Bran Nicol is Reader in Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His books include Stalking (Reaktion, 2006), Iris Murdoch: The Retrospective Fiction (2e, Palgrave, 2004) and The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction (forthcoming). Eugene McNulty is Lecturer in English at St Patrick's College (Dublin City University), Ireland. His publications include Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival (Cork University Press, 2008). Patricia Pulham is Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. She is author of Art and the Transitional Object in Vernon Lee's Supernatural Tales (Ashgate, 2006), and co-editor of stories by Lee, Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales (Broadview, 2006) and of Vernon Lee: Decadence, Ethics, Aesthetics (Palgrave, 2006).

This exciting collection of essays discusses a wide variety of subjects-including film noir, violence and gender, crime fictions, the hit man, and true crime-under the heading of 'crime culture,' a concept that is both original and thought-provoking. This cutting-edge volume is essential reading for anyone interested in crime narratives.

• Acknowledgements \ Contributors \ Introduction: Crime Culture and Modernity Bran Nicol, Patricia Pulham, Eugene McNulty \ Part 1 Breaking Boundaries: Games, Art & the Image \ Playing Dead: Crime as a Social System Mark Seltzer \ Psychopathology as a Game: J.G. Ballard and Conceptual Crime Benjamin Noys \ Crime, Abjection, Transgression and the Image John Lechte \ Part 2: Revisiting Noir \ The Female Side of Crime:Film Noir's Femme Fatale and The Dark Side of Modernity Elisabeth Bronfen \ Post-war American Noir: Confronting Fordism Andrew Pepper \ Part 3: Vixens and Victims: Criminal Femininities \ Dead Dolls and Deadly Dames: The Cover Girls of American True Crime Publishing Lee Horsley \ Contemporary African American Women's Crime and Mystery Novels Linden Peach \ Part 4 : Angels of Death: Criminal Masculinities \ Killer Boys: Male Friendship and Criminality in The Butcher Boy, Elephant and Boy A Páraic Finnerty \ The Angel of Death: Targetting the Hitman Andrew Spicer \ Part 5: Reading the Criminal Other \ Risk Management: Frank Abagnale, Jr. and the Shadowing of Pleasure Christopher Wilson \Police Thy Neighbour: Crime Culture and the Rear Window Paradigm Bran Nicol \ Index

Bran Nicol is Reader in Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His books include Stalking (Reaktion, 2006), Iris Murdoch: The Retrospective Fiction (2e, Palgrave, 2004) and The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction (forthcoming). Eugene McNulty is Lecturer in English at St Patrick's College (Dublin City University), Ireland. His publications include Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival (Cork University Press, 2008). Patricia Pulham is Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. She is author of Art and the Transitional Object in Vernon Lee's Supernatural Tales (Ashgate, 2006), and co-editor of stories by Lee, Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales (Broadview, 2006) and of Vernon Lee: Decadence, Ethics, Aesthetics (Palgrave, 2006).

This exciting collection of essays discusses a wide variety of subjects-including film noir, violence and gender, crime fictions, the hit man, and true crime-under the heading of 'crime culture,' a concept that is both original and thought-provoking. This cutting-edge volume is essential reading for anyone interested in crime narratives.

• Acknowledgements \ Contributors \ Introduction: Crime Culture and Modernity Bran Nicol, Patricia Pulham, Eugene McNulty \ Part 1 Breaking Boundaries: Games, Art & the Image \ Playing Dead: Crime as a Social System Mark Seltzer \ Psychopathology as a Game: J.G. Ballard and Conceptual Crime Benjamin Noys \ Crime, Abjection, Transgression and the Image John Lechte \ Part 2: Revisiting Noir \ The Female Side of Crime:Film Noir's Femme Fatale and The Dark Side of Modernity Elisabeth Bronfen \ Post-war American Noir: Confronting Fordism Andrew Pepper \ Part 3: Vixens and Victims: Criminal Femininities \ Dead Dolls and Deadly Dames: The Cover Girls of American True Crime Publishing Lee Horsley \ Contemporary African American Women's Crime and Mystery Novels Linden Peach \ Part 4 : Angels of Death: Criminal Masculinities \ Killer Boys: Male Friendship and Criminality in The Butcher Boy, Elephant and Boy A Páraic Finnerty \ The Angel of Death: Targetting the Hitman Andrew Spicer \ Part 5: Reading the Criminal Other \ Risk Management: Frank Abagnale, Jr. and the Shadowing of Pleasure Christopher Wilson \Police Thy Neighbour: Crime Culture and the Rear Window Paradigm Bran Nicol \ Index

Bran Nicol is Reader in Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His books include Stalking (Reaktion, 2006), Iris Murdoch: The Retrospective Fiction (2e, Palgrave, 2004) and The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction (forthcoming). Eugene McNulty is Lecturer in English at St Patrick's College (Dublin City University), Ireland. His publications include Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival (Cork University Press, 2008). Patricia Pulham is Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. She is author of Art and the Transitional Object in Vernon Lee's Supernatural Tales (Ashgate, 2006), and co-editor of stories by Lee, Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales (Broadview, 2006) and of Vernon Lee: Decadence, Ethics, Aesthetics (Palgrave, 2006).

This exciting collection of essays discusses a wide variety of subjects-including film noir, violence and gender, crime fictions, the hit man, and true crime-under the heading of 'crime culture,' a concept that is both original and thought-provoking. This cutting-edge volume is essential reading for anyone interested in crime narratives.

• Acknowledgements \ Contributors \ Introduction: Crime Culture and Modernity Bran Nicol, Patricia Pulham, Eugene McNulty \ Part 1 Breaking Boundaries: Games, Art & the Image \ Playing Dead: Crime as a Social System Mark Seltzer \ Psychopathology as a Game: J.G. Ballard and Conceptual Crime Benjamin Noys \ Crime, Abjection, Transgression and the Image John Lechte \ Part 2: Revisiting Noir \ The Female Side of Crime:Film Noir's Femme Fatale and The Dark Side of Modernity Elisabeth Bronfen \ Post-war American Noir: Confronting Fordism Andrew Pepper \ Part 3: Vixens and Victims: Criminal Femininities \ Dead Dolls and Deadly Dames: The Cover Girls of American True Crime Publishing Lee Horsley \ Contemporary African American Women's Crime and Mystery Novels Linden Peach \ Part 4 : Angels of Death: Criminal Masculinities \ Killer Boys: Male Friendship and Criminality in The Butcher Boy, Elephant and Boy A Páraic Finnerty \ The Angel of Death: Targetting the Hitman Andrew Spicer \ Part 5: Reading the Criminal Other \ Risk Management: Frank Abagnale, Jr. and the Shadowing of Pleasure Christopher Wilson \Police Thy Neighbour: Crime Culture and the Rear Window Paradigm Bran Nicol \ Index