Violence in fiction has reviewer saying no

LONDON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A British book reviewer says crime fiction has become so graphic in depicting violence against women she is refusing to review new books.

Jessica Mann, a crime and mystery writer whose works include "A Private Inquiry" and "Telling Only Lies," reviews books for the Literary Review in England. She says an increasing number of books she is sent to review are violently and graphically anti-women, Britain's Observer newspaper reported Sunday.

"Authors must be free to write and publishers to publish. But critics must be free to say they have had enough," Mann said. "So however many more outpourings of sadistic misogyny are crammed on to the bandwagon, no more of them will be reviewed by me."

British crime writer Val McDermid puts the blame on demands of the marketplace.

"There has been a general desensitization among readers, who are upping the ante by demanding ever more sensationalist and gratuitous plotlines," she said.

The British market for crime fiction is worth more than 116 million pounds ($190 million) a year, with almost 21 million books sold, the Observer said.