Cold Case Crime Fiction is a unique and critically neglected sub-genre. While detective, police procedurals and ‘whodunnit’ narratives typically focus on identifying criminals, Cold Case fiction explores the legacy of unsolved crimes committed in the past. These texts often depict the effect on a group of people connected in various ways to the and who cannot achieve closure while it remains unsolved. This allows the fiction to reflect in depth on the relationship between trauma, memory, and guilt – challenging the perception that crime fictions are simple entertainment.

My research interrogates the connection between Cold Case Crime Fiction, traumatic processing, and the “coming of age process”. In these texts the maturation of the characters is disrupted, prevented or, in some cases, destroyed. I will not only offer a working definition for Cold Case Crime Fiction, but my project will also draw cross-disciplinary links between theoretical psychology and literature/television studies.