Crime. Fear not: none of us was planning to break the law, with the possible exception of hate speech. Where that is concerned, how would one start? But we were more concerned with crime and literature, and a fascinating perennial question. What is the distinction between crime fiction and novels?
In the 1990s, I introduced one of the loveliest girls of the age to the delights of proper wine
Crime and Punishment: no problem. So what about The Moonstone? There are very many supposed novels which I would rather read. Moving nearer our own day, we have Dorothy Sayers or P.D. James. More recently, Reginald Hill, Susan Hill and Ian Rankin.
Victorian ladies were not supposed to read novels before lunchtime. I take a similar view of crime literature: not to be indulged in during what a hack might claim to be the hours of the working day. So I have not yet read the latest Rankin.
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