by Dark crime novels are falling out of fashion because the public has lost trust in the police, Sir Ian Rankin has said.
The acclaimed crime writer said readers now wanted “cozy crime novels” instead of his dark novels as police were no longer seen as heroes.
The author claimed that a contemporary distrust of the police had made figures such as his hero John Rebus less popular with the public.
Readers are turning to “Agatha Christie style” over gritty crime novels, Sir Ian said, particularly amid a chaotic news cycle dominated by conflict.
The 64-year-old writer from Edinburgh said the adventures of Richard Osman’s retired crime solvers were the kind of comfort the public wanted at the moment.
Speaking to The Telegraph about the evolution of the crime genre, he said: “I would say at the moment we are seeing the rise or resurgence of the cozy, that kind of cozy crime, the Agatha Christie style.”
“Richard Osman is a good example of this.”
Speaking at the Chiltern Kills crime festival, he added: “It’s not doom and gloom, people are looking for something more comforting.”
“The world will be explained to them, everything will eventually make sense, and although things will be messed up, normality will return because the crime has been solved.”
“It’s happening a lot on TV and in books right now.”
Sir Ian has sold more than 35 million copies of his Inspector Rebus books, which are typically set in the gritty Edinburgh underworld where the hard-drinking hero deals with murder, rape, prostitution, child sexual abuse and modern slavery.
While his books have proven popular, recent years have seen Osman emerge as a leading crime writer following the runaway success of The Thursday Murder Club, a book about retirement home residents who solve murders. More than 10 million copies have been sold.
Rev. Richard Coles has produced his own series of crime novels in which an Anglican vicar is the hero.
“A difficult time”
Sir Ian said the increase in non-uniform protagonists reflected increasing public distrust of the police: “The poor old policeman is having a hard time because the public no longer necessarily see the police as the good guys.
“In light of what has happened in America with Black Lives Matter and what has happened specifically with the Met in London.”
He added: “I think a lot of younger writers, new writers to the genre, think: I don’t want a cop as my main character, who could I have that would be more attractive to the reader?”
“It could be people in a retirement home, pathologists, psychologists, people who do crossword puzzles for a living, it could be anyone except maybe a police officer.”
Sir Ian has remained true to his own fictional detective, and in his latest novel, Midnight and Blue, Rebus is locked up and undergoes surgery in prison. The author visited HMP Edinburgh as part of his research.
The book is the 25th Rebus novel, the first being Knots and Crosses, published in 1987.
