Medieval Crime Fiction: A Critical Overview.

Author / Editor
McKendry, Anne.

Title
Medieval Crime Fiction: A Critical Overview.

Published
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2019.

Physical Description
viii, 267 pp.

Description
Offers brief backgrounds to historical novels, medievalism, and crime fiction, and surveys the subgenre of medieval crime fiction, i.e., novels "featuring crime or mystery that is solved by a 'detective' and set during the European Middle Ages." Chapter 6, "Poet or PI?," considers narratives about medieval historical figures who are "recast as detectives," and shows that Chaucer is "by far the most popular medieval figure to be fictionalized this way," describing some fifteen novels in which he appears in major roles, and commenting on Chaucerian characters and motifs that appear in similar works.

Alternative Title
Poet or PI?

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion