The Goshawk Did It Nature Writing and Detection in Ann Cleeves’ The Crow Trap

In a reinterpretation of the classic “butler did it” trope of a whodunnit, the historical crime at the core of Ann Cleeves’ detective novel The Crow Trap (1999) is attributed to nature. The chapter argues that the novel consciously engages with contemporary ecological themes through the incorporation of stylistic properties pertaining to the British school of new nature writing known for its exploration of the complex ways in which nature is related to human attitudes and behaviours. The detailed analysis of unexpected intersections of environment and human legacies make detective fiction remarkably akin to nature writing. The Crow Trap emphasises these local and particular aspects of ecology and crime that counterbalance an age wherein both often take on abstract and intangible (global) forms.