Have crime books gotten gorier?

gothicangel

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Personally, I don't consider WWII the apex of moral society. I'm no expert, but I think it's safe to say the first 50 years of the 20th century were the most blood-drenched in all of human history.

You ought to try reading some Roman history, I recommend Robert Graves' I, Claudius if you are looking for blood-drenched (especially the Sejanus era.) :)

I don't read a lot of crime these days (but a lot of HF Thrillers.) Funny, because I also started off reading a lot of horror around the age of 17, before progressing to crime fiction. In my mind Val McDermid is one of the goriest crime writers.

I think there's a newbie error being perpetuated with some writers. Gore and violence are mistaken for conflict, tension and story. The best thrillers are the smart ones and well-crafted, violence and gore is optional.
 

Ken

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All considerations and personal perspectives, aside, gore for gore's sake is never okay at least from a writerly standpoint. And there are a lot of novels that use it in that way: as an attention-grabber. Whether more so now than formerly is of course a matter of debate, given examples above.
 

Sticks

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I think there's a newbie error being perpetuated with some writers. Gore and violence are mistaken for conflict, tension and story. The best thrillers are the smart ones and well-crafted, violence and gore is optional.

This.

I actually really dislike gore, which is kinda funny because I love horror and mystery/thriller/suspense- I love getting frightened but not grossed out :) Not that it offend me or anything- it just makes me queasy. Sometimes I just skip over it no problem, if the writing is good. But there's nothing worse than an author using gore and violence to prop up lazy writing. In fact I guess that's one of the hallmark of lazy writing itself.

I do believe gore has a place though, and can be utilized to great effect to further the meaning and impact of a story. Joyce Carol Oates for example can be a genius at this.
 

Joemoncoblondie

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The majority here have argued one way, so I'm going swing the pendulum back the other way for a moment. For crime novels, I would argue in favor of gore. Gore can serve to heighten a story's mood for instance. One example could be a dark comedy. Gore can heighten the comedic tone by having something that should be repulsive actually make you laugh instead.

I recently read a crime novel called 'Bust' (Hard Case Crime). The story did not shy away from gore. There is a scene where a character tries to use Drano to make a corpse decompose faster. Instead it causes the corpse to turn green and moldy, which further causes an odor to creep up to the neighbors unit above who report the smell, thus bringing the police.

A character in the novel limps throughout the story because his foot is suffering from gangrene but he doesn't realize it (!). I could be wrong, but I think the author (s) explained in detail what the foot actually looked like.

Not everything has to be gory. But if an author deliberately shies away from gore it could take away from the impact of a murder, or the violence he/she is trying to convey. I think if gore is done in a comedic gesture, it could be showcased in a novel for its benefit, rather than be a detriment.
 

Polenth

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I see the added gore as being about added options. There's still a thriving cozy mystery niche. It's just you can get horror mysteries too, should you want. I personally tend to prefer my mysteries at the un-horrific end. But it doesn't hurt me at all if there are other mysteries out there which could go in the horror section. More choice means everyone can have what they want.