With great mystery writers like Michael Connelly speaking at this year’s ALA conference in Chicago, it got us thinking about the current state of the mystery genre. And, in our minds, there are few people more qualified to talk about mystery fiction than Jim Huang, one of B&A’s premier subject matter experts. Since we’ve got mystery on the brain this ALA, we’d thought we’d reprint Jim’s fantastic rundown of the mystery genre in 2008 that ran in the first 2009 volume of the What Do I Read Next reader’s advisory guide. Enjoy!
The Mystery Genre in 2008
When we survey the landscape of the mystery genre, it’s far easier to see what’s changing than it is to see what’s staying the same. The book industry is in flux right now, as is every other industry in the most challenging economic climate since the Great Depression. Of course the challenges we face in the book business are different because while most consumer products pretty much stay the same – toilet paper will always be toilet paper – we can’t even be confident that most titles will continue to be available as text printed on sheets of paper that are bound between covers. If Amazon has its way – and given its power in the marketplace, it’s hard to bet against them – we’ll all be wirelessly downloading texts to our Kindles, reading proprietary pixels on proprietary screens.
We may not know where books are going, but chatter about change seems to take all the air out of the room. It’s as if once we finish (if we ever finish) talking through the pros and cons of print on demand, the disappearing mass market paperback, brick and mortar versus buying over the internet, the coolness of being able to download electronic books anytime anyplace anywhere, the decline and death of book reviews in magazines and newspapers, cutbacks among publishers that are curtailing if not eliminating author tours, the digitization of the vast holdings of university libraries and distribution of these texts, and every other issue that the business faces – once we talk about all this, we have trouble marshalling the energy to talk about books and authors, and about the stability and commonality that binds us together in this genre.
Sherlock Holmes
This is still a young genre. We are barely a century past the first appearances of the original iconic detective figure, Sherlock Holmes. In 2009 we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Baker Street Irregulars, the society for Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts. The BSI and its scion societies throughout the United States and across the world are engaging and lively groups, and they’re fully invested in celebrating these anniversaries through a variety of events this year. Still, 150 is not that big a number.
In 2008 we lost a number of our genre’s greatest stars, writers whose contributions were as significant as Doyle’s, whose characters and books are just as familiar. Among the mystery writers who died last year were Phyllis Whitney, who for decades defined romantic suspense; Gregory Mcdonald, a master of wise-cracking dialogue in his series of Fletch and Flynn novels; Michael Crichton, the first bestselling author of medical and scientific thrillers; Hillary Waugh, creator of the police procedural novel (predating Ed McBain by several years); Edward D. Hoch, master of the short story who published in every issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine for more than thirty years; George C. Chesbro, author of a series of wild and wonderful novels featuring dwarf-circus-acrobat-turned-professor-of-criminology Dr. Robert Frederickson – that description of the protagonist says it all; hardboiled poet James Crumley, accurately described in Wikipedia as a cross between Raymond Chandler and Hunter S. Thompson; Tony Hillerman, who was once told to leave the Indian stuff out of the manuscript he was shopping but instead stuck to his guns and cemented the place of ethnography in our genre; and, on the last day of the year, Donald Westlake, the versatile and brilliant author of two series featuring thieves, the Dortmunder and Parker novels (the latter published under the pseudonym Richard Stark). At the beginning of 2009 we lost John Mortimer, creator of the beloved Horace Rumple and his wife, She Who Must Be Obeyed.
Michael Crichton RIP
The passing of all these great mystery writers in 2008 is all the more remarkable when we realize how many of these writers were true, first-generation pioneers, among the earliest if not the first to push out the boundaries of the mystery novel in their own distinctive and exciting directions. The genre clearly does have its boundaries, perhaps not as rigid as those laid down by Father Ronald Knox eighty years ago in his Ten Commandments for mystery writers, but nevertheless quite real. At the same time, mystery lovers are delighted to see writers do new things. Knox’s rules were violated from the time they were codified and published, and many those violations are among our most celebrated books. As mystery lovers, we are accustomed to hearing folks outside the genre dismiss mysteries as being all the same. But our greatest authors have always considered the rules to be more like guidelines, and it’s impossible to think about the novels of folks such as Whitney, Crichton, Crumley, Hillerman and Westlake as cut from the same mold.
So when we talk about stability and commonality in the context of our genre, we do so against a backdrop of chaos and change in the book business itself; with a nod to the loss of some of this genre’s pioneers, many of whom were still publishing at or near their deaths; and with a recognition of both the genre’s boundaries and our enthusiasm for writers who push out the limits. The landscape of the genre continues to renew and refresh itself, growing and changing in ways that nevertheless leave it a recognizable place that is comfortable and challenging – usually both at the same time.
Thrilling Detective
Every mystery lover ought to revisit Knox’s rules from time to time. Though they are dated and routinely violated, their spirit continues to be relevant, and they give us a framework to consider where we are as a genre. On the Thrilling Detective website, one of the genre’s greatest resources (located at www.thrillingdetective.com), you can find this version of the Knox’s Decalogue:
1. The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.
2. All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
5. No Chinaman must figure in the story.
6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
7. The detective must not himself commit the crime.
8. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.
9. The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.
Of Knox and his rules, Thrilling Detective’s creator, Kevin Burton Smith, writes “I think he was mostly joking.” It’s easy to argue this both ways. On one hand, at the time Knox codified these rules in 1929, Agatha Christie had already violated rules one and seven three years earlier, in what is still considered one of her finest works. More recently, bestselling thriller writer Harlan Coben has also violated the very same rules in a novel that earned widespread praise, demonstrating that writers are still interesting in breaking the rules. (For the benefit of those who’ve not yet read these books, I won’t mention titles here.)
On the other hand, if we look at the spirit of the rules rather than the specifics, they’re much harder to dismiss. We may not be able to defend or even take seriously a prohibition against Chinamen, but it’s easy to see that as a whole, the rules are all about fair play, a plea for the writers of detective stories to give readers of detectives stories a fair chance at solving the mysteries. This is especially clear in Knox’s definition of the detective story, which, he writes: “must have as its main interest the unraveling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end.”
It’s still true that most mysteries fit this mold, that the heart of the genre as represented in the great majority of new mystery titles would be recognizable to readers of Knox’s era, especially in the latest entries in sturdy series by writers such as Donna Andrews, Linda Barnes, M.C. Beaton, Jan Brogan, Barbara Cleverly, William Kent Krueger, Stuart MacBride, Archer Mayor, Daniel Silva and Will Thomas, to name just ten diverse examples from the latter months of 2008.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The same can be said for international and ethnographic mysteries, segments of the genre that didn’t exist in Knox’s time but that would not have seemed foreign to Knox and his contemporaries. The explosion of international mysteries in translation continues unabated; Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, translated from the Swedish, was among the most talked about new books of 2008. We also were also treated to new mysteries set in Laos (Colin Cotterill’s Curse of the Pogo Stock, fifth in this amazing series), Mongolia (Michael Walters’ Shadow Walker), in Gaza (Matt Benyon Rees’ A Grave in Gaza) and South Africa (Michael Stanley’s A Carrion Death), among other exotic destinations. In various ways, these skillful writers use the familiar conventions and practices of the detective story to introduce armchair travelers to out-of-the-way places. You might even find a Chinaman or two, especially in fine novels by Henry Chang and Peter May.
But it’s also in this spirit that we can see that the paranormal mystery isn’t necessarily the oxymoron it appears to be at first glance. Mysteries are, of course, the most rational of stories, predicted on the abilities of great intellects to apply deductive reasoning, not “unaccountable intuition.” A century ago, the genre grew up in an era that saw the growing application of science and technology throughout society. Detective fiction was caught up in this wave, evidenced by the popularity of Sherlock Holmes’ ratiocination and of a detective known as The Thinking Machine, introduced by Jacques Futrelle in 1905.
As an Old School reader, I generally side with Knox in believing that “supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.” But there’s no denying the prevalence and popularity of today’s mysteries featuring witches, vampires, ESP and other paranormal phenomena. In the two paranormal series that I enjoy most, Nancy Atherton’s wonderful Aunt Dimity novels and Alice Kimberly’s frothy Haunted Bookshop series, ghosts are present, but they don’t do a whole lot more than add in knowledge that the spirits acquired during their lifetimes (i.e. they’re a shortcut against more research) and information that might be acquired by any sidekick. The ghosts also serve as support for the series heroines. Kimberly’s ghost, Jack Shephard, does take a few somewhat more active steps in aid of Penelope Thornton-McClure’s investigations. Still, despite the presence of ghosts in both Kimberly’s and Atherton’s series, these books more or less honor Knox’s spirit.
In fact, what’s really going on in these paranormal mysteries is part of a larger, long-term trend in the genre away from stories about detectives solving a case toward stories about detectives. There’s still “curiosity” involved, so Knox’s requirement that the mystery arouse curiosity is addressed. But in mysteries that are more about detectives, our curiosity isn’t always “gratified at the end.” Recent paranormal series by Madelyn Alt (launched in 2006), Shirley Damsgaard (2005) and Casey Daniels (2006) are as much about heroines discovering, embracing and exploring their psychic/paranormal powers as they are about solving crimes. Crime presents a question that can be answered in the course of a novel. But the former, the exploration of paranormal phenomena, is unlikely to achieve closure. Still, readers seem not to mind, as long as the journey is entertaining.
The Spellman Files
An even more extreme example of this trend away from solving cases and towards watching the detectives is found in Lisa Lutz’s Spellman series: The Spellman Files (2007), Curse of the Spellmans (2008) and Revenge of the Spellmans (2009). These books offer everything one might ask for in a detective novel: an engaging private eye narrator with a distinct perspective and unique voice, truly witty banter, PI tradecraft that’s both well-executed and well-described, and clever plotting that keeps readers on our toes – everything, that is, apart from real cases for our detective to solve. Izzy Spellman spends her time dealing with her parents, both private eyes; her younger sister, also a private eye; and her brother, who isn’t a private eye, having turned respectable. Sure, there are minor mysteries that Izzy is asked to solve, but these are essentially incidental. Just when you think that she’s about to become involved in a real investigation on behalf of a client, she ends up embroiled in another family investigation melodrama, as the Spellmans turn their detective prowess against each other.
Still, the Spellman books are great fun; it’s hard to complain when we’re laughing so often. Lutz’s books have earned award nominations from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (a 2008 Dilys nomination for The Spellman Files) and from the Mystery Writers of America (a 2009 Edgar nomination for Curse of the Spellmans). The latter is especially surprising, as the MWA rarely notices comic novels; Lutz’ Edgar nomination for this book tells us that she’s achieved something special.
In Knox’s formulation and the mysteries that adhere rigidly to it, the mystery plot is something apart from the detective, a problem that’s brought from the outside for the investigation and resolution. But writers and readers know that in the best mysteries, plot and character are part and parcel of the same thing. Sean Chercover, winner of a 2008 Shamus Award and a 2009 Dilys Award, has summed this up by saying “plot is character in motion.” We see this most clearly in Laura Lippman’s extraordinary short story collection, Hardly Knew Her, which offers seventeen little gems of character in motion. The protagonists of these stories are cold and calculating, and stop short of nothing including murder, to achieve their goals. You might say that they are amoral, and at times you may be right (“The Crack Cocaine Diet”). But in other stories, especially the two featuring suburban soccer mom/call girl and madam Heloise Lewis (“One True Love” and “Scratch a Woman”), Lippman paints a much more nuanced portrait.
It’s no surprise to be able to label a new book by Laura Lippman “outstanding.” She has already proven herself to be among the top writers in our genre; she won 2008 Anthony, Barry and Macavity Awards for her novel What the Dead Know. But Hardly Knew Her is nevertheless a revelation, including some of the darkest, most noir writing Lippman has published. In story after story, Lippman creates vivid, memorable characters, then puts them in motion through plots in which each of the stunning twists is perfectly in keeping with the character’s nature. These are stories about crime, but the true mysteries lie in these characters’ hearts. Lippman has already been honored with a 2008 Anthony Award for the collection’s title story, “Hardly Knew Her,” and she is a nominee for a 2009 Edgar Award for “Scratch a Woman.”
Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong
In an afterword, Lippman writes that “Scratch a Woman” is an homage to James M. Cain, and it’s an engrossing example of how today’s writers rework the elements and themes of genre classics. In what has to be the most remarkable new mystery “novel” of 2008, Pierre Bayard takes this exercise even further. Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong is a thorough re-examination of the case originally investigated by Sherlock Holmes on Dartmoor over a century earlier. Bayard examines the record of Holmes’ original investigation as narrated by Holmes’ first chronicler Dr. John Watson and published under the byline Arthur Conan Doyle. Bayard looks not only the account of the Baskerville case but at the entire Holmes canon, isolating the elements of Holmes’ methods and identifying instances where the method leaves open the possibility of various conclusions if not outright mistakes. He then lays out a theory of “detective criticism,” not just an examination of a text but an intervention that allows him to conclude that Sherlock Holmes was wrong.
It’s hard, at first, to know what to make of Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong. The book itself is billed as “part intellectual entertainment, part love letter to crime novels, and part crime novel in itself.” In dissecting Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles, Bayard certainly appears to be in earnest, and his methodical, point-by-point dissection of Watson’s narrative is lively, provocative and often convincing. Is the book a novel? Pierre Bayard is, we are told, a psychoanalyst and French literary theorist, but it seems just as easy to see him as a (fictional) protagonist in an intellectual melodrama, just another Watson figure chronicling a Sherlock Holmes adventure. Indeed, Bayard himself encourages us to break down the barrier between fiction and reality. He writes of his certainty that there is a “great permeability between fiction and reality. There is no point in trying to patrol the borders between these worlds, for passages between them occur constantly, in both directions. Not only … can we inhabit one fictional world or another, but the inhabitants of that world also at times come to live in ours.”
Sherlock Holmes devotees at the Baker Street Irregulars have never hesitated to treat the Great Detective as a historical figure, engaging in a great game of scholarship and speculation. Bayard’s remarkable conclusions, which readers may accept or discard, result from a ruthlessly logical process of good, old-fashioned ratiocination, Holmes’ own methods turned against himself.
Father Knox would be proud.
Recommended Titles:
Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong by Pierre Bayard
Teaser by Jan Brogan
Trigger City by Sean Chercover
The Victoria Vanishes by Christopher Fowler
Hell Hole by Chris Grabenstein
Hail to the Chef by Julie Hyzy
Envy the Night by Michael Koryta
Red Knife by William Kent Krueger
Hardly Knew Her by Laura Lippman
Third Strike by Zoe Sharp
Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson
- Jim Huang has sold mystery books for 20 years, including stints in Boston, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now Carmel, Indiana, where he and his wife own The Mystery Company, a bookstore devoted to the genre. For over 20 years (1982-2005), Huang edited and published The Drood Review, a mystery book review newsletter. He has edited reference books for mystery lovers, including 1100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century (winner of the Anthony and Agatha Awards for best nonfiction of 2000), They Died in Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated and Forgotten Mystery Novels (winner of the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards for best nonfiction of 2002) and Mystery Muses: 100 Classics That Inspire Today’s Mystery Writers (a nominee for the Agatha Award for best nonfiction of 2006), the latter co-edited with Austin Lugar. Since 2000, he has volunteered as the Program Director for Magna Cum Murder, a festival for mystery lovers that takes place each October in Muncie, Indiana. He is the co-chair of the 2009 Boucheron, the World Mystery Convention scheduled for Indianapolis in October 2009. In 2006, Huang was elected to the board of Sisters in Crime, an international organization devoted to combating discrimination against women in the mystery genre; he is the first “brother” to serve on the board in this organization’s 20 year history. Huang lives with his wife, Jennie Jacobson, and their two daughters in Carmel, where he recently completed a term as president of the Friends of the Library board.
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