Crime Fiction Genres

Psycho-thrillers feature mental and emotional conflicts between the main characters - rather than physical action. Some of the most famous psychological thrillers have told unsettling stories of deeply disturbed, violent minds, hiding behind the mask of ordinary and sympathetic fellows.

One of the masters of the psychological thriller was Patricia Highsmith. Her books often emanate a dark atmosphere of looming madness. She tells stories of seemingly normal people who are bound by a chain of events that inevitably seems to culminate into an explosion of violence.

While many authors of psycho-thrillers link crime with lurid sexual perversion or bizarre mental disorders, others have created subtle psychological portraits of their protagonists. Scandinavian crime fiction has a tradition of almost psycho-analytical dissection of the leading characters. Their detectives are struggling with depression, loneliness, alcoholism, and outbursts of violence, while their villains are often crazy fanatics hiding behind the facades of Scandinavia's well-organized societies.