If a candlestick was used by a character today it would probably be part of some gruesome ritual, rather than simply for cracking someone over the head.

Crime fiction is big business these days, as even a cursory glance at the best sellers lists will tell you, but as competition among an ever-growing band of authors has intensified so, too, has the depiction of violence.

And it seems that female authors, as much as their male counterparts, are the ones upping the ante.

Natasha Cooper, a guest speaker at the Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate, which starts today, believes violence in books has become more popular.

"I don't think there's necessarily a gender division between crime writers, but I think the idea of women and violence is exciting to people. Women who write violent crime fiction tend to be
more prominent than those who don't."

Brett Easton Ellis raised the bar when his controversial novel, American Psycho, came out in the early '90s. But since then the likes of Mo Hayder and Chelsea Cain have shown that crime fiction has changed since the days of Agatha Christie.

"Cain's first book contained some extremely explicit violence, I think there's a scene where a woman serial killer is hammering nails into the chest of a policeman. But there are male writers who are just as graphic.

"Personally, I don't like reading about torture but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be written about, because there's a big audience for this kind of thing."

Fellow crime writer Stuart MacBride doesn't believe women are more graphic than men when it comes to writing about violence. "The whole gender debate is wrong, in my opinion. I think people like reading about violence because it's something quite primeval inside us. You can trace violent crime writing back to Beowulf." But he agrees that crime fiction has changed during the past 40 years. "The idea of old ladies peering into a pantry where someone's been poisoned doesn't fit in today, violence in crime writing has become a lot more visual. Sometimes it becomes a competition to come up with something more extreme, but there are still some skilled writers who only use violence to serve the story. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you're male or female, but whether or not you can write a good thriller."


Crime Festival highlights

July 18

Peter Robinson: The Yorkshire-born author Peter Robinson celebrates Inspector Banks's 21st anniversary.

Charlie Higson: The enduring appeal of James Bond.

Robert Crais: Author of the Elvis Cole novels talks to Mark Lawson about his literary career and writing TV scripts in Hollywood.

July 19

Jeffery Deaver: The best-selling author on his life and work.

Natasha Cooper: The bleak future for crime writers in the age of
CCTV and advancing technology.

Andy McNab: The former SAS man on his new career as an author.

July 20

Tess Gerritsen: The internationally best-selling author on 20 years in the business of crime.


Call 0845 130 8840 or visit www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime