Q & A Series - Dr. Abby Bentham

Our sixth contributor to the Q & A Blog series is Dr Abby Bentham!

​Dr. Abby Bentham is a Lecturer in English and Theatre and the Employability Lead for English in the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at the University of Salford, Manchester. She is also the co-editor of Divergent Women: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Female Deviance and Dissent (2023).

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1. What first sparked your interest in crime fiction studies?

I’ve always been drawn to crime fiction. As a kid, I was hooked on The Famous Five, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Emil and the Detectives. I would stay up reading long into the night, then yawn my way through the next day at school. That early love for mystery and detection has stayed with me and is now complemented by an interest in true crime and fact-based crime fiction.
I find true crime especially instructive when considering the mechanics of crime writing, as it lays bare its appeals: the tension between fascination and revulsion; the way empathy and disgust are leveraged; cultural anxieties; the promise of insights into the darkest recesses of human psychology; and the ‘monsterisation’ of certain demographics, be they victims or villains. The academic study of these things is endlessly fascinating to me.


2. What have you been reading, watching, or listening to recently? Do you notice any new emergent trends?

I’m currently working on a monograph, so most of my reading has been focused on that. I’ve been diving into books about female psychopaths and exploring the narrative trends that have emerged over the past decade or so. I’m particularly interested in the use of humour in these texts, as well as the growing sense of militancy. The patriarchy may have resisted the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in real life, but there are plenty of fictional vigilantes cleaning things up on our behalf!


3. Which book(s) do you find yourself returning to most often?

These days, I rarely reread novels for pleasure—there’s simply too much out there that I haven’t read yet to justify revisiting familiar ground! However, in my academic work, I frequently return to the writings of Julia Kristeva, Sara Ahmed, Lars Svendsen, and Judith Butler, plus my old buddies Freud, Jung, and Lacan. Their theoretical frameworks continue to shape my thinking and offer fresh insights with each rereading.
When it comes to my scholarly engagement with fiction, I often find myself revisiting Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. Many of the contemporary novels I’ve been engaging with seem so indebted to Ellis’s work that it’s almost impossible not to return to it when tracing certain narrative or thematic trends. The novel’s blend of hyper-materialism, emotional detachment, and graphic violence has become a kind of blueprint for exploring the darker aspects of modern identity. It’s particularly interesting to see contemporary female authors like CJ Leede and Virginia Feito directly acknowledge that debt.


4. What is your best piece of advice for emerging scholars in the field?

​Follow your interests and don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone. Crime fiction is a rich, complex, and inherently interdisciplinary field – one that invites you to explore not just the stories themselves, but the cultural, psychological, and political frameworks that shape them and the contexts in which the texts are produced and consumed. Read widely, not just within the genre but around it. Ask why certain narratives persist, whose voices are amplified or silenced, and how crime is framed in different contexts. And most importantly, trust that your unique perspective, whether shaped by personal experience, disciplinary interests, or unconventional questions, has value.
I would also encourage emerging scholars to actively participate in networking events, special interest groups, and academic conferences. The crime fiction research community is intellectually vibrant and remarkably generous – growing your network will enhance your scholarship and raise your academic profile. The connections you make may also lead to opportunities for collaboration, publication, speaking engagements, and mentorship from more experienced researchers.