At speaking gigs and book signings I most often refer to my crime novels as detective stories. I suppose that’s because I think of them as being about my fictional sleuth, Hannibal Jones more than about the plot. Still, people often challenge that description, either for clarification or seemingly as a correction.
“Oh, you mean a murder mystery?”
Well, yes and no. Between them, the four books in the series give Hannibal five murders to solve. But two of those murders are in one book, and three in another. The other books have different puzzles for him to solve, and as I thought of it, none of the cases begin with him actually hired to solve a murder. Lately I’ve begun to wonder if I’m the weirdo for thinking that a story can be a valid mystery without a bloody killing at the center of it. Has our society come so far that it isn’t a mystery without murder?
I blame the girls.
Ler me explain. The first mysteries I ever read were Sherlock Holmes stories. Seen as a body of work one notices that there are rather few grisly killings in the lot. Missing persons, stolen artifacts, lost documents, even stolen identities - Arthur Conan Doyle found a remarkable variety of cases to challenge his consulting detective, but not that many outright murders.
From there I graduated to what are now called hard-boiled detective stories. Despite their reputations as he-man writers, Ray Chandler, Dash Hammett and even John D. McDonald managed to spin some great tales without making the solving of a murder the focus. Instead they managed a pleasing variety of cases.
You may have started with Nancy Drew’s mysteries. As I understand it, there’s not a lot of gore in those tales, and there’s a total absence of maniac serial killers. But then you probably moved on to the most influential of all mystery authors: Agatha Christie.
Yes, we can credit Edgar Allen Poe for inventing the form and Wilkie Collins for making it work as a novel, but nobody popularized mystery fiction like Dame Agatha. She solidified the format of what we call the traditional mystery, and created most of the conventions of the genre. She invented the locked-room mystery, the dining room interrogation, and the drawing room denouement, Even the term “red herring” is from Ten Little Indians (or is it, And Then There Were None?)
And every one of Miss Marple’s or Hercule Poirot’s cases revolves around a murder most foul. All the greats that followed close after her - Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, etc. - Held to that formula. A mystery wasn’t a mystery without a murder. And let’s face it, these ladies made the mystery novel what it is today.
So these seminal sisters in crime must take the blame for the expectations of mystery readers. But the question is, were they right? Must a mystery require a murder?
Sunday, May 25, 2008
MUST MYSTERY EQUAL MURDER?
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Authors interviewing characters? What?
Have you visited The Plotline? It's a funky little place where authors get to talk to characters in a whole new light.
If you visit today, for instance, you'll be treated to an interview with Tom Nelson, protagonist of Janeology. That is, if he decides to show up. Sometimes he sends others in his place.
http://theplotline.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/interview-with-tom-nelson-of-janeology/
Best,
K. Harrington
What did Jane do?
www.karenharringtonbooks.com
Stumped
From the diary of Tiffany the Toilet Ranger:
Really, a campground over a long weekend is a great setting for a mystery - of any type - suspense, cozy, psychological thriller … all the elements are there. I know, I was there, too.
The balding fellow with the huge RV, the tiny yappy dashboard dog off-leash and a cougar in the area - what was he thinking? Squirrels are bigger than that animal for gosh sakes and if the mutt were to disappear down the maze of gopher holes, he would never ever be found again. Would the perplexed owner with the big rec equipment think someone had stolen his pouch … would he be set on revenge?
Where would he look to cast blame?
Suspense: On the couple running naked through the trees and doing a very private act in a very public place? Wait - I can see there's no where to hide a dog, even a very small one, there.
Psychological thriller: Maybe it was the group with the axes stuck into the environmentally protected trees? Too bad there is nothing to save them from the mentally deficient. Is the pampered pet chopped liver?
Cozy: How about the Goth with the dog collar around her neck - that collar looks pretty tight - did she take it from the yappy-happy puppy? Are those ripped leggings from Rover’s roving claws?
Action: The dudes with the dynamite fireworks - did they accidently light Rover over a cherry bomb? Will the dudes steal a high speed cleaning cart, bust the barricade and dump the deceased into the ash pit?
Accidental Death: Or maybe it was a bear, waking up, hungry and thinking the diminutive dog was just a berry on the bush - smush, chomp, swallow - no evidence there until it comes out the other end - miles away - in a cave high above the tree line.
Such are the ponderings of a toilet ranger.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
If one whiff of smoke from an arsonist’s fire made you see into a killer’s mind, would you consider it a gift or a curse?
Whether you believe in psychic or paranormal phenomena or not, there is an element of the "unknown", happenings that don't lend to logical explanations. Since the beginning of mankind, there have been reports of strange or unusual phenomena--UFOs, psychic visions, crop circles, Stonehenge and much more.
Do you believe in the paranormal? What exactly do you believe?
Can God or an ultimate power still be found within a psychic gift?
Or is this power coming from something or somewhere evil?
Have you ever had a premonitory dream or vision? Ever touch
something and suddenly know who held it last and why?
For some, paranormal gifts are a reality; for others a curse and for many an impossible feat. Some of us avoid thinking about it, while others are drawn to television shows like Medium and Ghost Whisperer or to novels like Divine Intervention that explore the luring world of the paranormal.
For CFBI Agent Jasmine McLellan, her special gift as a Pyro-Psychic gives her an ‘edge’ as she leads a covert team of psychic government agents in search of some of North America ’s most ruthless criminals. Friday, May 16, 2008
Husbands Who cheat...with other men.
A little more than ten years ago, an article in a local paper caught my attention. It wasn’t just that it was well written (which it was), but the subject matter, because it corresponded so closely with research I was already doing in preparation for writing my novel, truly piqued my interest. The article began with the information that doctors, investigators and social scientists were puzzled by a sudden increase in HIV/AIDS cases in Long Island. The thing that really made this outbreak all the more mysterious was that the great majority of these new HIV/AIDS cases involved heterosexual married women. Subsequent investigation revealed that most of these women had been infected by their husbands who, it was later found out, had been sexually involved with some of the young male prostitutes that regularly ply their trade on the streets of New York City. In one extreme case, one of those husbands murdered his entire family fearing he’d passed the HIV/AIDS virus on to them because of his extramarital dalliances with male prostitutes.
Men sleeping with men certainly isn't new, even married men having sex with other males isn't a new idea, I believe it was Alexander the Great who said,and I paraphrase here, "A woman to bear children, a boy for fun." What has seemingly brought all this to the fore is the attention it's getting from and through the media. Recent events headlined in national news were the arrests of a famous celebrity, a couple of senators and other politicians, and top executives of Disney (of all places!) for either allegedly trolling public restrooms for man-on-man quickies, or for promoting child pornography. In 2007 alone, there were at least ten instances of well-known or at least well-to-do married "straight" men arrested by police or captured by the media either having sex or attempting to have sex with other men in public places, or in the case of the media; discreetly in motels or hotels. What confuses many of the friends and family (especially the wives) of these men is that they insist that they are "straight." Very few of these men ever admit to being homosexual, even when caught in the act of performing what is clearly a homosexual act. A few years ago a non-fiction book was published on the subject of men, specifically black men, secretly being sexually involved with other men. "On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of 'Straight' Black Men Who Sleep with Men" (Hardcover)by J.L. King (Author), became a best-seller.
What are the factors involved that would cause a seemingly happily married man to pursue a sexual relationship with another man? I would imagine they are the same as those that would lure a man into an extramarital affair with someone of the opposite sex. Other factors may contribute to the liaison(s) with other men however, such as latent( or not so latent) homosexual desire, easier sexual access, the thrill of performing a societal taboo... one or more of those things could be a deciding factor in causing or luring a married man into a covert homosexual relationship. In actuality however, the reasons a probably as complicated and numerous as the number of persons involved in such affairs. It would probably take a lot more knowledge in the area than I have, and many years of study to figure it all out completely.
My novel Chickenhawk was inspired, at least in part, by the revelations in those previously mentioned newspaper articles.
