Elspeth Latimer

A summer’s afternoon. A tiny baby suddenly vanished from his pram, the mystery of what happened to him never solved. A young mother lost in grief. Twenty-one years later, ex-police detective Dan Hennessy is coming to terms with a loss of his own. When his neighbour disappears, and a nameless body turns up at a local solar farm, Dan is lured into a world of secrets reaching far into the past and with consequences for his future. Can he draw the clues together, to find consolation for the grieving mother and himself?

Crime fiction first emerged in the Victorian era and its series form continues to dominate the genre. Despite the prevalence of crime series, very little research has been done on how character is conceived. The Element's focus is contemporary, from the 1970s onward, and it determines the theory and conventions behind writing the detectives in these modern meganarratives. Exemplary series and a range of subgenres are analysed, thriller to cosy crime, professional investigator to amateur sleuth, embracing diversity and different gender identities. Previous examinations have tended to interpret the detective figure as either mythic or realist, but the author argues that both modes are combined in the contemporary crime series, generating a mythorealist protagonist. This creative-critical Element celebrates the vibrancy of the form and its capacity to investigate the human condition. It also considers future trends and concludes with the author's own guide to writing a crime fiction series.