Delivery method: Online learning with tutor support. 

Detective and thriller fiction are enormously popular. For the writer, these genres demand intricate plots, detailed research, and the ability to create ‘deep’ and complex characters.

Course Description

Detective and thriller fiction are enormously popular. For the writer, these genres demand intricate plots, detailed research, and the ability to create ‘deep’ and complex characters. This module will identify the historical contexts of both genres from their beginnings in (for example) the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We will also explore the wide range of sub genres-from cozy-crime to the literary, to contemporary visceral, Nordic crime. Students will analyse and compare the work of a wide range of published fiction. Each student will also be guided in the key skills of writing effective detective and thriller fiction as they identify their own particular genre ‘position’ and style. 
 
Writing Detective and Thriller Fiction can be studied as a stand-alone course and it is an optional course for the Certificate of Higher Education in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University.