The Rise and Fall of the Crime and Thriller Novel
The dominance of Richard Osman means unpredictability increasing for other authors in the genre
Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train… maybe you’ve heard of these books, maybe their film adaptations? They are some of the highest grossing crime and thriller novels over the past 10 years. We know them, we may have watched them or read them, but regarding the publishing industry, crime and thriller novels may have a lasting effect on readers but there is not space for new and emerging authors to top the charts. The genre has not had a steady incline in revenue for years.
Over the past 10 years the world has been exposed to masterful crime and thriller novels that take over the world. For example, Gone girl by Gillian Flynn published in 2013, according to Deadline, made $368.1 million at the box office for its 2014 film adaptation, starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck.
From 2013 to 2023 the genre of crime and thriller novels has fluctuated year after year, making it unpredictable and uncertain as to where the genre will succeed or fall in the coming years.
The rise and fall of the crime novel may be down to the shift in the audience perception and consumption of the genre, what appeals to them has changed over time.
Thriller and straightforward crime have taken a back seat to the phenomenon that has become the sub-genre of ‘cosy crime’.
As quoted on the BBC, Richard Osman states that the success of cozy crime is because ‘around the world I think people love British humour and warmth. And also British murder, of course.’
With one author dominating the thriving sub-genre of crime, where does that leave other authors to fit into the genre if people’s opinions and interests are changing?
The most frequent appearing authors in the top 10 titles of 2013 through to 2023 have been Lee, and later Andrew, Child with their Jack Reacher series and Richard Osman for his Thursday Murder Club four-book series. Over the past ten years, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher book series appeared in the top 10 crime, thriller and adventure books twenty-two times, and although Osman’s debut series first published in 2020, his titles from 2020 to 2023 have appeared ten times in the Top 10, that is 25% of all titles in the top ten.
Osman’s stamp on the crime genre has not gone unnoticed, however such a success story is down to many outside factors as well, as although their success has been so predominate and impactful on the publishing industry, it would be wrong to not note that his celebrity status would have been a large impact on who picked up his first book, but the content, the word-of-mouth reviews, and the overall fact that you can’t miss this book whether in the news or in supermarkets, even non-frequent readers have probably heard of Osman’s literary masterpiece of crime fiction. But as displayed in the graphs above, this major success cannot save the whole genre from unpredictable monetary value year to year.
2022’s rise in monetary value for the crime, thriller and adventure genre was predictably due to the fact that Osman released two novels in the year, and he held the top three spots for the genre with the hardback release of The Bullet that Missed, and the paperback editions of both The Man Who Died Twice and The Thursday Murder Club, just those three books alone accumulated a value of £12,397,270.
However, the genre cannot rely on series’ and authors to continue writing forever, the publishing industry cannot always be waiting for the next Osman novel to be released, so where will this genre lead in the coming years, as the genre is already unstable and unpredictable.
Amazon’s bestsellers list of 2024 is led by Freida Mcfadden’s thriller, The Housemaid, another thriller series, but this series in particular grew in success due to the influence of ‘BookTok’. In Amazon’s Best Read list, more crime and thriller novels are featured, such as, The Thursday Murder Club, as predicted, but also His and Hers by Alice Feeney. Aside from Osman, why are these books not in the top 10 for the genre in their publication year, in Freida Mcfadden’s case as the first book in The Housemaid series originally published 2022 but released in paperback in 2023. All three of Mcfadden’s Housemaid series feature in the 2024 top 10 books for the crime, thriller and adventure genre, but is still overshadowed by Osman’s new release, We Solve Murders.
As quoted in the Bookseller, Zak Watts the country manager of UK Books at Amazon states that Osman has ‘five books in the 50 best-selling books this year’ when discussing the top books sold and read through Amazon’s e-commerce platform. Osman has only five books in his backlog, so the power and success of Osman is very evident in the publishing industry, and it is expanding.
The Bookseller also identified that Amazon’s bestseller list ‘shows the impact of adaptations on sales, with the Richard Osman’s books “benefiting from the announced adaptation of the Thursday Murder Club series”’, so although Osman’s novels have been dominating the fiction charts, this will most likely transfer to it’s adaptation as well. Similarly, The Housemaid film adaptation has recently been announced and cast with two famous female leads, Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney, so this could have had an impact of the volume of sales this book had, therefore ending up on the top 10 list a year after publication.
But not every book can become a TikTok sensation, or have an accompanying adaptation with star-studded cast members. So where does this leave other crime, thriller and adventure authors who don’t have a platform? The dominance of a select few authors means the genre is unpredictable and not easy to navigate as a new and emerging author, or even a more experienced novelist who doesn’t have the advantage of a best-selling series or established fanbase, this will reflect in the value the genre accumulates each year.