crime versus thriller

[benedictjjones]

would you say there is a clear definition between the two or are they one and the same??(or are the lines between very very blurred)

also thoughts on the thriller genre are very much appreciated.

[Dr Terror]

I'd say they were different. But defining the differences is beyond me at the moment!

[pulphack]

oh well, at the risk of sounding like john cleese doing that philospher's sketch about tautology, most crime books are thrillers, but not all thrillers are about crime...

crime writing is about the transgression of a law and either the reasons for, or the solving of; sometimes both. there are many approaches to this, some of which use conflict between human emotions and/or action in the form of a chase - both metaphorical or literal - in order to examine human behaviour under extreme conditions (as an aside, this is one of the useful functions of such writing, as it enables the writer to put their character under stresses and so draw out behaviour that a social realist novel may not otherwise be able to encompass). these aforementioned approaches usually take the form of a series of thrilling epsodes in which the writer uses techniques suxch as hyperbole, shortened sentences, and the use of juxtaposition to create tension and suspense.

this is basic thriller technique. however, not all crime novels use this. the golden age (inter-war) of crime was full of country house mystery and what is erroneously called the cosy, and often derided by the advocates of the thrilling crime novel. in my view this is because they fail to understand that although it has the same subject, it's actually a very different TYPE of book. it's actually about the puzzle of the crime, and inviting the reader to piece it together from clues elicited by the protagonist, usually via a series of interviews and flashbacks. to me, the complete mistresses of this were Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. these novels are about examining a set of circumstances in an enclosed environment (hence the 'country house' appelalation, though it's not always this). the enclosed environment enables the reader to section off the 'world' of the story for easier assimilation - hence the populairty of school stories for kids, from Billy Bunter to Harry Potter. it's also condemned as the cosy because it has no visceral thrills - in fact, horrible murders DO happen, they are just decribed in matter of fact terms, or alluded to, as the purpose of the book is not to thrill, but to engage in a puzzle.

similarly, thrillers have the attributes alluded to a paragraph back, but are not necessarily about crime. what they are about is a threat. the hero and his/her world is under this threat, and the question is will they find a solution or means of escape? many early thrillers were about searches for treasure or missing people, or espionage. look at Buchan's 'The Thirty NIne Steps', which kicks off with a crime, but only as a means to propel Hannay into a series of risks and adventures. the espionage element which forms the purpose of his quest is, in many ways, irrelevant. dornford yates wrote many such thrillers in which the foreign power and secrets were replaced by damsels in distress and treasure hunts, to no appreciable difference.

post WII, and the coming of the cold war, spy thrillers became the mainstream of the genre, and in some ways they still are (Clancy, Ludlum, etc). there's also a strong strain of natural and man-made disaster that has proved popular - Hammond Innes and Desmond Bagley spring to mind for the UK writers, while you could also cite books like 'Jaws' and 'The Posiedon Adventure', which are also strong examples of the way in which the natural conflict is echoed by a personal conflict, to aid reader indentification.

the idea of masked men, superheroes, high-speed action, mysterious villains, etc is something that has bled from pulp to comics to movies and back, and is a example of how crime and thriller can be the same, and also become confused: the same because they utilise the idea of transgression and the breaking of law - both legal and moral - and yet confused because the crime is not the focal point of some stories, but merely a vehicle for the focus, which is all-out action.

or that's what i reckon, anyrate.

[benedictjjones]

^thanks for that!! i think some of the ideas were what i was trying to work through in my head, as doc terror said it was hard to put it int words and i think you did it admirably.
so you can have a crime story, a crime/thriller story and a thriller all as seperate entities?

[Craig Herbertson]

I think your right pulpphack and also bloody clever