Instead of erudite sleuths pacing a library full of suspects, we had down-on-their-luck – alcoholic, divorced – cops chasing serial killers across grungy cities in books such as Along Came A Spider and The Bone Collector or films like Seven and Saw. The Detective (I’ve capitalised here as I’m literally talking about anyone you see when you close your eyes on hearing the word: hat-stand, cigar, moustache – you’ve got it) went out of fashion in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Of course, it could be argued that Christie and her Golden Age compatriots inspired much of the modern crime genre anyway – so why the current explosion? Let’s use a time-honoured crime-novel technique to answer that: the flashback. Recent hits along these lines include the excellent The Guest List by Lucy Foley, the charming Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, and the wry modern take in the film Knives Out. Australian crime writers are increasingly looking to the example set by Agatha Christie and her puzzle-solving Poirot.
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