`Nice dress,take it off'

Abstract

The experience of interviewing successful American crime writer Janet Evanovitch before a large and enthusiastic audience prompts an exploration of how and why Evanovitch's crime novels make their appeal to readers. Because Evanovitch's novels cross into the terrain of romance, the formulaic nature of both crime and romance and their status as popular genres is discussed. Research conducted with the crime fiction readership network Sisters in Crime Australia is used to reveal that how people justify their taste in crime fiction has much to do with their perception of its status with regard to questions of literary value. Other criteria such as the need for `escape', the need for closure and the problematic nature of `realism' in crime are also addressed with particular reference to what women say about their lives. It is suggested that while the pleasures of reading crime may have much to do with the formulaic nature of the text, what people say about this pleasure can function only as a set of clues in a case that is far from closed.