your subgenre, whether Scandi-crime or detective 'cosies', this book is full of inspirational advice, acute insights and practical exercises. The first part of the book establishes the rules of writing crime fiction - from convincing characters to the role of research. The book then covers the practical craft of writing and editing, before explaining in detail how to secure a contract and/or self-publish your work. A comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to be the next Val McDermid or Ian Rankin. ABOUT THE SERIES The Teach Yourself Creative Writing series helps aspiring authors tell their story. Covering a range of genres from science fiction and romantic novels, to illustrated children's books and comedy, this series is packed with advice, exercises and tips for unlocking creativity and improving your writing. And because we know how daunting the blank page can be, we set up the Just Write online community at tyjustwrite, for budding authors and successful writers to connect and share.

A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time as an ebook.

TEACHING MYSTERIES 101 It is the fall of 1970, and Andrea Jackson is beginning her career as a high school English teacher in a small, northern Illinois town. Her challenges begin during the first class of the first day, when her Mystery Stories students come in expecting to learn to be detectives rather than study English. Andrea shares the ups and downs of first-year teaching with her fellow rookie English teachers, Chrissie and Bud. All of them are unsure how to deal with their stern department chairman, Susan, who advises and evaluates them. A few weeks into the school year, one of Andrea’s students falls victim to a crime committed at the high school. To her dismay, the list of suspects includes another of her students and more than one staff member. Andrea’s efforts to navigate first-year teaching, along with her growing curiosity about the crime, fill her days and keep her awake nights. Her life and work become increasingly complicated when the Mystery Stories students insist on investigating the crime — with or without her cooperation. Their efforts, along with her involvement, eventually put all of them in jeopardy.

"Irresistible... a Golden Age homage, an elegantly constructed mystery that on every page reinforces the message that everyone counts." –New York Times Book Review AGATHA AWARD WINNER! Recommended by New York Times Book Review • Wall Street Journal • Parade • Country Living • Chicago Tribune • South Florida Sun-Sentinel • The Free-Lance Star • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • CrimeReads • Nerd Daily • Red Carpet Crash • and many more! From the award-winning author of The Day I Died and The Lucky One, a captivating suspense novel about nurses during World War II who come to Agatha Christie’s holiday estate to care for evacuated children, but when a body is discovered nearby, the idyllic setting becomes host to a deadly mystery. Bridey Kelly has come to Greenway House—the beloved holiday home of Agatha Christie—in disgrace. A terrible mistake at St. Prisca’s Hospital in London has led to her dismissal as a nurse trainee, and her only chance for redemption is a position in the countryside caring for children evacuated to safety from the Blitz. Greenway is a beautiful home full of riddles: wondrous curios not to be touched, restrictions on rooms not to be entered, and a generous library, filled with books about murder. The biggest mystery might be the other nurse, Gigi, who is like no one Bridey has ever met. Chasing ten young children through the winding paths of the estate grounds might have soothed Bridey’s anxieties and grief—if Greenway were not situated so near the English Channel and the rising aggressions of the war. When a body washes ashore near the estate, Bridey is horrified to realize this is not a victim of war, but of a brutal killing. As the local villagers look among themselves, Bridey and Gigi discover they each harbor dangerous secrets about what has led them to Greenway. With a mystery writer’s home as their unsettling backdrop, the young women must unravel the truth before their safe haven becomes a place of death . . .

A companion to contemporary German crime fiction for English-speaking audiences is overdue. Starting with the earlier Swiss “classics” Glauser and Dürrenmatt and including a number of important Austrian authors, such as Wolf Haas and Heinrich Steinfest, this volume will cover the essential writers, genres, and themes of crime fiction written in German. Where necessary and appropriate, crime fiction in media other than writing (TV-series, movies) will be included. Contemporary social and political developments, such as gender issues, life in a multicultural society, and the afterlife of German fascism today, play a crucial role in much of recent German crime fiction. A number of contributions to this volume will comment on the literary reflection of these issues in the texts. The goal of the volume is to make available to English-speaking audiences, to students, teachers and to a wider circle of interested readers, a series of articles on genres, topics, authors, and texts that will help them understand the scope and depth of German crime fiction, its ties to international traditions and also the specificity of the German context, its historical development and contemporary situation.