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An Apology For A Crime, Derek Nikitas

Derek Nikitas

I live a double life. By day: student/teacher in the hallowed halls of higher education, kingdom of the highbrow literati. By night: hack writer of seedy, violent crime stories. I’m like a double-agent in the perpetual war between champions of literature who think crime novels are shallow and sensationalistic, and noir fiends who think “literary” means dull and pretentious. Luckily, I’ve met plenty of people who recognize that some great novels live in the gray zone between literature and pulp. Let’s face it: some crime novels are flat and hokey tales drawn from the same tired blueprint as a million …