The police novel - Peter Messent

Question 1

What does Joyce carol Oates say about the private detectives?

Answer 1

“ private detectives are rarely
involved in authentic crime cases, and would have no access, in contemporary times,
to the fi ndings of forensic experts. ”

Question 2

What term does Messent replace the police prcedural with

Answer 2

The police novel

Question 3

What narrative structure do the police novel suggest?

Answer 3

criminal act,
detection, and solution in orderly sequence. It also assumes signifi cant attention will
be paid to “ the
ways police offi cers and departments do what they do, the ‘ procedural ’ material ”
constituting the “ daily routines ” of their lives (

Question 4

What has been paid closed attention to recently?

Answer 4

forensics, psychological
profi ling, and sophisticated scientifi c and technological support systems

Question 5

Name a police procedural writer

Answer 5

Patricia Cornwell and television seriess such as CSI

Question 6

What does such novels shift our attention to?

Answer 6

“ shift our attention to the process …
of policing ” and away from any “ magic ” involved – the exceptionally gifted detective
able to penetrate what, for others, remains a mystery.

Question 7

what romantic elements does the police novel loose?

Answer 7

“ Police work, ” in its procedural
context, accordingly loses many romantic elements found in other forms of detective
fi ction, is “ collective, grim and often untidy, rather than … merely an elegant intellectual exercise ” (

Question 8

Name some police novel writers.

Answer 8

Elizabeth George, John
P. D. James, Val McDermid,

Question 9

Where is the police novel established?

Answer 9

strongly established in North America
and Britain, and throughout Europe (and appears, of course, elsewhere). In both
America and Europe, the form can be traced back to the nineteenth century, but it
is the post - World War II period, and especially the more recent past –

Question 10

Why is the term police novel better suited than police procedural?

Answer 10

Better suited becasuse they
focuse on crime and police work: novels of detection, thrillers, psychological and/or sociological novels, narratives reliant on Gothic effects, and so on.

Question 11

How should we approach the police novel in terms of its institutional context?

Answer 11

1.on individual law enforcers and the policing communities to which they belong;
2., on the exercise of state power and bureaucracy (the way society is policed)
3. on the general health (or lack of it) of the social system thus represented.

Question 12

What are the two main types Lee Horsely notes the police novel

Answer 12

Lee Horsley notes its two main types: one using
“ the offi cial investigative team of the police procedural, ” the other “ the individual
investigator [who] often retains considerable autonomy ” even within a police setting.

Question 13

What can the individual policeman/woman be aware of?

Answer 13

They are aware too that the system they represent
can be flawed, with its own forms of corruption, moral fault - lines and large - scale
injustices.

Question 14

What does the policeman function as?

Answer 14

The policeman then stands as a mediating fi gure between the authority of the law
(and the social order it upholds) and the emphasis on an individual sense of moral
responsibility, social justice, and freedom of expression.

Question 15

What type of police novel is less likely to follow a set of day by day proceduaral routine?

Answer 15

the type of police novel focusing on
The Police Novel 181
the team, an “ extended family ” who follow a set of day - by - day procedural routines
is less likely to question the dominant social system than those
novels featuring one or two individual protagonists (

Question 15

Name a range of positions
emerging in this move from state authority to liberal citizen.

Answer 15

1. The policeman/woman who carries out her/his professional role with no qualms about the law and justice she/he represents.
   2.The cop, detecive or FBI agent who questions the the system.
2. A range of different positions available beteween these poles.

Question 16

What is the main agenda in Wambaugh ’ s novel,

Answer 16

How ’ re we supposed to police a city when we spend half the time policing ourselves and proving in writing that we did it? ”
A critique of the way the police is managed from above.

Question 17

What does Rankin want his readers to question in his books?

Answer 17

that the reader is expected to question the ways in
which offi cial authority systems work. A

Question 18

Name the two types of novels that Messent describes in his essay.

Answer 18

1. One that straightfowardly endorses the exisiting social order.
2. shows a greater awareness of the pressures, stress points and failinings of the social system it represents, both thrugh an authorial control of the narrative and structure and through the use of individual detectivis who can look to modify some of that sysems abuses and injustices (where they can).

Question 19

What are the genre tropes of the police procedural?

Answer 19

narrative structure: criminal act, detection, solution
police routines as the method of resolution in its plot development.
Representation of investigative processes, of command, the way knowledge is shared and resources used.
Forensics, pshycological profiling, sophisticated scientific, techological support systems.
More female detectives.