Once again there’s one genre in the literary world that is still taking over. Crime books are as hot as they were a few years ago.

Every time I go into Waterstones and look at the new release section, at least 80% of the books are crime books. The rest are non-fiction and other genres.

It is the genre that celebrities, when they write books, pick. Jeremy Vine and Robert Rinder are two who have been successful and released multiple books. But no one has been more successful than Richard Oseman.

Osman’s Thursday Murder Club was a smash hit and turned into a series of currently 5 books, a Netflix film adaptation, and he wrote another book, We Solve Murders, which is intended to be a new series.

Now, the idea for a crime book is simple. It’s how authors turn that idea into something special that stands out as a best-selling book. I find it interesting that for a genre that has a few rules to it, there are so many crime books that have compelling stories; it reminds me of the horror genre in that aspect.

Crime is a perfect genre for new authors, as it’s an easy genre for agents and publishers to sell, and it is a market that will be on fire for years to come.

There will also be plenty of adaptations for film and TV to keep the filmmaking industry blooming as a side effect.

Crime isn’t a genre that has become popular; it has had blooms over the decades. Agatha Christie made crime a popular genre in the 1930s and 40s. Hardboiled crime was popular in the 1950s. We are currently in the newest crime boom.

How long will this one last?

If we are going to judge by the previous spike in popularity and if it is the same length, then we will be enjoying this rise in crime for the next twenty years.