Shari Lapena
Doubleday Canada
THE JULY/AUGUST issue of The Atlantic features a long essay by Terrence Rafferty about the recent spate of best-selling crime fiction by women. “A number of years ago,” Rafferty writes, “I realized that most of the new crime fiction I was enjoying had been written by women.” He names authors such as Tana French, Sophie Hannah, Laura Lippman, Paula Hawkins, and – of course – Gillian Flynn. What is it about women writing crime that so captivates Rafferty? “The female writers, for whatever reason (men?), don’t much believe in heroes, which makes their kind of storytelling perhaps a better fit for these cynical times. Their books are light on gunplay, heavy on emotional violence.” True enough, though women like Flynn’s Amy Elliott Dunne are fully capable of getting bloody should the need arise.