Abstract
In this chapter the pervasive presence of biblical allusions, themes and characters in modern crime fiction is evaluated and categorised. Three recent crime novels, C. J. Sansom’s Revelation (2008), Robert Harris’s The Second Sleep (2019), and Ruth Rendell’s Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (2002) are compared for the way the Book of Revelation functions as either plot device or explicit or implicit cultural presence in the each narrative. It is argued that while violence in biblical texts is often accepted without critique, in crime fiction it is given meaning and explanation while not shying away from its horror. Crime fiction interrogates the role of violence in biblical texts by offering a space in which resolution is found and the darkness in some sense redeemed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Bible and Violence |
| Editors | Chris Greenough, Mmapula Diana Kebaneilwe, Jonathan Jodamus, Johanna Stiebert |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 2023 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- crime fiction
- Revelation
- Robert Harris
- C. J. Sansom
- Ruth Rendell