What would you call this?

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gingerwoman

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A novel based on a true crime story, not involving murder.

Like fleshing out and looking at all aspects with fictionalized characters, based on the victims, and criminal, and other secondary people, involved in a true crime?

What would you pitch it as to editors and agents?
 
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gingerwoman

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Thanks. Any other opinions? Jack Ketchum wrote a book like this based on the Sylvia Likens case that he classed as horror. It was horror. I'm not sure about pitching it as a thriller since it would be quite different from the standard thriller format. I wouldn't spend much time on the police side of it. (Book I have not written that is writing itself a bit in the back of my head.)
 
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thisprovinciallife

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How famous is the crime? If it's instantly recognizable by just a name, you could call it a 'retelling of'.

What genre would you put it in if it was just your story without true crime elements? I would call it what it is - psychological thriller, legal thriller, crime thriller, etc. and then say that it was a retelling.
 

gingerwoman

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Thanks. I don't know if you can call an actual true crime a "retelling" that might come across as frivolous? It's not a fairy tale. lol

It would be psychological because what I was thinking of doing is fleshing out all these psychological aspects of the relationships involved that there have been hints at in articles on the crime.
 

Jenkki

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It depends on the crime. An elaborate bank heist by a gang of expert thieves? Two teenage lovebirds on a cross-country crime spree? Creepy internet dudes stealing photographs?
 
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