Investigating Crime in a Time of War: Historical Crime Fiction and the Representation of Fascism

This book takes a close look at crime fiction set in the interwar period and during the reign of terror of the Nazi regime. Kniesche analyzes historical crime fiction depicting Weimar and Nazi Germany with specific questions in mind: what does the text try to accomplish in regard to transmitting historical knowledge? What history is told? How is historical knowledge represented and conveyed in crime fiction? Does the historical background provide an indispensable setting for the crime story? With consideration to the degree of self-reflexivity in the texts, Kniesche probes how open the text is to an active participation of the reader in evaluating the historical knowledge that the text itself attempts to provide.

Thomas W. Kniesche is Associate Professor of German Studies at Brown University, USA. His publications include Spuren lesen und Zeichen deuten. 11 Versuche zum Kriminalroman (2023) and A Companion to Contemporary German Crime Fiction (2019).