Fatal fictions

Lawyers and fiction writers have always confronted crime and punishment. This age-old fascination with crime on the part of both authors and readers is not surprising, given that criminal justice touches on so many political and psychological themes essential to literature, and comes equipped with a trial process that contains its own dramatic structure. This essay collection explores this profound and enduring literary engagement with crime and criminal justice.

Introduction -- Scott Turow, on my careers in crime -- Part I: Criminal histories. Daniel Telech, mercy at the Areopagus: a Nietzschean account of justice and joy in the Eumenides -- Barry Wimpfheimer, suborning perjury: a case study of narrative precedent in Talmudic law -- Alison Lacroix, a man for all treasons: crimes by and against the Tudor state in the novels of Hilary Mantel -- Marina Leslie, representing Anne Green: historical and literary form, and the scenes of the crime in Oxford, 1651 -- Richard Strier & Richard McAdams, cold-blooded and high minded murder: the "case" of Othello -- Pamela Foa, what's love got to do with it? sexual exploitation in Measure for Measure: a prosecutor's view -- Part II: Race and crime. Justin Driver, Justice Thomas and Bigger Thomas -- Martha Nussbaum, reconciliation without anger: Paton's Cry, the beloved country -- Part III: Responsibility and violence. Saul Levmore, kidnap, credibility, and the collector -- Jonathan Masur, premeditation and responsibility in The Stranger -- Saira Mohamed and Melissa Murray, walking away: lessons from Omelas -- Mark Payne, before the law: imagining crimes against trees -- Part IV: Suspicion and investigat…