Nine of ten UK fiction bestsellers feature murdered women

Nine of the ten bestselling fiction paperbacks in the UK this week share a single plot point: the murder of a woman. The novels, which appear on this week’s Sunday Times bestseller list alongside titles like The Widow and The Divorce, span historical fiction, domestic noir and police procedurals. Author Wendy Jones highlighted the concentration, writing: "So 84% [sic] of the books people bought and read in the UK this week involved a woman being murdered for entertainment. What is going on here?”

This dominance at the top of the commercial charts is the mature phase of a highly lucrative publishing trend. Following the 2012 release of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, the "girl" thriller became one of the most commercially successful genres in the industry. Publishers have spent the past decade actively searching for the next hit to replicate this formula.

The commercial paradox of the genre is that its primary consumers are women. "Every industry survey that’s been done on this subject indicates that women account for the majority of crime fiction sales," said crime writer and critic Laura Wilson. Fellow crime writer Mel McGrath framed this dynamic positively, arguing that "reading crime fiction written by women remains a powerfully feminist act".

Authors contend the commercial appeal is rooted in realistic, rather than abstract, fears. "Female murder victims are far more likely to have been killed by people they know, such as intimate partners or family members, than male murder victims, who are significantly more likely to die at the hands of strangers," Wilson said. American criminologist Scott Bonn added that women often consume similar true crime content for "tips on how to protect themselves from attacks by strangers" and "how to detect sociopathic red flags".

The reliance on this specific victim profile has deep historical roots in the commercial selling of stories. Novelist Denise Mina traced the trend back to 18th-century London, where broadsheet sellers discovered that manufactured crimes drove sales. "The trope of a dead woman, especially a pretty young white virtuous woman, has sold stories for centuries," Mina said.

While a reliable commercial shorthand, some within the industry warn the trope risks becoming a lazy substitute for character development. "The pretty dead girl is a stand-in for the innocent victim, without the trouble of having to make the victim a person," said author Lori Rader-Day. She argued this works because of "all the garbage we still have lingering in our belief system, like racism, misogyny."

Attempts to disrupt this market formula have faced fierce resistance from within the industry. The Staunch prize, created by writer Bridget Lawless to reward thrillers devoid of violence against women, was rejected by prominent authors. Val McDermid said she "resented being lumped together with the crass, the incompetent and the pornographers of violence", while Sarah Hilary called the prize "the least feminist thing imaginable".