This book originated with my PhD thesis at the University of Manchester. So I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my PhD supervisors, Michael Bibler and Anastasia Valassopoulos. Their rigorous feedback and perceptive comments have helped shape many of the ideas in this book, and I’m still grateful for their continuous support and care. I thank the staff of the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Manchester. I learned a lot from the talks and seminars held here. I would like to thank my colleagues at the Psychological Research Center and the English Department at the College of Education for Women, University of Baghdad for their support. Thanks are due to all the academics, scholars, and crime fiction fans, too many to name here, to whom I talked at conferences and various events over the years. Their interest, feedback, and enthusiasm to hear about femmes fatales kindled new ideas and inspired further research.