Crime novel killers v. real world killers

Boomer have you picked up Harlequin's Mystery line? That sounds like every romance novel ever written!

Yeah! Get some books from Kay Hooper and you'll get a good killer
story that won't let you sleep at night...

I don't think they're Harlequin -- maybe I'd better check.

The one I'm reading now is called "Cross" and the killer is rich and beautiful. The couple I read before that had rich beautiful men as killers too.

They're pretty fun books to read -- total escapism which is exactly what I need right now -- the stories start with a bang and keep on banging so you're finished with the book before you know it and -- hey! isn't it time to go grocery shopping again?

Most of these books have been NYT bestsellers so I imagine that they appeal to a very broad group. What is it about the rich, beautiful killer that appeals to all of these people? It seems really strange to me.

Kay Hooper, huh? I'll add her to my list.

Does she utilize the rich, beautiful killer ploy?

Linda Howard, Janet Evanovich, Catherine Coulter (no relation to Ann) are all great mystery/thriller/romance writers.

Boomer, you can kill two birds with one stone (clergy and thriller) if you look for the Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman:

From Wikipedia:

Phil Rickman is a British author best known for writing supernatural and mystery novels, often based on conflicting forces of paganism and other religions.

Rickman was born in Lancashire in northern England. He worked as a journalist for BBC World Service TV and BBC Radio 4. His first novel, Candlenight, won critical acclaim and gained Rickman the title of Britain's next great horror writer. He followed up with four more standalone novels, then began the Merrily Watkins series. The Merrily Watkins books, about a down-to-earth female priest of the Church of England employed as an exorcist, created a distinct new genre of crime thrillers with supernatural and spiritual causes. He occasionally writes under the pseudonym Will Kingdom. Rickman is married and lives on the Welsh borders, and currently has a radio show on BBC Radio Wales about books, Phil the Shelf.

Rickman's novels often involve Celtic mythology, native earthworks (especially stone circles), and oppositions of various spiritual forces. Characters often carry over from one novel to the next, usually as minor characters in one or more novels and major characters in another. Novels generally revolve around small towns and their spiritual legacies, often interwoven with current political issues. Most of his novels address the tensions between "locals," the longtime residents of rural areas, and "incomers" who have recently moved to the area; these conflicts have a socio-economic dimension reminiscent of gentrification, but in Rickman's hands they often assume a supernatural or spiritual aspect as well. Music is also an important theme in many of his books, from fictional bands to Nick Drake.

Ohhh. That sounds good. I wonder if they stock him at Safeway!

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I'm still wondering, though, why all the killers I've stumbled across are so rich and beautiful. It seems to common to be coincidental so I can't help but wonder if it says, or is supposed to say, something about us as a society.

Might be the specific circle of authors you are reading. I don't find that trend as a general theme in the thriller/mystery/suspense/romance genre.

I read novels where the killers are grossly deformed mutants.

I guess you're not reading any Dean Koontz

I just finished a really crappy book where 2 identical cousins, neither of which had a chin, and were albinos on top of everything else.

Their breath stunk too.

I think it's mostly what passes for complexity in those books.

He's handsome... but he's a killer!

He's rich... but he murders people!

What to do, what to do...

<snork>

That came through loud and clear in my father's voice.

Seriously. It sounded just like something he would say.

Dean Koontz, huh? I'll add him to my list too.

They really aren't bad books -- just different from what I usually read. Truly they get your mind off everything that might be happening around you and I have to say, that's kind of nice.

Maybe the point is that they allow you to say everything is going nuts around me but at least I'm not being sliced up by some rich beautiful man so maybe I can deal with my life after all.

Not really. "Sense of Evil" is the book I almost didn't finish because
it's so creepy. I like to read a few pages at night in bed, and this book
I read while wide awake with all lights on.

Don't forget:

My husband/bf/significant other is neither rich nor handsome and he has moments when he lacks charm--but he's not a murderer.

Good point Noddy!

Assuming that these books sell equally well to men I wonder what they take away from it?

Perhaps men think that they could be smarter murderers?

Fictional killers are very different from killers in real life. Fictional killers have an important, central role to play in the author's story. Some are sympathetic, but more often they are deeply troubled people. In real life that's also often true. Here are a few characteristics that I've noted in real life homicides. (12 years with a major urban police department, law school, and graduate degree with a specialization in the Criminal Justice System).

Homicides (The unlawful killing of one human being by another) are categorized by intent unlike most other crimes. In fiction, most homicides are 1st degree Murder; that is, the intentional and unlawful killing of a human being by another. Most homicides are, however, the result of unintentional acts. Two friends disagree over something minor, exchange blows and one dies. A teenager takes his parents car and is involved in a traffic collision that kills somebody. A homeowner leaves the gate open to his pool, and a neighbor's child wanders in and drowns. These are all homicides and they account for the vast majority of killings in the United States. An aside to all you Law Dogs out there, I know this is oversimplified, but lets keep it simple. Fiction needs drama, tension and has to keep a reader turning pages and that need is usually served by making the crime an intentional first degree murder of some sort. Those come in various categories as well.

First degree murder isn't usually a challenging "Who Dunnit". Almost always the killer and victim have a long history together, and there is no mystery to be solved. The wife calls the police to tell them she just knifed her husband in the kitchen. One neighbor shotguns another over a spat concerning a barking dog. Alcohol and drugs are common denominators. The detective's job is most often not in solving a mystery, but in collecting, organizing and preparing a proper legal case against a defendant. There are hit and run, drive-by shootings, land robberies gone wrong make up the bulk of the "Who Dunnit" cases, and again these don't lend themselves to riveting fiction.

Fictional killers in my experience seem to fall into three primary categories: There are the "ordinary citizen killers" who murder for intensely personal reasons, Serial Killers, and Professional Hit men. There are in real life killers who fit into each of these categories, but they tend to be relatively rare.

The murderer who intentionally kills for personal profit, revenge, etc. is common in real life, but they seldom get away with it because they are amateurs. The motive for the murder is generally obvious, the killer leaves behind, or takes away evidence that nail down their guilt without doubt. Examples are the murder for insurance, to escape an unpleasant relationship, and revenge. Classic detective stories use these human frailties to provide a mystery, and a thorny intellectual problem for their protagonist to solve. The classic English drawing room mystery is a genera of this type. We are all familiar with Colombo and a host of television detectives who fit the mold. Real life examples are also numerous because they are unusual enough to make it onto the front page or into the evening news broadcast. Readers can relate to the killer, but the real focus is usually on how clever the detective is.

There may be as many as 250 serial killers operating in the United States (don't nail me to the wall on that estimate, because nobody knows for sure). They tend to fit certain psychological/social/economic/cultural profiles, and the FBI Profiling Unit does an outstanding job on tracking these killers. The basic profile is a middle-aged Caucasian male who is an underachiever. Serial killers tend to have trouble with relationships and holding down regular jobs. They may be intelligent, but seldom have more than formal education beyond high school. The FBI tends to categorize them as "organized" or "disorganized", and the "organized" serial killer is very difficult to catch. Often serial killers are only caught by "accident", or discovered during the course of some other criminal investigation. Serial killers make for good fiction because readers are fascinated by monsters walking unrecognized amongst us.

The contract professional killer figures pretty often in the thriller genera. In real life they are among the rarest of all killers. Most hired killers aren't steely-eyed professionals able to kill silently with a whole range of weapons. Most folks have no way of finding a professional hit-man like those in fiction, so they pick-up some local wanna-be, or thug who exhibits violent tendencies. "Killers" like that contract to kill for as little as a few thousand dollars, and muff the job more often than not. The "professional hit men" in the film "Fargo" is closer to real life, than most fictional professional killers.

The real "professional hit-men" aren't generally available to the general public. Most are connected with organized crime, and killing people is only one of the many criminal activities they are involved in. They tend to kill one another as just another part of doing "business". They don't generally have good killing "skills" or even great weapons knowledge. Hit men for organized crime tend to favor small caliber pistols fired at point blank range into the back of the victim's skull. Not much skill involved there, they're real skill comes in disposing of bodies. Killers for the Drug Cartels are more flashy and likely to indulge in mutilation of the corpse. Cutting and multiple wounds are usually indicators of violent emotions, but Drug killers do it for show and to intimidate. During the Murder, Inc. and Purple Gang days, the mob took occasional contracts for private killings, but most were to supply more skilled murder technicians for mob-related murder.

Government trained snipers and professional assassins aren't murderers per se. Their killings are ordered by duly authorized members of government in pursuit of national goals. Most urban police agencies have SWAT units who are highly trained and skilled as a collaterally to their regular police duties. They seldom actually shoot anyone, but when they do they tend to perform extremely well. SWAT members tend to be gung-ho and in extremely good physical shape, but in the end they are only police officers like the traffic cop giving out tickets. There are a small number of military and intelligence personnel whose job description, if it were publicaly known, would be killing specific human beings. Snipers are an invaluable resource on almost any battle field, and what they do is not murder. I'm guessing the the military (mainly the USMC) has no more than a thousand snipers in total. A few become legends, but most serve their country without killing anyone. These men, I've never heard of a woman sniper, are at the very least potential heroes and they do not deserve to be painted as villains. The same can be said about Intelligence operatives who may from time to time be ordered to kill an individual who is regarded as an enemy of the United States.

The murky moral/ethical world of government sponsored killing is perfect fodder for the fictional author. Secretive, fraught with danger, and conspiracy, highly-skilled killers working for the government are just too good a plot element to resist ... for either writer or reader.

A well written piece of fiction causes the reader to suspend belief, to accept the writer's perspectives, and find entertainment/satisfaction in the story. Usually, the reader is invited to relate to the hero, the protagonist who brings the murderer to justice. If the antagonist is too attractive and charismatic, the reader is put into an uncomfortable bind. That might appeal to those readers who are drawn to illicit behavior. Most readers, I think, are willing to let themselves be drawn into the story. Unfortunately, some have difficulty regaining their senses after laying the novel aside, and thus are stereotypes and erroneous notions born and sustained.

I enjoy catching writer's screw ups. I like my fiction to have a crisp, direct writing style that is often found in mysteries and thrillers. Like most people, I find the examination of atypical human behavior and motivation at the very least interesting. This sort of fiction doesn't require a whole lot of critical thought, and can be finished in a day. Most often mysteries/thrillers are an easy, enjoyable read. I like to read, period. If nothing else is available, I'll read the classified ads even though I'm not looking for anything that could conceivably be published there.

BTW, I rarely buy books that will be read once when the public library supplies more books than I can read. These days I buy only books that will be used often. Actually, I'd like to thin out our collection and get it down to maybe only a few thousand of our best.

By any chance, have you read, Perfume, that was a haunting novel! I heard Dustin Hoffman brings the killer to life on the big screen... Not sure if the movie has already been released, but I got the book at a library booksale, and it gave me chicken skin, I tell ya!