Mysteries | CW Hawes

A Free Justinia Wright Mystery

Yes, Virginia, a free Justinia Wright mystery is coming to readers everywhere — but only if they’re signed up for my mailing list. It’s something like Henry Ford’s “You can have any color you want, as long as it’s black.”

I don’t do free very often. So this is a great opportunity to get a Justinia Wright novelette simply by joining my mailing list. Which you can do here.

The Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mystery series has been getting positive attention of late. I was named among the Top 25 Mystery Writers You Need to be Reading by international bestselling mystery and thriller writers Caleb and Linda Pirtle.

Of the latest Tina and Harry adventure, Death Makes a House Call, readers are saying:

First rate entry in a great series.

…if you like well-drawn, fascinating, and believable characters…not to mention clever writing (with lots of laugh-out-loud moments), give this author a try!

This book is highly entertaining…

…well-written and worthy of all five stars.

If you haven’t read any of the Justinia Wright mysteries, you can find them on Amazon.

I will start serializing the novelette to my mailing list on Friday, March 13th — so don’t wait to sign up! The game is afoot!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time — happy reading!

Share This!

The World of Justinia Wright — Part 2

Raymond Chandler, the creator of Philip Marlowe, perhaps the king of the hardboiled PIs, was not interested overly much in plot.

For Chandler, atmosphere and characterization were more important than the plot of the story. Which may be why we remember Marlowe more than we remember Chandler himself.

As a reader, atmosphere and characterization have always been of greater interest to me than the plot of a story. Mostly, I suppose, because I find the entertainment value of a story in the characters and the atmosphere.

As a reader of whodunits, I never read them to solve the puzzle. I read them for the atmosphere and the interaction of the characters with each other. I suppose I’ve been spoiled by Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe.

Plot is simple. William Wallace Cook defined plot as

Purpose, expressed or implied, opposing Obstacle, expressed or implied, yields Conflict.

All plots are nothing more than stories of conflict. No conflict, no story.

But what makes the story, the conflict, of interest to the reader is what the writer does with it. That is, how does the writer make it interesting to the reader? How does he get the reader interested in the conflict? The writer does that through atmosphere and interesting (to the reader) characters.

For my Justinia Wright novels, when I read comments such as

The action builds slowly, relying more on relationship and character development rather than on violent, gruesome murders. … Justinia (Tina) and Harry are well thought out, interesting characters that are complemented by an equally interesting supporting cast.

And

I don’t read a lot of mysteries, but when I do, I appreciate interesting characters and atmosphere. Festival of Death has both…

And

…characters are well-developed and intriguing…

I know I have succeeded in producing a novel that is more than plot, more than a mere portrayal of a conflict, but rather a novel that is alive with people who have captured the reader’s attention, interest, and perhaps his or her heart.

The new Justinia Wright novel, Death Makes a House Call, is coming soon to a virtual bookstore near you.

The story is one of death, this is a murder mystery, after all, and justice. A tale in which the one who defies human decency is apprehended and made to pay for the crime.

However, Death Makes a House Call is first and foremost a story about people: a story of life, love, and devotion.

Stay tuned! Death Makes a House Call is coming and will be here soon!

Share This!

In the Top 25

The older I get, the more I enjoy mysteries. Not thrillers. I actually don’t care much for them. I like the traditional whodunit, where the focus is on solving a murder, and the pacing is gentler.

The first novel I wrote was a mystery. The title? Festival of Death. Although the Festival of Death you can buy today on Amazon, is not at all the same book I wrote back in the late ‘80s. It’s amazing how a couple, three decades can change things.

In the last five years, I’ve written five novels, two novellas, three novelettes, and seven short stories in the Justinia Wright Private Investigator series; and there are an additional two novels in the works. I love every minute I spend with Tina and Harry. The series is also my all-time second highest seller.

Now it’s one thing to write something simply because you love doing it. But it’s a whole different ballgame when you get recognized for doing so — which recently happened to me.

International bestselling authors Caleb and Linda Pirtle are known for their promotion of indie authors. It’s a wonderful thing they are doing for their fellow writers.

Recently they named me as One of the Top 25 Mystery Writers You Need to be Reading.

I am thrilled and honored they chose me to be on their list.

Support from one’s peers is always awesome, and I feel very blessed that my fellow writers appreciate and enjoy my work.

Being an Independent Author/Publisher, means you’re it: you are the writer and you are the publisher and you are the marketer. You are responsible for everything: writing the book, editing the book, formatting the book, producing the ebook and print masters, and marketing the book.

All of which is a lot of work, and some days it is more work than I care to handle. I’d rather just be writing. And then along come people like the Pirtles, who have done all that you’ve done, and know how tough this writing business is. There is nothing like a little recognition and appreciation to put gas in your tank.

Here’s a link to Caleb and Linda Pirtle’s website: https://calebandlindapirtle.com/c-w-hawes-one-top-25-mystery-writers-need-reading/

Recognition is nice. It is a signpost to readers: hey, check this out! Because at the end of the day it all boils down to readers. And we writers want readers to know we exist. After all, they buy the books.

So all you readers who are reading this, buy and review the books of indie authors. They don’t have massive marketing budgets, but they do have you — and your support is crucial for their encouragement and success. Go ahead and make an author’s day.

To my fellow writers, I encourage you to buy and review the books of your peers. Such an act will not only make their day, but you might gain a friend in the process. And who doesn’t need friends? Remember, it’s who you know that counts.

I’m very thankful for the Pirtles and will continue to support my fellow writers. Good karma is, well, good!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

Share This!

Mystery vs Suspense vs Thriller One Reader’s View

Crime can pay. Crime writing, that is. Then, again, real crime can pay too. But we’ll leave real crime for others to do. Today I want to talk about crime fiction; specifically about mysteries, suspense, and thrillers.

Thrillers

Thrillers are all the rage these days, but what exactly is a thriller?

A thriller is an action story. Usually fast-paced. The protagonist is in danger from the beginning. There is a bad guy and the protagonist must stop him (or her) from accomplishing his nefarious deed. We usually know the good and bad guys right from the beginning.

The scope of the thriller is often large. The bad guy isn’t playing for pennies. He’s going to blow up a city, poison a country, start a nuclear war. The thriller is about big action and big bad guys. The protagonist, to some degree, must also be larger than life.

The works of Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler are examples of good thrillers.

In the hands of a good writer, the thriller can be a thrilling read. Often, though, the writing is sub-par and the story not plausible, unless I, the reader, exercise a mega-dose of the suspension of disbelief. This is how the Jack Reacher stories strike me.

Many books are labeled as thrillers, which technically aren’t. Why? Money. As one wit noted, the difference between a mystery and a thriller is about a hundred thousand dollars.

Suspense

The suspense novel is often a slow burn story. The focus isn’t on action, although there may be quite a bit of action. The focus is on creating a feeling of suspense in the reader.

In the suspense story, the reader is omniscient. We see everything. We see the bad guy planning whatever it is he is going to do. We see the protagonist completely unaware, at least at the beginning, of the bad guy and his actions. We, the reader, see much more of the danger than the protagonist does and therein lies the creation of suspense.

The scope of the suspense story is generally limited and focused on the main character. Things are happening, usually to the main character, and he doesn’t know why. We, the reader, usually do, however, which adds to the suspense.

Cornell Woolrich was the suspense writer par excellence. Lester Dent also wrote some fine suspense novels.

The Mystery

The mystery is about solving crime, usually a murder. The crime usually happens at the beginning of the story and the sleuth’s job is to solve it. The protagonist (the sleuth) can be a professional or an amateur. And we usually do not learn who the bad guy is until the end of the story.

There are many mystery sub-categories. Right now, the most popular is what I call the chick lit cozy. It is the cozy mystery with the addition of elements from chick lit: a young (or youngish) woman, who is the main character/sleuth; she is divorced or a widow; has moved to a new location, and embarked on a new career; and there’s romance. Along with the regular cozy mystery, these are very clean and non-violent reads.

An indie example is Agatha Frost’s Peridale Cafe Murder Mystery series.

In a mystery, the reader only knows what he or she is told. We see what the sleuth sees. The story is as much a puzzle for the reader as it is for the protagonist.

The mystery can be filled with suspense and it can be thrilling. The danger to the protagonist builds, along with the story. The more the sleuth learns about the criminal, the greater the danger he or she is in.

Personal Assessment

For me, I find the mystery to be the most satisfying reading experience. It combines the puzzle with suspense and thrilling action.

While the mystery is technically a plot-driven story, rather than character-driven, I find that the most interesting mysteries are those which have interesting characters.

Mystery plots are basically all the same. There is a murderer who has killed someone and is trying to cover up the crime while the sleuth is trying to uncover it.

What makes the mystery story interesting is the cast of characters and the twists and turns of the storyline. And quite often the cast of characters can save a mediocre storyline.

After all, we remember Nero Wolfe, Sam Spade, Hercule Poirot, Mr and Mrs North, and Sherlock Holmes. But how many of the actual mystery stories featuring these characters do we remember? I bet not many.

In my opinion, interesting characters make mysteries more interesting reads than thrillers or suspense novels. Which usually have fairly stock characters.

Pacing is another reason I prefer the mystery as a reader. The pacing accelerates with the action in the story. As the clues (and sometimes the bodies) pile up and the more the sleuth knows, the more desperate the killer becomes. And the sleuth finds himself in ever increasing danger.

The action ratchets up in a natural progression. Unlike the thriller where were out of breath by page 2 or 3. The mystery, to my mind, is much more realistic and natural.

Finally, as a reader, I don’t necessarily want to know everything. For me the suspense of knowing there is a killer out there is sufficient. As I learn information with the sleuth, I form a bond with him. We are in this together, as it were. The very nature of the mystery, helps draw me into the world of the sleuth and his dilemma.

There are some fine mysteries being written today by indie authors. Two I especially like are:

Richard Schwindt’s Death in Sioux Lookout trilogy

Joe Congel’s Tony Razzolito P.I. series

Both are very good and very much worth a read.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

Share This!

Where Have All The Mysteries Gone?

The latest Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mystery, When Friends Must Die, is now available. There are a total of seven books in the series (if we count Book 0, which Amazon doesn’t).

To be honest, of all the characters I’ve created Justinia Wright is my favorite. She was my first child, so to speak, and I know her so well it’s as though she’s a real person.

But in this age of thrillers and books whose pages turn themselves, Tina and her brother, Harry, have been a hard sell.

Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books are the ideal detective reads, in my opinion. They have a bit of Sherlock Holmes and a touch of noir, a smidgeon of philosophy, and a lot of wisecracking banter. I will take Nero Wolfe any day over any other fictional detective out there — including the Great Detective himself.

However, the Nero Wolfe novels aren’t thrillers by today’s standards, and while excellent reads I do have to turn the pages myself. And therein lies the rub.

If the mystery writers of the Golden Age were plunked down into today’s publishing world as newbies, I doubt they’d make it. Why? Because at times their books are ponderously slow by today’s standards. The riveting action usually doesn’t appear until the last quarter to third of the book. The front part is all clue gathering and sub-plot and character development. This makes for a slower read, but one in which the plot is more nuanced and the characters are more richly drawn.

Just think, in today’s market the likes of Agatha Christie, Patricia Wentworth, Ngaio Marsh, and Rex Stout might never have seen a book contract from a publisher. And if they’d gone indie, they might have sold books, but I doubt their names would be household words.

In his day, the very prolific Edgar Wallace was selling mysteries like the proverbial hotcakes. Today, virtually none of his books are in print. He often has plenty of action, but his books are in no way, shape, or form thrillers.

Even Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, is edging towards oblivion as the generation that grew up reading and watching Perry Mason dies off. Why? Because for all the action, they aren’t thrillers.

Which introduces an interesting dynamic in the mystery vs thriller debate. The mystery reader tends to be older. The thriller reader, younger.

Today’s reader, especially readers of indie books prefer action — just like the pulp magazine readers of yore.

But there are writers of mysteries, traditional mysteries, who are managing to sell books. PF Ford, JA Mensies, and Renee Pawlish to name three.

There are, however, more writers of good mysteries who deserve a much bigger audience. Richard Schwindt and his Death in Sioux Lookout trilogy. Joe Congel with his Tony Razzolito, PI series. JP Choquette and her Tayt Waters mysteries. Just to name a few.

But why read traditional-style mysteries instead of thrillers? Primarily because I think they are overall more entertaining and engaging reads. Mysteries tend to be multi-dimensional, whereas thrillers, at least the ones I’ve read, are pretty much one dimensional. Kind of like superhero comic books. There’s a lot of unrelenting action and that’s about it.

Of course superheroes are all the rage, so maybe that explains the appeal of thrillers.

A good mystery is plot-driven, has multi-faceted characters, an engaging storyline, and a certain literary finesse. A good mystery engages one on a more intellectual level. But a good mystery isn’t all in the mind, because there will be plenty of action scenes to get the heart pumping.

Which is my point: a good mystery is a wholistic read. It appeals to the reader on many different levels.

Give PF Ford, JA Menzies, and Renee Pawlish a try. Give Richard Schwindt, Joe Congel, JP Choquette, and even my own Justinia Wright a try. You just might discover a whole new world opening up before you.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

Share This!

Entangled

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of – Part 2

My purpose in writing this new blog series is to

Share books I’ve read and liked, and
Promote those books to a wider audience

I’m not a “professional” reviewer. I’m simply a reader who appreciates good books. Reviewing isn’t my job. Writing is. However, when I come across well-written and entertaining books I will share them with you. Mostly, if not exclusively, these will be books that aren’t selling, or aren’t selling well. Books that, in my opinion, deserve a much wider audience. Books that truly should be bestsellers.

And, now, on with the show!

Entangled

The novel Entangled by J. Evan Stuart, as of this writing, sits at number 2,420,293 in the paid Kindle store. That essentially means no one is buying or reading this book. And that is too bad, because the novel is very well written and the story is one that you don’t want to end.

Supposedly, Entangled is the first in the Sonya Reisler series. However, the author has apparently disappeared. His blog hasn’t been updated since 2016, and his Twitter account hasn’t seen any activity since May 2017.

A very good writer, now apparently lost to the reading community. Just this one gem left behind. A shame. A very sad shame.

Entangled is, loosely, a police procedural mystery. I use the term “loosely” because the story does not focus on the procedure, but on the characters.

Connor is being framed for killing his parents and almost killing his sister, who he adores. Detective Sonya Reisler, a newbie on the detective squad, is supposed to look over the evidence and rubber-stamp the local sheriff’s decision. When she does, however, something doesn’t sit right with her and the more she digs, the more things don’t look right. Is Connor being framed? Is he the easy out?

Then to complicate things even more, Connor meets Sonya to tell her his side of the story. And as fate would have it, they like each other and Sonya finds herself protecting the fugitive.

Stuart brings the book to a very exciting and satisfying conclusion that easily leaves the door open for a sequel, or several sequels.

Let’s get this author some buys, KU reads, and reviews. Maybe, just maybe we will find out what happens in the rest of the series.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

Share This!

The Detective Novel – Some Authors

I don’t know why bestsellers are touted so much. Quite honestly, I’ve read a lot of bestsellers that weren’t any better, IMO, then your average mid-lister — and a significant number that, again IMO, were just plain bad.

On the other hand, I’ve read quite a few books that are nowhere near bestseller territory and have found them to be truly superb reads. They actually deserve to be bestsellers.

Then we have the whole idea of just exactly what is a bestseller. The New York Times bestseller list is not a list of actual bestsellers. It’s a curated list compiled from specially selected outlets, with a dash of editorial tampering to make sure the “right” books are on the list.

And then we have all of these awards writers brag about receiving. The Science Fiction Writers of America called out Readers Favorites, for example, as being more or less a scam. Pay your money and get a favorable review. Not in so many words, but it’s not hard to read between the lines.

Kirkus isn’t much better. Indie writers can pay $500 and get a review. No guarantees, but who wants to disappoint a paying customer?

So what does all this have to do with detective novels? Last week I said I’d mention a few authors who are lesser lights in the mystery field. What I want to emphasize here is that being on a bestselling list or being an award winning author essentially means nothing.

Neither awards nor a “bestseller” badge is a guarantee that the book is a good read, or that the author can even tell a good story. We are in subjective territory here. It’s all opinion. Just like the popularity contest known as Homecoming King and Queen in high school. For example, scifi/fantasy writer Patty Jansen delivers a good read and she is not a “bestselling” author – by her own admission. And yet she says she makes a decent income.

In the end, the consumer more or less determines success. Although the crowd is fickle. If Shakespeare hadn’t been able to sell tickets to his plays, we wouldn’t even know he existed. And E L James is laughing all the way to the bank for a novel that is basically poorly written fan fiction.

I repeat: the public is fickle and tastes change. And often change rapidly. George Frederic Handel was knocking it out of the park writing Italian opera for London audiences. They couldn’t get enough. Then, suddenly, almost overnight, Londoners got sick of Italian opera. Handel went bankrupt, then discovered English oratorio, and the rest is history. Messiah and the “Hallelujah Chorus” are ever with us.

Dead – And Shouldn’t Be Forgotten

Jacques Futrelle

When I was a kid, I loved Jacques Futrelle’s The Thinking Machine stories. I still remember “The Problem of Cell 13”, a classic locked room study.

Sadly, Futrelle was only 37 when he went down with the Titanic, telling his wife to save herself. Several Thinking Machine manuscripts also lie at the bottom of the Atlantic.

You can get Tales of The Thinking Machine for free. Well worth reading.

Edgar Wallace

One of the most prolific authors ever, today Wallace is a virtual unknown. In his lifetime, he wrote 175 novels, 957 short stories, 18 stage plays, and reams of news reports (he was a journalist), articles, screen plays, poetry, and historical non-fiction. His works sold over 50 million copies, although few are in print today.

His prolificity was due to his dictating his work onto wax cylinders, the dictaphone of his day, and having his secretaries type the dictations. By dictating, he often produced a novel in 2 or 3 days.

Not finding anyone to publish his first novel, he self-published it in 1905; creating his own publishing company, Tallis Press.

Never heard of him? Does King Kong ring a bell?

Wallace died suddenly, while working on King Kong, in 1932 at the age of 56.

Many of Wallace’s books can be found for free online. One source is ebooks@Adelaide, and there are others. He’s worth checking out.

Patricia Wentworth

Agatha Christie is a towering figure to this day, and Patricia Wentworth had the misfortune to live and write when Christie was in her prime. It’s pretty tough living in the shadow of a towering figure.

However, Ms Wentworth was by no means a hack writer. I think she’s on par with Christie, and the Miss Silver mysteries are as good as Christie’s Miss Marple.

What’s more, Miss Silver is a working woman instead of a gossipy busybody. Miss Silver is a private investigator, the forerunner of Sharon McCone, Kinsey Milhone, VI Warshawski, and all the rest.

Faded Page has all the Miss Silver mysteries, except number 4. And best of all, they’re free!

Ngaio Marsh

Ngaio Marsh is another good mystery author who is obscured by Christie’s long shadow.

Her Inspector Roderick Alleyn was a bit unique in the day, because he’s a police detective. While Christie’s detectives are either private investigators or amateurs, we enter the world of the police procedural with Marsh.

Marsh was also heavily involved in the theater and her novels have a certain theatrical flair to them. They are very much worth reading. Check for them on the used market.

A.A. Fish

A.A. Fish is a pseudonym of Erle Stanley Gardner, another prolific author, best known for Perry Mason.

While Gardner and Perry Mason are household names, Fish, Bertha Cool, and Donald Lam, are not.

The Cool and Lam mysteries are good reads. My only complaint is that Bertha gets short shrift most of the time, which is too bad as I think she is far more interesting than Donald Lam. I think Gardner missed a bet here. He could have had something going like Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

The books are good nonetheless. Get them on the used market.

Richard & Frances Lockridge

Popular in their day, the Lockridges produced scores of novels, all set in the same world, spread across several different series and characters.

Unfortunately time has not been kind to them, and that is a shame. They were good writers. They’re probably best known for the Mr & Mrs North mysteries.

I like Pam and Jerry a lot. New Yorkers with money (Jerry’s a publisher) and a lot of time on their hands, especially Pam, they get embroiled in some very interesting situations and murders. Pam is the one who mostly helps their friend Lieutenant Bill Weigand solve the crime.

Funny and suspenseful, the books are all around good reads. Pam is a most entertaining female sleuth.

You can find a complete list of all of the Lockridges’s works on GoodOleBooks.

Look for these on the used market. They’re very good.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor

Taylor was on one occasion referred to as the Buster Keaton of the mystery genre.

I’ve only read her Leonidas Witherall series. The man who looks like Shakespeare. Asey Mayo, the “Codfish Sherlock”, is her other and more well-known creation.

The Witherall mysteries are zany fun. Something along the lines of the Keystone Cops in book form. Long on laughs and light on the mystery, they are well worth your time if you want something light and not taxing to read.

Catch these on the used market.

Alive – And Need to be Read

There are a number of writers of the traditional detective story today, featuring either amateur or professional sleuths. I’m not acquainted with them all, but I’ll share a selection of those with which I am.

P.F. Ford

Ford’s Dave Slater and Norman Norman mystery series is dynamite. Full of humor and suspense, as well as the mis-adventures of Slater’s love life, Dave and Norman make the quintessential odd couple.

The books are something of a blend of police procedural and cozy. And while there is plenty of humor, the stories can be on the dark side.

Great books. I’ve read the entire series and am champing at the bit for the next one.

You can pick them up on Amazon.

J.P. Choquette

Tayt Waters is a contemporary private investigator who is quite a colorful character.

The mysteries are funny and suspenseful. Clean reads with a lot of grit and a splash of the dark about them.

There are currently 2 Tayt Waters mysteries, I hope more are in the works. You can get them at Amazon.

J.A. Menzies

Menzies’s Manziuk and Ryan mysteries start off with a bang in a classic country estate murder. Shaded Light: The Case of the Tactless Trophy Wife. Who would have thought there were “country” estates in suburban Toronto, but I guess the rich get it all.

Manziuk and Ryan are another odd couple team police procedural team. Much more at odds with each other than Ford’s Slater and Norman. Their goal is to try and work together as a team.

I enjoyed the Golden Age feel in a contemporary setting of Shaded Light and look forward to reading the other books in the series, which may be found on Amazon.

Ellen Seltz

Ms Seltz writes a classic English-style whodunit, complete with that droll understated British humor and memorable characters.

If that’s your cup of tea, then her Mottley and Baker series is for you. Get them on Amazon.

Summing Up

As I’ve noted before, I prefer the traditional whodunit over the thriller. And while thrillers are all the rage these days, I take comfort in the fact that we do have (myself included) writers who wish to carry on the tradition of the classic detective novel.

While the mystery audience is aging (it can be a bit disconcerting to a writer to see your audience dying off), I find hope in younger characters, such as Tayt Waters entering the fray; or mixed race teams such as Manziuk and Ryan, making their appearance; and the contemporary issues Slater and Norman deal with. This approach will help to make the traditional mystery more relevant to a younger audience.

The western died off quickly. But now with the indie revolution, I see the western making a comeback. Not dependent on the bottom lines of big corporations, indie authors can write what they love and target very specific audiences.

While the mystery isn’t dead by any means, I see hope that, like the western, indie authors will give this venerable genre a continued lease on life. And who knows? Tomorrow the thriller just might be passé.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

Share This!

The Detective Novel

Last week we looked at the mystery vs the thriller. And we all know the thriller is hot, hot, hot these days. The traditional mystery? Not so much. Although the mystery in its chick lit cozy form is doing very well. This probably has something to do with the chick lit element, more than the mystery.

In any case, I’d like to take a look today at the detective novel. That form of the mystery that started the mystery craze, and in effect defined the mystery genre.

Crime stories go all the way back to the Arabian Nights. However, the crime story as we know it today, comes from the fertile imagination of Edgar Allan Poe, with his creation of C Auguste Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, published in 1841.

Poe even invented the word “ratiocination” for the thinking process that Dupin used to solve crime.

If Poe invented the detective story, and all detective stories ever since have more or less followed Poe’s formula, it was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes that made the detective story a mainstay of the literary scene.

I find it of interest that Dupin and Holmes are not professionals. They’re amateurs. The police are at best bumblers who know when they’re licked and need to call in the brilliant amateur specialist. And this is a feature of most mysteries that have an amateur sleuth.

Of course CSI-type forensics were a long ways off and the solution of crimes often did require the exercise of those “little grey cells”, whether or not the sleuth was a professional or amateur.

The 1930s are often called The Golden Age of the mystery, by which we mean the detective story. During that time, scores of amateur and professional sleuths appeared and disappeared. A few became household names: such as Sam Spade, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe, Miss Marple, and Ellery Queen.

Others have faded to near oblivion. Sleuths such as Miss Silver, Mr & Mrs North, The Thinking Machine, Dr Thorndyke, Asey Mayo, and Loveday Brooke.

These sleuths, and many others, used ratiocination to solve the crimes that frequently baffled the police.

Today, however, the amateur is, or seems to be, very much out of his depth. DNA. Advanced surveillance equipment. Hacking of phones and computers. Traffic and surveillance cameras. Highly advanced crime labs. All these things are beyond the amateur sleuth, and even small town police departments.

Which may explain the rise of the modern chick lit cozy craze, that unlikely fusion of chick lit and the cozy mystery, and the vintage mystery, which is set in the pre-CSI past.

The vintage mystery, if well done, can be a very satisfying read, taking us back to The Golden Age — our glamorized view of the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.

The chick lit cozy, focuses on a small town, or a small circle of people within a large city, crafts and small businesses, women’s issues, and at some point the crime. These reads are very popular. They’re not officially labelled “chick lit cozies”. That is a term I adopted from another writer who used it to differentiate them from traditional cozies. They’re simply called cozies and have essentially taken over that sub-genre.

Personally, I’m not fond of the chick lit cozy. Generally, there is more chick lit than cozy mystery in these books. Particularly the sweet romance element. Which probably explains why the sub-genre is dominated by women writers and readers.

However, they may end up being the mystery genre’s salvation. Mystery readers are aging. A fact brought vividly home to me recently when a Facebook ad for my Justinia Wright mystery omnibus was almost totally served to those 65 and over. And in that group, overwhelmingly to women.

The mystery is essentially a puzzle. A problem, the crime, that needs to be solved. It is a riddle, and we want to know the answer.

Which, to my mind, means that for all the sophisticated data gathering equipment available to the professionals, it still takes ratiocination, those little gray cells, to make sense of all the data and determine motive, means, and opportunity.

This fact actually makes the detective story very modern. A part of our ongoing discussion concerning the role of people and machines. The detective story clearly comes down on the people side of the equation.

The detective story is a human story. It is a story about righting wrongs. Wrongs done to people and society at large. The detective story focuses on a small group of people to find a killer and bring that killer to justice. It’s personal. It’s about bringing balance and order to the world of a group of people that has gotten out of balance and lacks order due to the violent crime.

Which is why I do think the mystery will endure. What it will take to bring it back into popularity, I don’t know. But the success of series such as Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder and Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone give me hope. Lots of hope.

We all know the big names of the mystery genre, even if some of us aren’t mystery fans. Next week, though, I’d like to focus on some of the lesser lights and their creators, and even a few of the new kids on the block.

Comments are always welcome, and until next time — happy reading!

Share This!

Mystery vs Thriller

These days the term “thriller” is pretty much used indiscriminately. Indie writers are especially guilty of this abuse, but traditional publishers are in nowise innocent.

I suppose, in order to get us readers to buy books, the term “thriller” is plastered all over the book, used throughout the description, and liberally sprinkled in the advertising. The idea being that the book will “thrill” us. And who doesn’t want a few thrills in life?

But that isn’t at all what a thriller is. At least technically speaking. And if we readers don’t want to read thrillers, it would be very helpful if writers and publishers stopped calling everything a thriller when it isn’t.

Let’s take a look at what constitutes a mystery, a suspense novel, and a thriller.

What Is a Mystery?

A mystery is essentially a puzzle. The form we are most familiar with is the detective novel, which was invented by Edgar Allan Poe and popularized by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In a typical mystery, there is minimal action. The sleuth goes about sleuthing to find the solution to the puzzle, which is some type of crime, usually murder. The detective is not often in danger, although other characters often are.

The suspense is usually minimal — although the author may crank it up near the end of the story.

The mystery novel is more or less an intellectual read. It’s appeal is the solving of the puzzle by the reader before the detective, or enjoying the detective’s process in solving the case. The traditional mystery is definitely not an action-packed read.

Recently I re-read Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout. It’s the first Nero Wolfe mystery.

I was surprised at how little action there was in the book, which was published in 1934. Wolfe, who in some books weighs a seventh of a ton, sits, drinks beer, questions people, tends his orchids, eats, and thinks. That’s it.

Archie Goodwin, Wolfe’s assistant who tells the story, drives from NYC to White Plains numerous times. He questions people for Wolfe, makes wisecrack remarks, gives us his observations, and also thinks about the case.

The only “action” occurs towards the end of the book when Wolfe stages a robbery to get a person to talk. Wolfe’s life is threatened once, also near the end of the book. And Archie punches a cop. That’s it. Definitely not action-packed, although the suspense does ramp up a bit at the end; yet the book is a thoroughly delightful read. Stout achieves this by the use of plenty of humor, interesting characters, and the laying out clues for our consideration.

What Is A Suspense Story?

A story of suspense may be a mystery, but the difference is that the reader knows more than the protagonist. Frequently, the reader knows who the bad guy is long before the good guy does. And because we, the reader, know things the hero doesn’t — suspense is created.

Will the hero realize there is a viper in the basket? Will he or someone else open the basket and get bit? That’s the creation of suspense.

The suspense novel also has a limited scope. The protagonist, the hero or heroine, is the one who’s primarily in danger.

A classic example of the suspense story is Hitchcock’s film North by Northwest. The story is about a man who is mistaken for someone else: a man trying to foil a plot to steal government secrets. Plenty of suspense is generated as the good guy tries to escape the bad guys. Especially because he has no idea who is after him and why.

What Is A Thriller?

At the risk of oversimplification, a thriller is a suspense tale on steroids.

Whereas a suspense novel is generally focused on the protagonist and if he or she will beat the villain, the thriller has much higher stakes. The villain is going to destroy the city, or country, or world. The protagonist must not only stop the villain, but must stop the series of events the villain’s set in motion that will take down the world’s economy, for example.

Thrillers are usually villain-driven. The villain shares the stage with the hero.

A classic example of the thriller is the film Die Hard. We have the villain seize control of a corporation’s headquarters and hold hostage those inside the building, who are at the company Christmas party, in order to steal a fortune in bearer bonds. There is only one man in the building who can stop the villain and save the hostages.

There is plenty of suspense; some mystery, because we don’t know at first what the real goal of the terrorists is; and loads of action. That’s the thriller: suspense, action, and high stakes.

Novels such as The DaVinci Code and The Hunt for Red October raise the stakes even higher.

Mixing It Up

People being who they are, like to mix things up. There may be elements of mystery in both suspense and thriller tales, as noted above, but it isn’t the main element.

There may be plenty of suspense in a thriller, but the nature of what is at stake is different from that in a pure suspense story.

Lee Child, for example, writes what are essentially action novels, even though they are labelled thrillers. The stakes in a Reacher novel are small, at least the ones I’ve read. Either Reacher has to get himself out of a predicament or decides to get someone else out. There is nothing big, like the destruction of the world’s economy, at stake. Which means, technically, the books aren’t thrillers. But in the process of getting out of trouble, there is loads of action. Bodies litter the ground before we close the book. Which makes the books in actuality action novels.

So even though the word “thriller” is applied to Child’s novels by his publisher, they don’t conform to the thriller formula. It is this blurring of distinctions, for the sake of marketing, that in my opinion does a disservice to readers. I guess action novels just don’t sell as well as thrillers.

Popular Tastes

Today the “thriller” — whether the book actually is one or not — is hot. A book labelled a thriller is sure to sell.

Even many writers of detective novels are trying to jump on the thriller bandwagon by ramping up the action and claiming that the “pages turn themselves”, which is of course utter nonsense. And action alone is not the sole hallmark of a thriller anyway.

To my mind, this is a shame. When the thriller reader picks up a mis-identified book, he or she ends up disappointed and may even negatively review it. And the mystery reader will shy away from such books thinking they’re thrillers, when in fact they aren’t.

The quest for the almighty dollar is no excuse, in my mind, to mislead us readers.

I read mysteries because I like the more sedate pace and the intellectual aspects of the story. I don’t particularly like thriller novels because they are often too long and have the inevitable slow spots, which make for boring reading and thus ruins the whole thriller aspect. I’d rather watch a thriller movie, if I’m in the mood for a thriller.

The best part of the indie revolution is that there are far more published authors now then there were pre-Kindle. And while many writers have jumped on the thriller bandwagon, there are also many, who, like me, write the traditional mystery. Some are:

It’s a great day for readers. Many writers — good writers — who would never have been tapped for membership in the hallowed halls of traditional publishing, can now share their gems with us. Writer and reader are all the richer for this new age.

As usual, comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

Share This!

Category: Mysteries

A Free Justinia Wright Mystery

The World of Justinia Wright — Part 2

In the Top 25

Mystery vs Suspense vs Thriller One Reader’s View

More Suggested Reads

Where Have All The Mysteries Gone?

Entangled

The Detective Novel – Some Authors

The Detective Novel

Mystery vs Thriller