Crime Festival Munich: Crime novels are becoming more political and serious
Crime writers pick up on social developments faster than other writers, explains the director of the Munich Crime Festival.
Munich – According to expert Sabine Thomas, crime novels are becoming more political again. “A lot of new crime novels have a political background, many crime novelists are becoming more unexpected,” said the head of the crime festival Munich before it begins on Friday.
“The crime novel is a genre that takes up seismographic social trends and picks them up immediately – often earlier than is the case with other novels. Crime writers are the fastest there.”
Therefore, a more serious wave is currently emerging, after crime novels with a humorous touch have been written and sold well for years.
“I have the impression that a lot of authors are on fire,” said Thomas.
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As an example, she cited the new book by Swedish crime writer David Lagercrantz, whose reading was scheduled for the opening of the crime festival on Friday.
Lagercrantz has continued Stieg Larsson’s legendary Millennium series and now presents his new thriller The Man in the Shadows.
“The slapstick trend has gone down a bit,” said Thomas – as has the regional trend. “That’s still going on, but it’s also ebbing away a little bit.” Rita Falk, who will also be present at the crime festival, is still the grande dame of regional crime fiction.
Historical crime novels are also currently in vogue, said the director of the festival, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary next year. “However, they often have a political background.”
What she doesn’t see after two years of the epidemic, however, are pandemic books, said Thomas: “There are no corona thrillers. People are so through with this topic, they just don’t care anymore.”
In addition to Lagercrantz and Falk, Andreas Föhr, the British culinary crime author Martin Walker and Donna Leon are also coming to the crime festival in Munich.
In addition, the legendary Munich murder investigator and best-selling author Josef Wilfling, who, among other things, solved the spectacular Munich murders of actor Walter Sedlmayr and fashion tsar Rudolph Moshammer, was appointed honorary patron of the Munich Crime Festival, as Thomas announced.
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Wilfling has been accompanying the Munich Crime Festival for 20 years, ever since his guest appearance at the “Criminale” in 2002, from which the Munich Crime Festival emerged.