Start 2021 off right by reading more and learning more with free audiobooks! Browse by genre and select the cover to get more information and your free copy! Non-Fiction True Crime Business History Fiction Horror Mystery Thriller Non-Fiction True … [Read more...]
Holiday 2020 Audiobook Giveaway
We know how hard 2020 has been. To help you end the year on a better note, we wanted to give you the gift of free audiobooks! Hence, the Holiday 2020 Audiobook Giveaway! You're probably thinking of gifts for others right now, like we always do during the holidays. But you know exactly what you want so go ahead and get yourself some new audiobooks while they're free! Browse by genre and select the cover to get more information and your free … [Read more...]
Noir Author Richard Godwin Discusses The Connection Between Crime and Horror
I have said that The Pure And The Hated is a cross between crime fiction and horror fiction. That is because the events in it involve an intersection of styles. While it is more crime than horror, the reason there is an overlap is what I am exploring in these articles. I believe crime fiction, especially Noir fiction lends itself to hybrid genres. In these articles I have explored the themes of horror fiction and how it has evolved. I now … [Read more...]
The Double: Richard Godwin On the Idea of Split Personality
In The Pure And The Hated the idea of split personality is a central theme. It relates to what identity is and how irrational impulses may drive a character. As I trace the roots of horror fiction in Gothic and look at how it has evolved, I want to look at some of the themes of the genre. The theme of the double occurs early on in works such as Poe’s story William Wilson, in which the protagonist encounters his negative doppelganger. It is … [Read more...]
Richard Godwin on the Gothic Roots of Horror
There is much that is Gothic in The Pure And The Hated, my novel about the past, about revenge and lawlessness. In many ways revenge may be seen as lawless justice. As I examine what horror fiction means to us and how it relates to crime fiction, I want to trace its roots. I want to show that the two genres are not that distinct. In the latter part of the eighteenth century there was flowering of Gothic literature in England that ran … [Read more...]
Richard Godwin on Horror Fiction
In this series of posts I want to look at what links horror fiction and crime fiction. The posts are part of the launch of my Vermont based novel The Pure And The Hated. I have spent several years if my life in Vermont. My wife is from the state and the novel is set there. While it is a crime novel, it is also Noir, it is a revenge tragedy, and it is part horror. What do we mean when we talk about horror? What is it that horrifies us? The genre … [Read more...]
Richard Godwin: The Bad Guy in Crime Fiction
Savage Highway is about bad guys and the breakdown of law and why justice fails. In a lawless world revenge is justice. I want to discuss other authors here before I focus on the novel itself. Savage Highway is about the frontier. Both of the authors I will be discussing today portray bad guys in a variety of ways. In Burke we have the pairing of two lawless cops, Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell. And Purcell is an extreme example of the bad … [Read more...]
Richard Godwin on the Trends in Crime Fiction
TRENDS IN CRIME FICTION, Richard Godwin. Savage Highway is about lawlessness and revenge, the breakdown of justice and disorder within the human psyche. Where does it sit in the crime fiction canon? Somewhere between James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard. It is also about the frontier and its endurance within the American psyche. In a series of posts about the novel and writing generally I will look at what Savage Highway is about, and the … [Read more...]
Richard Godwin Discusses Lawlessness in Crime Fiction
LAWLESSNESS IN CRIME FICTION, Richard Godwin. An author frequently gets asked how did you come to write this book? In a way this post tackles that but in the wider context. This forms part of a series of posts about Savage Highway. I wrote Savage Highway because I wanted to explore lawlessness and injustice, but also for the reasons I discuss here. Historically debates about art and its cultural significance are thematically cloned … [Read more...]
Richard Godwin: Internationally Acclaimed Crime Fiction, Horror and Noir
"There is recognition and alienation wrapped up inside horror. Extreme crime evokes a horror that is more real than something a reader knows does not exist." --Richard Godwin in A thin line between Crime and Horror Fiction for The Thrill Begins Richard Godwin is the critically acclaimed author of Apostle Rising, Mr. Glamour, One Lost Summer, Noir City, Meaningful Conversations, Confessions Of A Hit Man, Paranoia And … [Read more...]
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