Violent deaths fascinate readers the most

Picture used for illustrative purposes alone

The growth of crime literature goes parallel with the growth of cities as the dark underside of the metropolis breeds crimes, said experts at a panel discussion at the Sharjah International Book Fair.
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The parallel growth of large cities and crime literary genre is a demonstration that the contemporary man is looking at crime and thriller books like windows to the underworld.
"The reader sits there seeing how the story is weaving together the fragmentation of the family backbone, the commission of the crime and how it is successfully resolved at the end. Reading the crime thriller opens the entire process, which the police may be working confidentially while knitting together the dead body and the surrounding circumstances," said Pakistani novelist and police officer Omar Shahid Hamid.
Speaking at the session on Crime and Thriller Literature, Omar said that the fascination of crime literary readers around the world is fanned by their desire to look into the novels for the psychology of serial killers.
Dr Anne Buist, forensic psychiatrist and novelist, said that the great fascination of crime stories comes from man's fear of death, and within it, he pretends to feel safe and secure through religion and reading. "Reading romance where everything seems perfect is the most preferred, followed by the crime thrillers as defying acts to pretend there is no death," she said.
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She argued based on forensic knowledge on women involved in infanticide in Australia that they murder children due to post-partum depression, new genetics, influence as they grow up as a child and psychopathic tendencies.
Omar said that novels are overwhelmingly on crimes, 90 per cent of which deal with murder cases. "Violent deaths are morbidly fascinating to readers as they look for fascinating secrets in the crimes."
Dr Mamdouh Abdul Mutlib, Egyptian consultant and researcher interested in police sciences, said that police always lead people to deal with crime. "They know how to draw community help in uncovering crime. Nowadays, especially in the UAE, crimes are becoming sophisticated, and organised crimes spread through social media and technology. But, the country ranks fourth worldwide on the quick resolution of crimes and second in the high incidence of resolved crimes."
He also said that certain crimes committed in big cities are different from village crimes, and the wider the cities, more crimes are perpetrated. "In the metropolis, people do not know each other and they especially live alone. So, it makes policing even harder."
The panelists also discussed the close link between darkness and the commission of crime as the criminals can hide their identity in the night.
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com