From Reese Witherspoon to Graham Norton: Are celebrity whodunnits a crime against literature?

It could be argued the ever-increasing batch of stars trying their hand at being novelists is preventing emerging
talent from breaking through but the rise of the celebrity author isn’t all bad news for the thriller genre

Celebrity writers: Clockwise from left, Reese Witherspoon, Richard Osman, Graham Norton and Bill Clinton

Crime, as the saying goes, doesn’t pay – at least not in real life. There, you’ll probably lose your life, your liberty and your soul in the end. In literature, it’s a different story.

Crime fiction is massive in publishing, and always has been. Readers love getting their teeth into a good whodunnit, writers love the challenges of assembling a clever mystery; the end resul

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