Chris Culver | Why Genre Fiction Matters

As a mystery writer, I think about story structure, characters, pacing and dialogue a lot, but I don’t often sit back and think about why I write genre fiction. Today, I’m going to do that, and I’m going to start with a story involving my mother.

Like a lot of people, I spent mother’s day with my family. My wife, my mom, and I took my toddler to a park, we went out for breakfast, we sat on the deck and drank coffee, we did all sorts of things. At one point, as conversations at my house oftentimes do, we started talking about books. Mom mentioned that when she was a junior in high school, she read a book that changed her life. She comes from a generation where women had fewer options than young women today, but this book had strong female leads in important jobs doing important things. It made her feel as if she could do anything. Two years later, she left home, went to college thousands of miles from anything she knew, and started a new life for herself. Looking back, she wondered aloud whether she would have done that if not for the books she had read.

It’s amazing the power books have. They’ve changed the world time and time again. The big books are easy to name: the Bible, The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. These—and many more I haven’t named—have had an enormous impact on western culture and thought.

The book that so influenced my mom’s life isn’t on that list. In fact, it will never make a list of important books. It was a genre novel, the kind easily forgotten by critics and literature professors, but also one that spoke to my mom in a way those “important” books couldn’t. For just a little while, that story transported my mother from a rough neighborhood in New Jersey to a glamorous world she had never seen. Seeing the characters in that novel succeed despite living in difficult circumstances gave my mom hope that she could achieve more than her life seemed destined for. I’m sure everyone reading this blog right now has a similar story. When I was nine or ten, I read a book called The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. It was the classic story of good vs. evil in a fantasy setting, and I loved it. After finishing that book, I knew I wanted to become a writer. It changed my entire life for the better.

And that’s why I write genre fiction. As a writer, I want to entertain my readers first and foremost, but in the back of my mind, I hope for a little more: I hope my novels can inspire somebody the way stories have inspired me. That’s the power of genre fiction and why genre fiction matters.

I’m not going to change the world, and I really don’t want to—that’s too much responsibility. But if I can make somebody’s day a little brighter, or if I can help someone see the world through new eyes, or if I can show someone a side of the world he or she has never seen—in other words, if I can do for my readers what my favorite writers have done for me—then I will be a very happy man.

About Chris Culver

Chris Culver is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ash Rashid series of mysteries. After graduate school, Chris taught courses in ethics and comparative religion at a small liberal arts university in southern Arkansas. While there and when he really should have been grading exams, he wrote THE ABBEY, which spent sixteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller's list and introduced the world to Detective Ash Rashid.

Chris has been a storyteller since he was a kid, but he decided to write crime fiction after picking up a dog-eared, coffee-stained paperback copy of Mickey Spillane's I, the Jury in a library book sale. Many years later, his wife, despite considerable effort, still can't stop him from bringing more orphan books home. The two of them, along with a Labrador Retriever named Roy, reside near St. Louis where Chris is hard at work on his next novel.

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About MEASURELESS NIGHT

Note from the author: "MEASURELESS NIGHT is the fourth novel in my New York Times bestselling Ash Rashid series. Big picture, it’s the story of a detective who’s trying to solve a grizzly murder and protect others from being murdered as well. At it’s heart, MEASURELESS NIGHT is a mystery, but it has a lot of suspense elements as well.

On a slightly smaller scale, it’s the story of an average man who’s trying to balance the various roles he plays in life. He’s a devoted father, a loving husband, a dogged detective, and a religious man among other things. Those various roles are in constant tension, which is something, I think, most of us can relate to. In my own life, I’m a dad, a husband, a writer, etc. It’s not always easy to balance work and family, especially with a young child." ~Chris Culver

Detective Sergeant Ash Rashid wants little out of life: a steady job, a quiet place to call home, and a healthy family. Now three hundred days sober, for the first time he can see his happy ending forming on the horizon.

Then patrol officers find the body.

The victim has chemical burns on her arms, two broken legs, and a gash on her throat so deep it exposes the vertebrae of her neck. Then they find a second body and then two more. The killings aren’t random, far from it. Each victim testified in a murder trial ten years ago, one that launched Ash’s career. Each of them helped put a very dangerous man in prison, and now each of them has paid the price.

Ready or not, Ash will soon learn the true cost of his happy ending. Because very dangerous men have a knack for reaching through walls. Ten years ago, Ash helped send a predator to death row. Now someone plans to make him pay. And she’s willing to kill everyone who stands in her way.

Read an Excerpt