Tony Parsons could read plenty of crime novels with heart if he wanted to

Crime writers are understandably outraged that the Man and Boy author says their genre lacks feeling. Can we compose a corrective reading list for him?
Decca Aitkenhead interviews Tony Parsons

Let's all raise a cheer for the (murder of? cabal of? gang of? what's the collective noun for a group of crime writers?) crime novelists who have ever so kindly decided to provide a reading list for Tony Parsons. Parsons, whose previous literary ventures have erred on the side of lad lit, has just made his first foray into crime writing with The Murder Bag, and has been doing the publicity rounds to promote it.

His interview with the Guardian's Decca Aitkenhead, while perhaps most notable for its revelation that Parsons is planning to vote Ukip, also provoked the ire of those more, shall we say, versed in the genre for his comment that he wanted to write a thriller "with a heart", because he loves crime fiction, "but what it tends to lack is the emotional power of a book like Man and Boy".

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