Making a killing on the Antiques Roadshow crime novel

20th October 2022

In The Sunday Times 16 October 2022, Rosamund Urwin and Liam Kelly reflect on the burgeoning popularity of the cosy crime novel and cite The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder (to be published in 2024) by C L Miller, borne out of the author’s love of watching the BBC1 series – Antiques Roadshow – shown on a Sunday evening.

It will be one of the hot books at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, they say.

Cosy crime has become extremely popular, thanks to the growing series – The Thursday Murder Club –  penned by Richard Osman, set in a retirement home in Kent.

Publishing director Ben Willis (publishing director at Bonnier Books) acknowledges that half of his submissions are in the cosy crime genre and references to television shows excite in particular the American market, because they are officianadoes of British TV shows like Love Island and Bake Off and love the shows being referenced.

Sir Ian Rankin says that the police detective genre is “dying”, being replaced by cosy crime and psychological domestic noir. He attributes much of the success to Richard Osman’s books because they can somehow give power to ordinary protagonists, who can go off at will on their sleuthing adventures. To readers, he surmises, that it feels somehow comforting in these tumultuous times.

The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder has Freya at the heart of the novel, whose antique-dealer mentor dies in suspicious circumstances, and the story builds up to an antique convention in Suffolk, where everyone becomes a suspect. The author’s mother is a collector and expert who appears on the show and the author sought her input.

Further evidence of the inspiration gleaned from this particular show is Peter James’ latest art crime thriller set around Brighton, Picture You Dead, which prominently features Antiques Roadshow at its heart.

Do you agree that cosy crime is eclipsing the charts at the expense of the police detective genre? Chat to us in the comments below.

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