To say that crime fiction is just about the struggle between good and evil is too simple an explanation, but this struggle is undoubtedly an important component of novels in this genre. Along with all those other wonderful factors – suspense, plot and so on – the good/evil battle in crime fiction is one of the things that keep us coming back for more.

In a way, the battle between good and evil is one of the centrepieces of the genre. It’s a source of much of the suspense and drama, and can provide twists and turns and inspiration for the plot. And it never fails to be interesting. I think one of the reasons for this is that ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are not as simple as we might at first think.

For instance, when we read crime novels, we generally want to see the antagonist get their comeuppance – we want justice to be done. Yet we know that outcomes aren’t always clear cut. Things aren’t always fair and in crime fiction as in real life, there is often a grey area between good and evil.

The murderer might be an oddly sympathetic character, for example. When we look only at their crimes, they might seem as though they are entirely evil. However if that was the case, they probably wouldn’t be very believable as a character. Once we come to look at their motive, even though we still abhor their actions, we can start to see that there is more to them – that they’re not just evil, that they have their shades of good as well.

We might have a detective who is intent on getting justice for the victims they encounter – but they might have their own grey areas. They might disregard the rules, have a turbulent personal life, or apply contentious methods to get what they want.

No one is entirely good or evil, and that helps to make crime fiction more surprising, unpredictable and varied. If all crime fiction writers used the simple formula of ‘good takes on evil and wins outright’, things would probably get boring pretty fast – and readers would always be able to guess the outcome, destroying much of the suspense that is such a trademark of the genre.

We need the surprise to be there. As writers, we need the readers to be uncertain about the outcome of the novel, and sometimes that means making it seem as though ‘evil’ is going to triumph. It also means that resolutions are not always clear cut – the antagonist might be caught at the end of a crime novel, but the forces of good might not be as clean as they once were.

It’s an age old battle. Good versus evil is a staple of not just crime fiction, but the vast majority of genres. It’s a struggle we can all identify with, and it helps to give us something to root for. In crime fiction as in life, it makes us cross our fingers and hope for the best… all the while knowing that the ‘best’ might not be what we ultimately get.