What Crime Fiction Stereotype Would You Make Disappear?

If you read enough crime fiction, you'll eventually notice a few recurring tropes. The tortured PI who drinks too much, for example.

If a genie popped out and said you could eliminate one of these stereotypes forever, which one would you choose? (This genie is picky about the wishes it grants.)

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Check out Thomas Perry's Nightlife. Female killer, female cop duke it out till the end. Great book. Great characters. I love Thomas Perry.

I do, too, Susan.  I loved that Jane Whitfield series, then started reading more.  His first book "The Butcher's Boy" won all kinds of mystery awards.  A female fed after a serial killer than nobody really knows exists.  One thing I liked was that we never knew the killer's name.  And that he got away.  I heard their's a sequel with the two of them.

The idea that a female agent would have to be going after a female killer to be "more qualified" is insulting.

I liked The Butcher's Boy too, read it a long time ago, might go back and read it again. Haven't read the Jane Whitfield series, couldn't get into the character. Try Nightlife, I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

I'll do that.  

I looked it up, and the sequel (the Boy has a name now--Otto Penzler) is called "The Informant"   This time he's the stalker and Elizibeth is the prey.  Got to get my hands on that one, too.

SLEEPING DOGS is the sequel to Butcher's Boy, the first thing I ever read by Perry. Fell in love with his storytelling. The mob tries to get even, so he goes back to the US and does them all. Wow! There's a new Whitfield I have to get, too.

Ah, so it sounds like there are 2 sequels.  Sweet.

For a macho guy writing crime, Perry has a real way with women.  The female leads in his early work are just wonderful.  I want to BE them.

Maybe you’ve heard of him. Named after the foster father (Eddie the Butcher) who taught him his trade, and introduced almost 30 years ago by Thomas Perry in "The Butcher’s Boy," this cold-blooded professional killer is one of the immortals of the genre. Michael Schaeffer, to give his antihero his current alias, seemed a bit mechanical when he briefly came out of retirement two decades ago in "Sleeping Dogs," but he makes a great comeback in THE INFORMANT (Otto Penzler/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27) – older wiser and deadlier. Perry has to exert himself to engineer a reunion between Schaeffer, who has surfaced from anonymity to defend himself from the mafia good squads that have taken a sudden interest in him, and Elizabeth Waring, a hyper-vigilant honcho with the Department of Justice whose fondest desire is to turn Schaeffer into a government informant.... --Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review.

Oops,  So Otto is the publisher.  And the Boy is Michael Schaeffer.  That sounds better anyway.

BTW, I first heard of Perry from the script-reading world.  He wrote most of the stuff for the show "Simon and Simon".

Absolutely. He "gets" it for sure.

Sleeping Dogs. Can't remember if I read that one or not. Must get it.

Thomas Perry is awesome. Need to try go buy the last few including NIGHTLIFE. I've missed a couple.

Methinks that if we took away everything somebody has suggested in this thread, there might not be much left to write about in crime fiction. lol

Good point, Jonathan.  

People might no go wild over books about monks trying to catch IRS frauds.

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