Exploring Diverse Crime Fiction: The Perfect Crime

I’ve always known that crime fiction — and particularly my reading of the genre — isn’t as diverse as it could have been. However, it wasn’t until I read The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson, and interviewed her after, that I’d really turned the magnifying glasses on my own reading choices. In our chat, we touched on how few black women were publishing crime fiction with as much support, and fanfare, as their white counterparts. When put to the test, I only had books by Nadine and also by Dorothy Koomson on my shelves, representing black women writing crime fiction.

With that travesty in mind, and my love for the genre, I told myself that I would make a much more concerted effort to read more widely, and strive to read diverse stories from cultures around the world, from authors of colour, and different lives than my own. It’s appalling how many domestic noir books populate my shelves; books about middle-class white women, for middle-class white women, by middle-class white women.

Quite serendipitously, I discovered The Perfect Crime: A Short Story Collection, edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski — a collection of 22 crime stories from diverse cultures around the world. This was exactly what I needed — short, sharp, crime-flavoured insights into worlds, cultures, and writers that I was yet to discover.

I was ushered into this book by, not only the fact that I was gifted it for work purposes by HarperCollins UK / HarperFiction, but also by the comforting blanket of knowing some of the authors included. I’d interviewed J.P. Pomare, a māori author now living in Melbourne previously, the aforementioned Nadine Matheson is included in our list of 22 authors — she writes the brilliant Inspector Angelica Hurley series, alongside Oyinkan Braithwaite who wrote My Sister, The Serial Killer, and also Rachel Howzell Hall who I’d heard a lot of brilliant things about from people in the US. There were also names on the list that I knew of, but hadn’t read anything by yet, including SA Cosby, Abir Mukherjee, Imran Mahmood and Walter Mosley.

As I write this, I’ve got four stories out of the 22 left to read having started with the names I knew.

Some that I’m still thinking about, having really enjoyed, include:

• For Marg, by J.P. Pomare — how authors can make twists and reveals work in such a short scope, I’ve got no idea. J.P. always smashes it.
• The Mayor of Dukes City, by S.A Cosby — I loved how this one unfolded; this kind of reveal always works so well.
• Clout Chaser, by Rachel Howzell Hall — this one felt very timely, commenting on the rise of true crime fanatics, armchair detectives, and clout chasers in online forums.
• The Beautiful Game, by Sanjida Kay — just brilliant. I don’t want to say too much, but my GOD.

Stories within The Perfect Crime that really intruiged me from a culture perspective were:

• Chinook by Thomas King — a death occurs at a recently renovated bar and is investigated by an ex-police officer who notes that they have “Navajo sensibilities” even though they’re actually Cherokee.
• Hooch by David Heska Wanbli Weiden — an exploration into the life of a hooch salesman, living on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, when a new gang moves in and wants in on the game.

After some googling to get my details right, I now know that the Rosebud Indian Reservation is a federally recognised reservation in South Dakota, populated by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The Navajo Nation the largest federally recognised Native American tribe, with its Reservation spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The Cherokee tribe, the second largest federally recognised tribe, has large populations living in California, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kanas and Missouri, with their primary Cherokee Nation being in Oklahoma, as well as 11.6k Canadian Residents identifying as having Cherokee ancestry.

I’ve also recently been listening to Kuper Island, an 8-part podcast series that tells the stories of four students who attended one of Canada’s most notorious residential schools — where unsolved deaths, abuse, and lies haunt the community and the survivors to this day. The media surrounding Kuper Island, and other residential schools with similar stories, are told by students from the Halalt First Nation, Cowichan Tribes, Tsartlip First Nations people, and other indigenous peoples.

As step one in my journey to embracing more diverse and inclusive crime fiction (and non-fiction) I’m excited to dive further into that coming from a Native American Indian / First Nations communities. Thomas King, who wrote the above mentioned short story Chinook, is of Canadian Cherokee descent and quite often writes on First Nations people, with at least fifteen titles to his name for me to explore.

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, again mentioned above, is an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation tribe, who have their home federally recognised as The Rosebud Indian Reservation — where Hooch is set. David has written a thriller set on a Native American reservation, titled Winter Counts, which I’m looking forward to reading, alongside some of his non-fictional work too.

I’m excited to keep globe-trotting, and exploring diverse cultures through crime fiction. Do you have any recommendations for me?