What's going on with Crime/Thriller books?

seun · Feb 5, 2010

I get a lot of Crime/Thriller books at work and while the genre doesn't interest me, I do scan the blurbs or the first page to get an idea of what's new and selling.

Almost every book featuring the FBI or police has to have an MC with emotional problems. I had one last week featuring an FBI agent who not only was having an affair with a married man, she was pregnant with his kid while being a depressed alcoholic. Ignoring the question of how the hell she was supposed to solve crimes while dealing with all that, why is it that the cop can't just be a cop? Why do they have to be a burnt out cop on the edge?

I know there are cliches in all genres but crime and thrillers just seem to be getting silly.

gothicangel · Feb 5, 2010

seun said:
I get a lot of Crime/Thriller books at work and while the genre doesn't interest me, I do scan the blurbs or the first page to get an idea of what's new and selling.

Almost every book featuring the FBI or police has to have an MC with emotional problems. I had one last week featuring an FBI agent who not only was having an affair with a married man, she was pregnant with his kid while being a depressed alcoholic. Ignoring the question of how the hell she was supposed to solve crimes while dealing with all that, why is it that the cop can't just be a cop? Why do they have to be a burnt out cop on the edge?

I know there are cliches in all genres but crime and thrillers just seem to be getting silly.

You're right, it is getting silly.

The current cliches that pee me off is the Rebus archetype (divorced, alcoholic) and there's a psychopath on the loose.

Probably explains why I'm so picky with my reading material.

heyjude · Feb 5, 2010

Come visit the M/T/S forums. You'll find that we as writers have a lot of dissatisfaction with what we're reading in our genre. The ante keeps getting upped on these kinds of characters (often very unlikeable characters), and you're right, sometimes it's out of control. But it seems to be what the public at large want to buy and read.

shaldna · Feb 5, 2010

ah, such is the way of these things.

it would make anyone believe that anyone in the police / fbi / cia / mi5 / secret govt organisation is an emotional cripple intent on melting his liver or having a complete mental breakdown in the imminent future.

I'm from Belfast and here people join the police because they get a gun.

I'm not keen on angsty characters at all to be honest. especially in crime/thriller. it's been done. time to move on

Bookewyrme · Feb 5, 2010

I don't read thrillers, and haven't read a modern murder mystery in a while, but I'm just curious if this is bleeding into murder mysteries as well? That used to be my favorite genre. But an angsty detective just seems a bit silly. Give me a Miss Marple, a Hercule Poirot, or an Amelia Peabody over them any day!

WildScribe · Feb 5, 2010

It's something to do with overcoming your personal demons before you can catch the real devils out there, but it's been done and overdone to the point where I recently put down a mystery because I half thought it was satire. It was pretty sad.

Cyia · Feb 5, 2010

shaldna said:
it would make anyone believe that anyone in the police / fbi / cia / mi5 / secret govt organisation is an emotional cripple intent on melting his liver or having a complete mental breakdown in the imminent future.

I read the memoir of a CIA agent a while back. One of the chapters was devoted to the "insanity" of several of his co-workers.

The one that still sticks with me is the woman who was a hard core alcoholic and couldn't bring liquor to work because everyone knew she was an alcoholic and wouldn't let her drink. She retrofit her windshield wipers to dispense fluid inside her car and filled the tank with vodka.

Yeah, there's some serious mental issues there.

Bookewyrme · Feb 5, 2010

Cyia said:
I read the memoir of a CIA agent a while back. One of the chapters was devoted to the "insanity" of several of his co-workers.

The one that still sticks with me is the woman who was a hard core alcoholic and couldn't bring liquor to work because everyone knew she was an alcoholic and wouldn't let her drink. She retrofit her windshield wipers to dispense fluid inside her car and filled the tank with vodka.

Yeah, there's some serious mental issues there.

Was that....supposed to be a true memoir? Because, I'm not a mechanic but it seems to me that the car thing is not only impossible, but seriously impractical. There's better and easier ways to hide alcohol in your car than in it's gas tank.

seun · Feb 5, 2010

Like I said, Crime isn't really my thing but even I know this sort of thing is hugely overdone. But then I suppose it's the same for sexy vampires, detailed maps at the start of every Epic Fantasy book and chick lit featuring a woman in her late twenties who - shock - hasn't got a boyfriend.

Cyia · Feb 5, 2010

Bookewyrme said:
Was that....supposed to be a true memoir? Because, I'm not a mechanic but it seems to me that the car thing is not only impossible, but seriously impractical. There's better and easier ways to hide alcohol in your car than in it's gas tank.

Yes it was true.

She didn't put it in the gas tank, it was the tank that should have held the wiper fluid. Instead of the tubing running to the wipers, she put in tubing that would run inside her car when she pressed the release to "wash" her windshield.

LuckyH · Feb 5, 2010

The biggest source of fiction is crime fiction; when Jesus was nailed to the cross, there was a thief on either side of him. Our entire lives are pervaded by crime, from the highest to the lowest, and to write or read about it is the most natural thing in the world.

That detectives tend to be flawed human beings, whether in fiction or in real life, is also perfectly understandable; the constant exposure to the most debased levels of human transgressions is bound to affect everyone apart from the odd robot, and who wants to read about robots?

If the fictional detective is unaffected by the gruesome discovery of a mutilated child’s body, or the serial killer eating his victims, then I don’t want to read about him.

gothicangel · Feb 5, 2010

I don't think I want to read about mutilated bodies of children or serial killers cannibalistic behaviour in crime fiction!

a_sharp · Feb 5, 2010

There's a perception that criminals and cops with psychological flaws make for the best drama. The cop in my family would tell you each is a pain in the behind, to be removed to a neutral corner before anyone worthwhile gets hurt.

These stereotypes create drama all right, but not necessarily of the best quality. It's what the publishing house market mavens think is hot right now, and it also works for mass-market TV because long before you graduated high school someone stuck a gun in your hand and said, "This is your life."

Marketeers are driven by numbers and an anally positioned opposable digit, which motivates them to take over corporate enterprise, where they can do the same to stockholders and consumers. (Don't you love that word? I read, ergo I am a word consumer.)

If you toss a frisbee at your dog for excitement, you might consider taking a crime thriller for fast relief. Or simply watch the evening TV news. Only difference about the book, it lasts a bit longer than a sound bite.

BTW, I write thrillers.

MarkEsq · Feb 5, 2010

LuckyH said:
If the fictional detective is unaffected by the gruesome discovery of a mutilated child’s body, or the serial killer eating his victims, then I don’t want to read about him.

You are right, but I don't think that's the complaint. The problem, or concern, people are expressing here is that the detective has some pre-existing and almost debilitating emotional problem coming into the case. In reality we are affected by the crime we come across, I know because I work in that field and see bad things on a daily basis. But also in reality an alcoholic cop who's eight months pregnant and emotionally scarred by the kidnap of her pet poodle isn't going to be solving any crimes.

I completely see and understand the sense of "one-upmanship" that seems to be creeping into some parts of the genre. My hero happens to be a slightly lonely man who wishes his wife would agree to live abroad with him, and who acts out of loyalty and intellectual curiosity. So if it's a cracked-out, jibbering MC that editors want, I won't be getting a publishing deal!

seun · Feb 5, 2010

LuckyH said:
That detectives tend to be flawed human beings, whether in fiction or in real life, is also perfectly understandable; the constant exposure to the most debased levels of human transgressions is bound to affect everyone apart from the odd robot, and who wants to read about robots?

Not quite my complaint. My issue is the amount of police/government agents in fiction who it seems have to have emotional problems before anything happens. I'd expect people to be affected by crime, violence and constant threat. I just don't see that they have to be the sort of cliched cop we've seen in fiction for a long time.

LuckyH · Feb 5, 2010

seun said:
Not quite my complaint. My issue is the amount of police/government agents in fiction who it seems have to have emotional problems before anything happens. I'd expect people to be affected by crime, violence and constant threat. I just don't see that they have to be the sort of cliched cop we've seen in fiction for a long time.

Cliched cops, clichéd vampires, clichéd heroes, clichéd lovers – it’s all we have. You can’t stop the world, and if you write about it, you may put your own stamp on it, but it will keep on turning.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 5, 2010

seun said:
Not quite my complaint. My issue is the amount of police/government agents in fiction who it seems have to have emotional problems before anything happens. I'd expect people to be affected by crime, violence and constant threat. I just don't see that they have to be the sort of cliched cop we've seen in fiction for a long time.

I don't see the cliche here. It's reality. Cliche is in how the character is handled, not in whether he is or isn't trouble. Make that a cliche and fiction is dead.

Do you actually read these books, or are you simply going by jacket copy, which really tells you nothing?

RJK · Feb 5, 2010

You may be reading the wrong books.

Look at Patterson's Alex Cross - he's certainly had his setbacks - his wife was murdered, he was nearly killed. He has emotional problems, but he's far from a basket case.
Then there's Sanford's Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers. Both have their idiosyncrasies, but again, they are fully functioning people.
Harris' Clarice Starling lived through a gruesome childhood that gives her nightmares, but again, she's normal.

Many fictional detectives, including mine, are normal people, perhaps very intelligent and talented, but surely not emotionally crippled. They deal with the worst society can offer, and handle it the best way they can. That may cost them their marriage, or a few years of their lives due to the stress, but they deal with it.

Gillhoughly · Feb 5, 2010

You've perked me up quite a bit with this thread!

I'm developing a a thriller character with a horrible life who is probably alcoholic and quite certifiable, but he's rather cheerful about it all.

Almost every book featuring the FBI or police has to have an MC with emotional problems.

Certainly Thomas Harris established this trope by giving Clarice Starling from Silence of the Lambs some hangups.

Would Hannibal Lector be as much fun if he was a gloomy Gus? I doubt it.

But expecting the detectives to detect when their personal life is in the sewer annoys me. I can see that finding the serial killer can be an escape for the MC, but as has been stated, the screw ups in any law enforcement agency are well known to their peers. They're shuffled to one side or fired. (Unless their relatives run the town, but that's a whole other trope.)

As for the audience addicted to such things: One of my friends explained that reading about people with worse problems than her own makes her feel better about her situation. (I never saw the sense in that. If your situation stinks, figure a way out of it. Being the MC of your own life-novel, just how much of a hero ARE you?)

Cyia · Feb 5, 2010

1- Looking at an Alex Cross novel as a model will make you want to spork your eyes out. (If I hear one more Patterson commercial for yet another book described as "unputdownable", that word will start to apply to my most recent meal.)

2 - Clarice was so normal, she shacked up with Lecter in the end.

seun · Feb 6, 2010

Jamesaritchie said:
I don't see the cliche here. It's reality. Cliche is in how the character is handled, not in whether he is or isn't trouble. Make that a cliche and fiction is dead.

Do you actually read these books, or are you simply going by jacket copy, which really tells you nothing?

It's reality that just about every police officer is a burnt out wreck/maverick/alcoholic? What's wrong with a cop, a mystery, and a threat? Why throw in a load of seemingly mandatory personal problems? Seems like a weak way of creating character to me.

And if the blurb or synopsis really tells us nothing, then what's the point of them?

kaitie · Feb 6, 2010

I don't think it's just a matter of something being "in" so that's what the publishers put out. Yes, there's definitely an element to that, but I think a lot of it has to do with what's being written as well. I mean, look at how big urban fantasy or vampires or young adult has become among writers with the advent of Twilight.

There's nothing to this but personal speculation, but I wonder if a lot of it doesn't have to do with feeling the need to "top" what's already out there. There's that sense of having to outdo what was done before. Someone started the troubled cop trend, so now a lot of people write it for whatever reason (following the market, thinking that's how it's done, etc.), and then there's that idea of having to do something different and new and make things more interesting than what has been written before. So in the end, you end up with a cop with a drinking problem becoming a cop who's an alcoholic, addicted to painkillers, has family issues, etc. etc. That's just my guess, but I would guess it has something to do with it. I imagine there are a lot of writer's out there who are trying to be edgy, and that's the result.

RJK · Feb 6, 2010

seun said:
It's reality that just about every police officer is a burnt out wreck/maverick/alcoholic? What's wrong with a cop, a mystery, and a threat? Why throw in a load of seemingly mandatory personal problems? Seems like a weak way of creating character to me.

And if the blurb or synopsis really tells us nothing, then what's the point of them?

I don't think James meant that every cop is a basket case. God forbid, if that were true.
99% of cops are well balanced (completely psychologically screened) people, dealing with the worst of people all the time, and the rest of the people at their worst time.

I think many authors feel they need to pile on all these demons to make the cop more interesting. I personally don't, and from what I've read above, many of you agree.

kaitie · Feb 6, 2010

Yeah, personally I prefer a character who has ways of coping and dealing with it. I don't mind some internal conflict going on (I actually love it), but this gets old fast.

seun · Feb 6, 2010

kaitie said:
There's nothing to this but personal speculation, but I wonder if a lot of it doesn't have to do with feeling the need to "top" what's already out there. There's that sense of having to outdo what was done before.

I've often wondered the same.

What's going on with Crime/Thriller books?

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