Shared sets of tastes in crime fiction see some of these stories produced, published, sold and quickly disappear into obscurity while other stories enjoy critical and popular acclaim, multiple reprints and are readily accepted into the crime fiction canon. In particular this article will look at how our tastes in crime fiction have changed over time while the many sub-genres of crime fiction continue to cater to the preferences of a variety of readers with stories of: accidental sleuths, hardboiled detectives and refined police officers murders in country manors, exotic locations and familiar city streets and puzzles that allow us to predict what will come next or make us hold our breath until the last page. Auden quipped, when writing for Harper’s Magazine in 1948, that: “For me, as for many others, the reading of detective fiction is an addiction like tobacco or alcohol.” This article will respond to Auden’s statement and explore how crime fiction appeals to an incredibly broad range of tastes. Indeed, crime fiction is one of the world’s most popular genres. There is a dead body to suit every reader’s taste. This paper also examines, with a focus on the British and American crime fiction traditions, how librarians are able to assist in producing such connections between crime fiction readers and writers as well as between readers and other readers. Thus, crime fiction writers reduce the distance between the world that is lived in and the world that is wanted ensuring the genre does more than provide entertainment it generates important conversations around connectedness and the types of communities we want to build.
Superimposed upon these physical settings, and the characters that occupy them, is a virtual setting, an imagined community where good triumphs over evil. Readers also recognise the victims, villains and vast array of amateur and professional sleuths that make their way through these tales of greed, lust, revenge and murder. The imagined worlds of crime fiction works have negotiated a path from the pages of these stories into the common consciousness that even those unfamiliar with the genre will easily recognise the country estate and the dark alleyway. This paper explores how crime fiction writers are particularly adept at facilitating high levels of connectedness because creating a sense of community has become such an essential component of a crime writer’s toolkit. The result has been the construction of communities around the world, onsite and online, as people come together for reading experiences that provide education and enjoyment. For as long as there have been libraries, librarians have played an integral role in connecting readers to writers.
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