What gives crime fiction its distinctive shape and form? What makes it such a compelling vehicle of social and political critique? Unwilling Executioner argues that the answer lies in the emerging genre's complex and intimate relationship with the bureaucratic state and modern capitalism, and the contradictions that ensue once the state assumes control of the criminal justice system. This study offers a dramatic new interpretation of the genre's emergence and evolution over a three hundred year period and as a genuinely transnational phenomenon. From its roots in the tales of criminality...

Why has crime fiction become a global genre? How do writers use crime fiction to reflect upon the changing nature of crime and policing in our contemporary world? This book argues that the globalization of crime fiction should not be celebrated uncritically. Instead, it looks at the new forms and techniques writers are using to examine the crimes and policing practices that define a rapidly changing world. In doing so, this collection of essays examines how the relationship between global crime, capitalism, and policing produces new configurations of violence in crime fiction - and asks...

Smart Dams and Reservoirs contains the proceedings of the 20th Biennial Conference of the British Dam Society that took place from 13-15th September 2018. Many new techniques and methods are now available for investigating, designing, constructing and monitoring dams. The papers in this book give examples of how new ideas have been used in practice to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of all aspects of the work that is necessary to ensure the safety of dams and reservoirs. The heritage value of older dams is being increasingly recognised, and this book aims to show how ensuring...