This study of crime and masquerade in fiction focuses upon the criminal as a 'performer'. Through stimulating discussions of a wide range of criminal types, Peach argues for the importance of novels that have been neglected. The book integrates incisive literary and cultural criticism with arguments about gender, masquerade, crime and culture.

Preface Acknowledgements Mocking Modernity Gender and Performance in the Criminal Masquerade The Cadaver as Criminalised Text Where does that Criminality Come From? Women in a Criminalising Modernity Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Sara Paretsky: The New Woman Masquerade, Criminality and Desire in Toni Morrison's Fiction Writing the Serial and Callous Killer into (Post) Modernity Conclusion Notes Index