PRIVATE DICKS AND FEISTY CHICKS
AN INTERROGATION OF CRIME FICTION

Private Dicks and Feisty Chicks is an entertaining and fast-paced exploration of crime fiction, through the eyes of writer and academic, Catherine Cole.

Catherine addresses the reasons why readers of crime fiction find it so addictive and satisfying, and why the conventions of crime fiction lend themselves so perfectly to depicting contemporary social, political and moral issues. Private Dicks and Feisty Chicks examines the experience of reading and writing crime as well as the influence of politics and feminism on the development of crime fiction. Catherine Cole has published two crime novels, Dry Dock and Skin Deep.

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Reviews

"Something for every armchair sleuth and mean streeter. Stylishly shifting between personal observation and critical commentary, Cole entertainingly lifts the lid on the dark world of crime fiction."

- Graeme Blundell

"With insights gained from being both a crime writer and critic, Cathy Cole examines crime fiction entertainingly and thoroughly in this book."

- Gabrielle Lord


"Cole's study of crime fiction covers familiar ground, but does so using a wealth of up-to-date reading on an international stage.... With chapters on the unique appeal of the genre, bodies and evidence, morality, characters, place, politics, and the possible future, this book would benefit students. It also has value for experienced researchers wanting to refresh their knowledge and to encounter thinking on contemporary writers from Scotland to California, Australia to London... I will be recommending this book to my research students as a very useful and thought-provoking read."

- Susan Rowland, University of Greenwich, UK; Clues, USA


"Private Dicks and Feisty Chicks is Cole's academic analysis of crime fiction's so satisfying seductions, and why its moral reflections make addiction justifiably agreeable."

- Murray Waldren, The Australian


"This lively study has solid foundations based on thesis research, its author herself is a published crime novelist."

- The Australian, Higher Education Supplement


"Cole has read widely, both in crime fiction and in books about crime fiction, she has attended conferences and heard the great contemporary crime fiction writers talking about their work, and this is a very digestible overview of all that research."

- Bruce Elder, The Sydney Morning Herald


"An entertaining and fast -paced exploration of crime fiction."

- Modern Women's Studies, UK