Table of Contents
So here we are at last: the long-awaited summer has finally arrived! For bibliophiles, the holiday season has a special meaning. Picture the scene: waves gently lapping in the distance, people swimming, children playing, a refreshing breeze and you in the middle, a good book open in your hands. The ultimate summer escape!
And if it’s a detective novel you’re reading, so much the better!
That’s right: research has shown that crime fiction – in its myriad forms, from whodunnits to psychological thrillers – is one of the best companions for your sun cream, deckchair and towel.
In a survey conducted in Italy, over half of interviewees confirmed that they read more during the summer months, and after contemporary fiction, detective stories are people’s preferred choice of reading material. Research carried out in Greece and Croatia confirmed that people love to read on the beach there. In Spain, meanwhile, readers complain that they don’t have time to read as much as they would like. Basically, enjoying a book – and especially a crime novel – by the sea seems to be a particularly common pastime across the Mediterannean!
In the USA, however, a fall in book sales is often reported during the summer, as people are spending more time outdoors. Every country has its own way of relaxing… but immersing yourself in a whodunnit on the sun lounger seems to be a top choice, at least in this part of the world.
Summer heat and crime fiction: a love story driven by book marketing
Many customs and rituals that seem to have been around forever can actually be traced back to a precise date, and the combo of detective stories and the beach is no exception.
It all seems to have started in the second half of the twentieth century, when the concept of the summer holiday as a period of total relaxation and time off work first took hold, initially in English-speaking countries, and then later in the Mediterranean too, when the post-war economic boom led to an improvement in people’s wellbeing. During these decades, publishers began releasing books designed especially for holiday-makers, including crime fiction. In Italy, the genre was instantly recognisable from its yellow covers, and the Italian word for yellow, giallo, came to represent the entire sector.
In 1929, Arnoldo Mondadori and Lorenzo Montano had a brainwave. They created the iconic Il Giallo Mondadori series of thrillers: affordable, pocket-sized books printed in runs of thousands of copies, perfect for the holiday fashions of the decades to come.
Book marketing professionals then rekindled the love affair between summer and books in the 1990s with the invention of a new concept: the ‘beach read‘.
The term was first coined by specialist publishing sector magazines like Booklist and Publishers Weekly. As the years went by, it also made its way into mainstream newspapers and eventually became an integral part of our culture: choosing a good book to take to the beach is now an essential early-summer task!
A publisher recommends its summer detective stories!
But why is crime fiction so popular on the beach? We can only speculate!
It’s worth bearing in mind that in many countries crime is one of the most popular genres all year round. Some people also say that a good thriller is cathartic, making it ideal for a period like summer, when everything is put on hold. In classic whodunnits, the detective takes a chaotic crime scene and tidies it up and rationalises it, a bit like you do in the summer when you escape the daily grind to restore your mental balance.
But leaving psychology to one side, there are some more prosaic reasons to consider too: thrillers keep you turning the pages, helping you to disconnect from your everyday life and enjoy your well-earned break. And since many of them are written in series, you can become attached to the characters and spend summer after summer in their company.
Expert view: why are summer thrillers so popular?
The Pixartprinting blog’s editorial team asked an expert to tell us a bit more about this summer trend. Claudia Consoli is a digital and ESG manager, a lecturer in publishing for the master’s courses at Università Cattolica in Milan and Fondazione Mondadori, and an editor at CriticaLetteraria. Here are her answers to our questions.
Why do you think crime novels are so popular over the summer?
Crime fiction is one of the best genres for the summer period because it combines pace and immediacy, creating books that are particularly engaging for readers. During the holidays, readers tend to want stories that maintain narrative continuity even during short or fragmented reading sessions, such as during short breaks or when travelling.
Detective stories work well for this because their architecture is based on suspense and curiosity. The publishing market took note of these characteristics and jumped on the bandwagon, and today, across the board, crime fiction is one of the best-performing segments in commercial fiction, with a constant presence in the seasonal bestseller charts and in summer paperback releases. There’s always something coming out, whether it’s a classic title or an exciting new work.
Is this an Italian or Mediterranean custom, or is it the same in other countries?
It’s definitely a global phenomenon. In Italy, the genre has precise historical roots: the long-standing tradition began with I Gialli Mondadori (1929), a series of books that helped to make crime fiction accessible to a wider readership. This was such an iconic publishing strategy, the word giallo became synonymous with an entire literary universe, including countless sub-genres.
Looking further afield, across Europe, crime fiction is always one of the genres that is read and exported most often. Over the last 20 years, with the success of Nordic noir, we’ve seen detective stories become a global entertainment language, embracing other forms of media beyond the publishing world. In the UK, thrillers are still one of the best-selling genres, while in France and Germany crime fiction is doing well both in the book charts and in summer paperback sales.
How long has this custom being going on for?
The association between crime fiction and the summer became cemented with the spread of mass-market publishing in the twentieth century, particularly after the Second World War. As people had more leisure time and began to travel more, and as products started to be distributed more widely, detective stories became one of the most popular and recognisable genres for the general public. Paperback editions played a key role in this, because they helped to create a mental association between crime fiction and leisure time. One of the most interesting things about this genre is its ability to constantly reinvent itself while still remaining true to its classic features, because it draws heavily on reality, and interacts with society and its various changes. I think that’s why it’s still so central to the world of publishing today.
Beach thrillers: books that have enjoyed success in the sun
By the time late spring arrives, many readers are already hankering after a good crime novel to take with them on holiday. And publishers’ marketing departments are more than happy to help!
Ever year, publishers put together collections of classic crime fiction for the summer and special advertising campaigns to promote both new releases and reprints. And magazines and newspapers draw up enticing lists of unmissable summer reads, combining timeless beach classics from authors like Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon and Arthur Conan Doyle with new titles and bestsellers from previous years.
Looking back, there are plenty of books that have left an indelible mark on our summers…
Let’s start with the 1990s, when the ultimate thriller, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, really got under people’s (nicely tanned) skin. Although Hannibal Lecter doesn’t really seem like the kind of guy you’d like on the neighbouring sunbed, the book has been a fixture on beaches over the past few decades. Jumping forward a decade you get to another classic, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, one of the most popular thrillers of all time, selling over 80 million copies after its release in 2003.
In the late 2000s a new ‘spine-tingling’ summer passion began to take hold: Nordic noir. It all began with Stieg Larsson’s bestselling The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was released in Sweden in 2005 and arrived in southern Europe in around 2007, spreading to all the Mediterranean’s most sophisticated beaches [if you’re a fan, we took a look at all the covers of the Millennium trilogy here].
Summer bestsellers in the 2010s included The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair – Swiss author Joël Dicker’s debut novel, which breathed fresh life into the whodunnit genre – and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, a psychological thriller that sold 25 million copies worldwide.
We should also give a special mention to some Italian detective stories. Italy is unique in that not only is crime fiction one of the most popular genres among readers and authors alike, the summer holiday is also considered sacred, and is often spent relaxing on the country’s beaches.
One of the most popular Italian detective stories is the series devised and written by Andrea Camilleri starring Inspector Montalbano. The saga, which began in 1994 with The Shape of Water, is set in Sicily’s seaside resorts, and these places became a sought-after tourist destination for many fans following the series’ success. Just imagine exploring the locations described by Camilleri while listening to the sound of the waves: talk about a unique experience!
What do you think about the combo of crime fiction and the beach? Have you already bought a book by your favourite crime author to immerse yourself in this summer? And did we forget any essential titles in our round-up? Let us know!