Introduction. The article presents a crime novel from a psychological, literary, and legal perspective. In the character creation of one of the protagonists – Eric Berne, the theme of life scripts (family scenarios) was exposed. The text has been divided into several parts, including the scripting apparatus construction, the role of the journalist in the context of family scenarios, the composition and plot of the novel, construction solutions, legal and criminological foundations of a crime novel, historical, and literary contexts. The text refers, among others, to the beginnings of novels based on a mystery, which should be associated with the development of the press. The authors – James Patterson and Liza Marklund, when building a literary story, reach for the key elements of the legal and criminological realm, meaning – they build the psychological profile of the perpetrator, present the process of tracking him and learning about the motives behind his actions, try to hold the person accountable (not only criminally) and provide the reader with a sense of justice. The work fits into the convention of the twentieth-century crime novel with its variants: detective, sensational-adventurous, as well as a so-called American noire novel and links literature with the development of the press. Aim. The aim of the article is to present the latest crime novel with the evolution of the genre in the background, taking into account the legal and criminological context and family scripts. Materials and methods. The article is descriptive and analytical in nature, it uses tools characteristic of the philologist’s work (including literary theory, text explication, and cultural criminology) and also of a lawyer (study of literature, analysis of documents). Results. The analysis of the text (especially the characters’ construction) and the evolution of the genre shows that the authors of The Postcard Killers associate the elements of tradition with innovative take on the subject with perfect awareness. They also place the fictional events and their characters in the convention of crime fiction combined with the eloquence of pitaval (literary crime reports) as a genre straight from crime scenes and courts. They refer both to the classics of the genre, meaning – Dupin’s methods but they also introduce psychological motives for committing a crime, which become far more important than the investigation itself. They also take into account the key role played by both professional (J. Kanon) and non-professional investigators (D. Larsson) in the process of tracking murderers.