The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction by Martin Priestman
Published 2003 · 88,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction to read?
The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction scores 53 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 60 out of 100
- Designed for student use; critical vocabulary is introduced and explained throughout.
- Sentence structure: 52 out of 100
- Abstraction: 66 out of 100
- Balances historical narrative with interpretive claims.
- Information density: 75 out of 100
- High factual density across historical periods, authors, and national traditions.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Reference-work orientation makes argument direct and organized.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- Analytical throughout with minimal symbolic register.
- Ironic distance: 14 out of 100
- Occasional critical irony with a predominantly earnest scholarly tone.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Chapters provide clear conclusions throughout.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Essay collection with editorial framing; chapters are self-contained.
How The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction is regarded
The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction holds a literary regard score of 80 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.