Krimijahrbuch 2006*
Dieter Paul Rudolph (Publisher/Editor)
NordPark Verlag
Kerstin Schoof
Translation: Anne Foster
It's hard to believe that this is the first Crime Fiction Yearbook
published in Germany since 1990. Why has it been 16 years since we
last had a yearbook covering this very popular and best-selling genre?
The answer to this question becomes apparent
on reading the wide selection of essays, reviews, interviews, author
biographies and analysis of trends collected here by Dieter Paul
Rudolph. In his analysis of the crime fiction market (Spaghettification
follows period of success), Thomas Wörtche, publisher
of Unionverlag's ‘Metro
Series', identifies an unprecedented downturn in the fortunes of
the genre since the beginning of the nineties. During this time authors
like Donna Leon and Henning Mankell have been able to win over respectable
publishing houses and help widen the appeal of the crime novel, but
at the same time “set back by decades both its aesthetic potential
and its potential to explore our understanding of what we know”.
According to Tobias Gohlis, the success
of a few major authors has had little impact on the mainly cultural
ignorance of the crime novel. This was the main reason why this
critic of crime fiction, writing mainly in ‘die Zeit', created the ‘Crime
Novel League Table', to bring lesser-known authors to public attention.
With this look at the many recent crime novels set both in Germany
and overseas, the Crime Fiction Yearbook 2006 hopes to contribute
to the story of detective fiction. With its theoretical essays and
author biographies, it is a thorough and interesting record of the
state of the crime novel today, both in Germany and beyond.
* Crime Fiction Yearbook 2006
