• Home
  • True Crime
  • Thrillers
  • Mystery
  • Sci-Fi/Fantasy
  • Horror
  • Business
  • History
  • Reader Favorites
    • Award Winners
    • Bestsellers
    • Box Sets
    • Coming Soon
    • New Releases

WildBlue Press

Great Reads from Exceptional Authors

Great Reads from
Exceptional Authors

  • Subscribe
  • Interested Authors
  • Blog
    • In the Media
  • About Us
    • Catalog
    • Privacy Policy
  • Partners
    • ImaginePublicity
    • MacGregor Literary
    • The House Of Mystery with Al Warren
  • Contact Us

Noir Author Richard Godwin Discusses The Connection Between Crime and Horror

ThePureAndTheHated_KindleCover_1563x2500I have said that The Pure And The Hated is a cross between crime fiction and horror fiction.

That is because the events in it involve an intersection of styles. While it is more crime than horror, the reason there is an overlap is what I am exploring in these articles. I believe crime fiction, especially Noir fiction lends itself to hybrid genres.

In these articles I have explored the themes of horror fiction and how it has evolved. I now want to look at the relationship between crime and horror. Many people do not see that the genres are connected. Yet a writer like Thomas Harris is hard to classify since he merges them. I believe in extreme crime there is real horror, horror of a human kind. That is something I explore in my novels. Reviewers often say I mix the two genres.

My first novel Apostle Rising is about a serial killer crucifying politicians as he recreates the original murder scenes of an old unsolved case. Detective Chief Inspector Frank Castle never caught the Woodlands Killer and it almost destroyed him. Now years later, mauled by the press, and traumatised by nightmares, he is faced with a copycat killer with detailed inside knowledge of the original case. He and his partner DI Jacki Stone enter a deadly labyrinth, and at its centre is the man Castle believes was responsible for the first killings. He’s running a sinister cult and playing dark mind games with the police. The investigation has a shattering effect on the lives of Castle and Stone. The killer is crucifying politicians, and he keeps raising the stakes and slipping through their hands. Dark coded ritualistic killings are being carried out on high profile figures and the body count is rising.51aUWNEdY8L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_

There is a huge shock waiting for Castle and Steele when they find out the identity of the killer.

One of the things I wanted to look at was the effect that dealing with evil has on a cop. For this reason and because of the extreme pathology of the killer Apostle Rising moves towards horror at times. But the newspapers are full of examples of horror. I think crime fiction can be also if it is realistic.

My novel, Mr. Glamour is about a group of beautiful women and wealthy men, who can buy anything, except their safety from the killer in their midst. The killer in Mr. Glamour commits acts that push his behaviour towards the terrain of horror fiction. Yet these are acts which killers in the real world commit and as such form part of a realistic portrait. Many reviewers believe there is such a thing as pure genre. There isn’t.

Savage Highway is a crime novel that portrays real crime as horror. My next post will be about The Pure And The Hated, a novel that explores identity, and shows an extremely real and human horror that comes knocking on the door of a peaceful and wounded family which is hiding secrets that threaten to tear it apart and alter its relationships.

Filed Under: Blog, Richard Godwin Tagged With: Crime Fiction, Crime thriller, Horror, Mystery, mystery thriller, Noir, Richard Godwin, SAVAGE HIGHWAY, suspense thriller, The Pure and the Hated, Thriller
May 24, 2016 By Richard Godwin 3 Comments

Comments

  1. Andrew Komarnyckyj says

    February 25, 2017 at 6:51 am

    Hi Richard,

    I’ve found your series of articles about crime fiction very illuminating.

    I very much agree that Noir fiction lends itself to hybrid genres, especially to crime combined with horror. For me, Jim Thompson’s books ‘The Killer Inside Me’ and ‘A Hell of a Woman’ exemplify this combination.

    I have a request, if you don’t mind: how about addressing the issue of what exactly is meant by Noir fiction in your next post? For me personally (and I might have got this totally wrong, so please excuse me if I have) it means a form of fiction in which one or more of the central characters in a novel takes an immoral decision (or more than one) and ultimately there is a day of reckoning. I see it as being wholly or mainly concerned with the working classes, or blue-collar class in America.

    But that’s just my ill-informed take on it.

    I’d very much like to hear your view.

    Reply
  2. Richard Godwin says

    March 9, 2017 at 2:48 pm

    Yes you are right and I concur about Jim Thompson. He was the pioneer of early Noir and a great and raw talented author. I always think of Noir in terms of men and women who have been morally compromised, and drawn across a line. They are not necessarily recidivists or out and out criminals, but they have been tempted in some way and that is why I love it as a genre, because it looks at realistic situations and it is a hybrid.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Buy THE PURE AND THE HATED

Get THE PURE AND THE HATED now:

Star Rating

Amazon Kindle eBook  eBook
Amazon Trade Paperback  Paperback
Audible Audio BookiTunes Audio Book  Audio Book

INTERNATIONAL KINDLE EBOOKS
USA  UK  Canada  Australia  Germany  France  Spain  Japan  Italy  Brazil  India  Mexico

GET A FREE AUDIBLE AUDIO BOOK

Get this Title for FREE at Audible with a free trialGet this Audible Title for FREE with a 30-day free trial

More from Richard Godwin

Audiobook Offer

Free Audiobooks!

It's always a good day for free audiobooks! That's right! Free audiobooks! Just a gift from us to you, our readers.   Browse by genre and select the cover to get more information and your free copy! Non-Fiction True Crime Business

Holiday 2020 Audiobook Giveaway, get free audiobooks

Holiday 2020 Audiobook Giveaway

We know how hard 2020 has been. To help you end the year on a better note, we wanted to give you the gift of free audiobooks! Hence, the Holiday 2020 Audiobook Giveaway! You're probably thinking of gifts for others right now, like we always do during

Noir Author Richard Godwin Discusses The Connection Between Crime and Horror

I have said that The Pure And The Hated is a cross between crime fiction and horror fiction. That is because the events in it involve an intersection of styles. While it is more crime than horror, the reason there is an overlap is what I am

The Double: Richard Godwin On the Idea of Split Personality

In The Pure And The Hated the idea of split personality is a central theme. It relates to what identity is and how irrational impulses may drive a character. As I trace the roots of horror fiction in Gothic and look at how it has evolved, I

Richard Godwin on the Gothic Roots of Horror

There is much that is Gothic in The Pure And The Hated, my novel about the past, about revenge and lawlessness. In many ways revenge may be seen as lawless justice. As I examine what horror fiction means to us and how it relates to crime fiction,

Richard Godwin on Horror Fiction

In this series of posts I want to look at what links horror fiction and crime fiction. The posts are part of the launch of my Vermont based novel The Pure And The Hated. I have spent several years if my life in Vermont. My wife is from the state and

Richard Godwin: The Bad Guy in Crime Fiction

Savage Highway is about bad guys and the breakdown of law and why justice fails. In a lawless world revenge is justice. I want to discuss other authors here before I focus on the novel itself. Savage Highway is about the frontier. Both of the

Richard Godwin on the Trends in Crime Fiction

TRENDS IN CRIME FICTION, Richard Godwin. Savage Highway is about lawlessness and revenge, the breakdown of justice and disorder within the human psyche. Where does it sit in the crime fiction canon? Somewhere between James Lee Burke and Elmore

Genres, Types

New Releases
Featured Books
Coming Soon
Award Winners

Business
History
Horror
Mysteries
Romance
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Thrillers
True Crime

eBooks
Paperbacks
Audio Books
Box Sets

Available

True Crime
• Ted Bundy
• The Last Jewish Gangster
• Carmine And The 13Th Avenue Boys
• Vampires, Gators, And Wackos
• The Curse Of The Turtle
• Deadly Associates
• Jane Doe 9
• Watch Me Die
• Mystery At The Blue Sea Cottage
• The Wheels Of Justice
• 16 Minutes
• Terror Town, Usa
• Raging On
• Grilling Dahmer
• The 'Peyton Place' Murder
• Cold Blooded
• Faith Based Fraud
• The Real Mr. Big
• The Son Of Seven Mothers
• 'The Son Of Sam' And Me
• Serial Killers
• Satin Pumps
• Out Of The Mouths Of Serial Killers
• True Crime Chronicles Volume Two
• The World Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers Volume Three
• The Enigma Of Ted Bundy
• True Crime Chronicles Volume One
• Killing Women
• From The Mob To The Movies
• The World Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers Volume Two
• To Kill Or Be Killed
• No Angels
• Monster
• Under A Full Moon
• 'Til Death Do Us ...'
• The World Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers
• First Degree Rage
• The 'Supreme Gentleman' Killer
• Beast Of New Castle
• The Garden State Parkway Murders
• How Now, Butterfly?
• The Encyclopedia Of The Ted Bundy Murders
• Survival
• Missing ... And Presumed Dead
• Wrong Numbers
• Tantamount
• Playing Dead
• Mothers And Murderers
• Dead Reckoning
• Underworld
• Gabacho
• The Gangster's Cousin
• Race To Justice
• Ted Bundy's Murderous Mysteries
• Travesty Of Justice
• Railroaded
• You Have A Very Soft Voice, Susan
• A Family Business
• Pathological
• Wrecking Crew
• The Last Man Standing
• My Son, The Killer
• Inconvenience Gone
• Toxic Rage
• The Killing Game
• Shots In The Dark
• The Case Of The Golden State Killer
• His Garden
• The Crate
• Burned
• The Case Of The Zodiac Killer
• A Murder In My Hometown
• Bullied To Death
• The Beast I Loved
• Summary Execution
• The Shawcross Letters
• Better Off Dead
• Sidetracked
• My Brother's Keeper
• Targeted
• Held Hostage
• Room 1203
• A Special Kind Of Evil
• Brooklyn's Most Wanted
• Outlaw Los Angeles
• Unsolved No More
• She Is Evil
• The Rise And Fall Of A Casino Mobster
• Outlaw Southwest
• A Clockwork Murder
• Raw Deal
• The Bundy Secrets
• Betrayal In Blue
• The Politics Of Murder
• Murderers Row
• Rough Trade
• Daddy's Little Secret
• Murder In The Family
• Failure Of Justice
• Ice And Bone
• Smooth Talker
• The Trail Of Ted Bundy
• A Taste For Murder
• Sketchcop
• Body Of Proof
• Kentucky Bloodbath
• No Stone Unturned
• Repeat Offender
• Dixie's Last Stand
• Vampire
• Man Overboard
• Bogeyman
• Murderers Row Volume Two
Thriller
• Blood Red Ivory
• No One Will Hear Your Screams
• The Screaming Room
• Bone Thief
• Crux
• Sword Of The Caliphate
• Last Son Of The War God
• Leviathan
• The Strait
• Enemy Of The People
• Cain
• Dark Visions
• Hunter
• The Reckoning
• Hard Dog To Kill
• 16 Souls
• Borderland
• Paper Wings
• Lockout
• Pitfall
Mystery
• The Humanzee Experiments
• The Killing Machine
• Murder At Mardi Gras
• The Right Thing
• Raven's Ridge
• Raptor's Ridge
• Napa Noir
• Melia Ridge
• Emerald Ridge
• Created
• Crevice
• Headlock
• Identity Crisis
• The Obituary
• Naked Addiction
• The Deadline
Horror
• Four
• Acadia Event
• The Red Son
• Highwayman
• The Equinox
• The Pure And The Hated
• Savage Highway
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
• Tribulations
• Happenstance
• Destruction Of Justice
• Blunt Force Magic
Business
• Leaderology
• The Age Of Pluralism
• Bamboo Strong
• Corporate Superpower
• Wordpress Websites For Business
• Productivity Tools For Business
Cookbook
• Frank Cullotta's Greatest (Kitchen) Hits
History
• Legion Rising
• The Korean Crisis
• Tempest Tost
• Saving Sandoval
• Killing Rasputin
Politics
• The (Redacted) Mueller Report
Romance
• When Fall Fades

New Releases

TED BUNDY The Yearly Journal Volume One

TED BUNDY The Yearly Journal Volume One

Due to Sullivan’s extensive writing about Ted Bundy (which has produced six books), he’s become a sort of magnet over the years, drawing out many people who were part of the Bundy story, but have otherwise kept a low profile over the decades; and … [More...]

THE LAST JEWISH GANGSTER Volume One The Early Years David Larson Kindle Cover

THE LAST JEWISH GANGSTER

Volume One The Early Years In 1944 Brooklyn, newborn Michael J. Hardy is rejected by his mother so she can run with gangster Bugsy Siegel, Hardy’s godfather. Shirley Rook rose to the top of the criminal ranks. As the Queen of New York City … [More...]

CARMINE AND THE 13th AVENUE BOYS Craig McGuire

CARMINE AND THE 13th AVENUE BOYS

This is the true story of Carmine Imbriale – a gambler, a brawler, a bandit, a bookie, an enforcer. For two decades, Imbriale was a street-level operative in one of the most violent crews in the Colombo Family, and he endeared himself to some of the … [More...]

THE HUMANZEE EXPERIMENTS Terry Persun

THE HUMANZEE EXPERIMENTS: This Time Science Went Too Far

Ten must track down and stop rogue scientists behind the development of criminal technology in THE HUMANZEEE EXPERIMENTS, the next installment of The 'Ten' Mystery Series! The International Security for Technological Innovations, a federal … [More...]

Coming Soon

THE DECISION TO KILL Leslie Ghiglieri

THE DECISION TO KILL

A 1986 family tragedy propels this gripping true crime debut as a mother searches for answers in the shocking murder of her husband—and conviction of her son. For years, Cherie struggles to overcome the consuming grief she suffers from the loss of … [More...]

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER William Craig

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

It was a dreary winter afternoon in Ayer, Massachusetts, a quintessential New England town, the type which is romanticized in Robert Frost's poems. But on January 30, 1979, a woman’s scream was heard piercing the northeast tempest wind. In an … [More...]

Recent Posts

  • THE DECISION TO KILL
  • TED BUNDY The Yearly Journal Volume One
  • THE LAST JEWISH GANGSTER
  • ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
  • CARMINE AND THE 13th AVENUE BOYS
  • Massive True Crime Sale. Today Only!
  • THE HUMANZEE EXPERIMENTS: This Time Science Went Too Far

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

eZine SignupJoin our email list and be the first to get hot deals, new releases and...
* Author updates
* Free eBooks
* Free audio books
* Enlightening and entertaining posts
* Advance notice of book deals, special offers

Follow Us

Blog Tag Cloud

best true crime books Bogeyman Bradley Nickell Brian Whitney Burl Barer Caitlin Rother Cold Case Crime Fiction Crime thriller Detective Detectives Facebook True Crime John Ferak Kevin Sullivan Las Vegas memoir Murder murder book murder mystery Mysteries Mystery mystery thriller Non-Fiction Ron Franscell Serial Killer serial killer books Serial Killers Steve Jackson Suspense suspense thriller Ted Bundy Thriller Thriller Books Thrillers True-crime truecrime True Crime True Crime Authors true crime book true crime books True Crime Original true crimes true crime stories True Murder WildBlue Press

Privacy Policy

As Seen On:

Our Authors Have Been Seen On...

Interested Authors Click Here
See Our Entire Catalog
SSL Secure Connection

Copyright © 2022 WildBlue Press. All rights reserved.
Website design by Denver Local SEO Marketing Company
Noir Author Richard Godwin Discusses The Connection Between Crime and Horror