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Original poster

Why do women read crime fiction?

104 replies

wordfactory · 07/03/2012 08:34

I've been thinking about this a lot.
Women read far more than men full stop. And the two genres that sell the most are romance and crime.
Now romance I kinda get (tho that's a different discussion) but crime?

I'm a crime writer myself and the majority of my readership is female, which always makes me wonder why.

Does anyone have any ideas/theories? Is there any research out there?

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 07/03/2012 08:49

Why? I enjoy it. Like books with a twist or where things come together. I've always preferred British based novels to American, and have started to notice a preference for those with a female lead.

LaurieFairyCake · 07/03/2012 08:46

Strong, female leads. Not much sex. Usually the women have interesting jobs. Much more analysis in crime fiction.

And I like working out why, British people like puzzles.

Grumpla · 07/03/2012 08:41

I enjoy crime fiction but gravitate much more towards those books which have strong female leads. I think the thing I enjoy about these books is that romance etc is usually incidental - the main focus is on the character as a character not just as passive object of someone else's desires. They are more likely to be pragmatic, witty, strong etc than the female characters in other genres. I also enjoy the "guessing game" nature of a good crime novel. Keeps me hooked. I particularly like crime novels set in a context I am unfamiliar with - I've been reading a lot of Dana Stabenow on my kindle recently and love all the info & detail about Aleut life, hunting, bushcraft etc.

TBE · 07/03/2012 08:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.