crime novels
Whodunit fiction books
Crime novels are fiction centered on criminal acts—usually murder—and their investigation or consequences.
The genre encompasses detective fiction, police procedurals, thrillers, and noir.
She reads crime novels on the train.
The term often implies page-turner entertainment rather than literary ambition, though the distinction has blurred.
- detective fictionGenre about investigating crimes
- forensic expertScientific crime investigator
- dead bodyDeceased person's remains
- alibiDefense of location
- suspenseAnxious uncertainty about outcomes
police procedural · mystery · investigation · plot twist · femme fatale · Agatha Christie · psychological thriller · hardboiled fiction · whodunit · noir · Nordic noir · red herring · false alibi · courtroom drama · locked-room mystery · unreliable narrator · victim · smoking gun
- fictionfiction, novels, novella, novellas, short story
- crime fictiondetective fiction, murder mystery, detective novels, detective, detective stories
- popular fictionbestsellers, genre fiction, page-turners, popular novels, pulp fiction
- pulp fictionpulp, pulp fiction, pulp magazines, pulp novels, dime novels
- Strike novels
- mysteryclue, detective, suspect, clues, sleuth
crime novelsromance novels
Stories centered on courtship
utopian fiction · literary fiction · science fiction · fantasy novels
crime novelstrue crime
Genre covering actual offenses
police reports · nonfiction · journalism · investigative journalism · court transcripts
crime novelschildren's books
Literature for young readers
picture books · nursery stories · bedtime stories · fairy tales