When is a Crime Story not a Crime Story?

I haven't found any markets the past couple of day so I thought I'd throw a question out here and maybe start a discussion.

Here's the question - Are literary/mainstream writers given greater leeway in writing crime stories than mystery writers?

The reason I'm asking is that I started reading "Best Friends Forever" by Jennifer Weiner and four chapters in I'm about ready to toss this book in the corner.  Chapter one has a guy being tricked into dropping his pants then having his picture taken.  He comes to on the ground bruised and bleeding and promising to seek revenge.  In chapters two and three an old friend shows up on a woman's doorstep with blood on her coat.  We have numerous flashback and the woman answers the same door to the same woman three times.  We still don't know why there's blood on the friend's coat.  Then with chapter four we have a new character.  A cop dealing with a woman who can't unlock her car.

Now if a crime writer did this to their readers they'd catch hell.  So why are other writers given such leeway?