1. IntroductionMurder is considered one of the worst acts a person can commit; yet murder is a very popular theme in fiction. From ancient tales to modern thrillers, stories of murdered people seem to have always fascinated audiences. As society progresses, entertainment with real deaths ceases, but imaginary ones flourish. The strange interest in death never seems to lose its grip on fiction. Some explain this fascination with murder as a combination of the survival instinct and the strong emotions that murder arouses in us. BackgroundSince Cain killed his brother Abel, murders have always been present in fiction. Homer, Shakespeare, and Chaucer all contributed to the theme, and with Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle murder almost got a genre of its own: detective fiction. However, murder as a theme can be found in more than the now classic "mystery" stories (in which a protagonist solves a crime mystery), almost every genre imaginable has its murder stories. There are murder comedies, like the 2012 film “Sightseers” (about a serial murdering couple on vacation), as well as stories focused solely on gruesome deaths. Murder is perhaps the most represented form of death and dying in fiction; therefore, in order to understand the allure of murder one must first understand the allure of death.3. Why are we interested in death? One explanation for why we are interested in seeing and reading about death is that it may be a way of dealing with death. Andrew Taylor, author of numerous crime novels, calls it a “literary comfort blanket,” which helps us deal with violence in the world. In “Death, Dying and the Dead in Popular Culture,” author Keith Durkin explains it this way: “[…] our isolation from death c...... at the center of the paper...... the life taken away by force must be the worst crime and the worst way for the victim to die. Furthermore, since death happens to all of us, it is something we can all relate to, and many probably fear dying a brutal death. Murders in fiction most likely won't disappear; our interest in it is too well rooted in our human nature. Works Cited Durkin, Keith, Death, Death and the Dead in Popular Culture. In Handbook of Death & Dying, (pp. 43-50), SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003.Mattiuzzi, Paul, Why are we so fascinated by murder?, Everyday Psychology, May 25, 2011, http: //everydaypsychology.com/2011/05/why-are-we-so-fascined-with Murder.html#.UyBhsPl5MVC, 12 March 2014.Sightseers, DVD, StudioCanal UK, UK, 2012Taylor, Andrew, 'The Strange Appeal of Crime Fiction', Shots, DATE, http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/feature_view.aspx?FEATURE_ID=120, 12 March 2014