One of Hollywood's most triumphant successes is the crime movie. Crime Wave offers an authoritative and entertaining guide to the crime movie genre from its beginnings to the present, charting its history, its sub-genres, and its developments. The book focuses on the most interesting and influential films, from Little Caesar,The Maltese Falcon, Point Blank, and The Godfather trilogy to L.A. Confidential, Ocean's Eleven, and many others. 
Crime Wave covers gangster and heist movies, blaxploitation, noir, murder mystery, and vigilante and buddy cop movies. Hughes explores each film's sources and influences, its impact on the crime genre and current fashion, including spin-offs, copies and sequels, themes, style, and box office fortunes. Detailed cast lists are provided for each of the main films, as are biographies and filmographies of the key personnel, along with background details of the films' production, locations, and sets.
Films featured include Dirty Harry, Once Upon a Time in America, Get Carter, Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, White Heat, GoodFellas, Lethal Weapon and Pulp Fiction.