Call for Papers: Crime Fiction Studies: Virtual Crime and Detection

Crime Fiction Studies invites contributions for a themed issue on crime fiction and videogames. Crime and the many facts of its detection are major themes in many videogames, from cozy point-and-click games (such as the long-running Nancy Drew series) to multiple-path morality games (such as Wolf Among Us). Other games not necessarily classed as ‘mystery’ games nevertheless benefit from crime as inciting incidents or moral dilemmas, putting the player in the position of detective, perpetrator, or bystander. By examining the ideological ripples of crime fiction on this interactive storytelling medium, players are asked to engage and often embody themes of justice, morality and crime through avatars and gameplay, offering fruitful avenues for considering the evolution of genre into interactive and often non-linear narrative spaces. How does the element of play impact the themes and expectations of the crime genre? How do different game genres interact with, and produce commentary on, different crime-oriented literary genres?

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This special issue will examine the intersections of the literary (narrative, text, dialogue, character) and the ludic (elements of play and game design), with an emphasis on reading videogames as crime fiction. While we invite abstracts from literary scholars and games scholars, we wish to emphasize the importance of the literary to this special issue.
Potential areas of research into games are:
●      The ‘cozy’ mystery game.
●      The visual novel.
●      The multiple-path mystery game.
●      Action games with mystery or crime elements.
●      Historical vs. contemporary settings in crime games.
●      Crime in fantasy or scifi contexts.
●      Player avatars as detective or criminal.
●      The role of mysteries and crimes within unexpected genres.
●      Representations of the detective or the citizen sleuth.
●      Game examinations of policing and detection.
●      Crime fiction pastiches in games.
●      Adaptations of crime fiction or famous characters into game format.
●      Evolution of different mystery genres from the literary to the ludic.

Abstracts for the issue are due 15 December 2025; with full drafts (7,000–7,500 words) due 15 March 2026. Please submit your abstract to [email protected].

​Abstracts should be roughly 200-300 words. Please include an author biography with your submission, in the same document. For further details, please read over https://www.euppublishing.com/loi/cfs.