Digging Deadly Deeds in Deutschland

As reported by John Freeman in Critical Mass “the blog of the National Book Critics circle board of directors”:

One of the interesting discoveries I’ve had at the Frankfurt Book Fair is that crime fiction is doing really well in Germany--really well. In fact, according to an industry reporter, twenty percent of all fiction sold in Germany can be qualified as crime fiction and recently the #1 and #2 spots on Germany’s bestseller list were held by Bavarian crime writer Andrea Maria Schenkel, whose books unfold in Munich, that warren of ill repute and weiswurst. I’m told the Scandinavian wave of crime writers sell very well here, as do Americans like George Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, and Donna Leon.

Freeman adds that “Traditional literary critics in Germany have noticed this trend. Several of the section editors I’ve spoken to have started or are firmly behind crime columns, or assigning crime writers to non-specialist critics.”