Steiner, KristinaKristinaSteiner2024-04-152024-04-152024978-3-86309-973-2https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/94616This chapter explores fictional representations of serial killers with respect to gender and behavioural patterns in Marie Belloc Lowndes’ The Lodger (1913) and Meg Gardiner’s Unsub (2018). Both novels draw from true crime events and feature fictionalised representations of two of the most notorious serial murderers in history: Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac. While both murderers’ identities are still unknown, they are still commonly read as male – a conception also reproduced by the authors of the two novels. Simultaneously both fictional serial killers showcase instances of media involvement. This chapter argues that these literary representations of serial killers exaggerate stereotypical notions of masculinity similar to true crime narratives and are even more facilitated by the fictional perpetrators’ ambitions to ‘reach out to the media’. This analysis will be supported by a theoretical foundation of sex differences and (violent) crime in the real world, underpinned by a reflection on gender in true crime. This chapter will then juxtapose fact with fiction and examine to what degree the fictional offenders portray realistic or overdone representations of (male) serial killers.engSerial killersmasculinitygender stereotypingtrue crimemediamedia involvement820conferenceobject