Many sorts of pleasure have been claimed for and by readers of crime fiction: the ratiocinative pleasure of puzzle-solving; the satisfaction of seeing morality prevail and order restored; the perverse enjoyment arising from having our suspicions about the corruption of our society, its leaders and its values confirmed; participation in the wistful hope that actions based on goodness and principle may succeed; reassurance that the domestic lives of our heroes and heroines are just like ours; and, starting with Paul Cain and Raoul Whitfield, Horace McCoy and Jim Thompson, the cold embrace of nihilism and the apocalypse.
The Diviner's Son by Garry Crew
Pan Macmillan, $14.95 pb, 261pp
Murder in Montparnasse: A Phryne Fisher Mystery by Kerry Greenwood
Allen & Unwin, $19.95 pb, 292pp
Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing by Gabrielle Lord
Hodder, $29.95 pb, 361pp
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