Crime never pays

de Clare West

'Murder most foul' - the first and the oldest crime. Stories about murder, in poem, play, and novel, have been with us for a long time. They held audiences spell-bound in the theatres of ancient Greece; they hold audiences today glued to their television sets. Readers engrossed in the pages of the latest murder mystery sit up reading half the night, in order to find out 'whodunnit'. Murder stories continue to fascinate, appal, shock, and the genre today is wide-ranging. There are the classic detective stories, where the murderer's wits are pitted against the forces of law and order. We struggle with the detective to pick up the clues and to draw tight the net of justice around the criminal. There are the dramas in lawcourts when the murderer is brought to trial; the tales of ordinary people leading ordinary' lives, pitchforked into tragedy by the unexpected eruption of some murderous passion. There are the stories where we see the world through the murderer's eyes, distorted and blurred by obsession, hate, jealousy, greed, madness ... This collection of murder stories offers a taste of many styles: puzzling, chilling, bizarre, horrifying. Let us join one of the characters in Agatha Christie's story: 'I feel,' said Jane dreamily, 'that I would like to wallow in crime this evening.'