The American police novel emerged soon after World War II and by the end of the century it was one of the most important forms of American crime fiction. The vogue for either Holmesian genius or the plucky amateur detective dominated mystery fiction until mid-century; the police hero offered a way to make the traditional mystery story contemporary. The police novel reflects sociology and history, and addresses issues tied to the police force, such as corruption, management, and brutality. Since the police novel reflects current events, the changing natures of crime, court procedures, and legislation have an impact on its plots and messages. An examination of the police novel covers both the evolution of a genre of fiction and American culture in general. This work traces the emergence of the police officer as hero and the police novel as a significant popular genre, from the cameo appearances of police in detective novels of the 1930s and 1940s through the serial killer and forensic novels of the 1990s. It follows the ways in which professional writers and police officers turned writers view the police individually and collectively. The work chronicles the ways in which changes in the law and society have affected the actions of the police and shows how the protagonists of police novels have changed in gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation, and age over the years. The major writers examined begin with Julian Hawthorne in the nineteenth century, and include such writers as S.S. van Dine, Ellery Queen, Erle Stanley Gardner, Ed McBain, Chester Himes, MacKinley Kantor, Hillary Waugh, Dorothy Uhnak, Joseph Wambaugh, Bob Leuci, W.E.B. Griffin, and Carol O'Connor.

リロイ・ラド・パネックの本書は、警察小説という窓からアメリカの精神史を覗き見る壮大な試みです。天才探偵の時代から、組織の狭間で喘ぐ現実的な警察官が英雄へと変貌を遂げた文学的転換点を鋭く抉り出しています。社会の歪みや腐敗を写し鏡とするこのジャンルの真髄が、ここには鮮烈に描き出されています。 人種や司法制度の変遷と共に進化する物語は、まさにアメリカ文化の深層そのものです。エド・マクベインら巨匠たちが紡いだ変遷を辿る旅は、読む者に正義の在り方を激しく問いかけます。一筋縄ではいかない人間の業とリアリズム。その本質を解き明かす、知的好奇心を揺さぶる至高の一冊です。