Wednesday, November 21: Tune It or Die!
THE RETREAT FROM MYSTERY
by Robert Lopresti
I want to raise a delicate subject today. Has anyone noticed that some of our best mystery writers have stopped writing mysteries?
I could name half a dozen of my favorites who have abandoned their series characters for one-off “novels of suspense.”
Generalizing wildly, let me say that a mystery is a book in which the main character pursues an unknown villain. A suspense novel is one in which the main character is pursued by a — typically — known villain.
As you can probably tell, this bugs me. I don’t generally enjoy suspense novels. Sure, I could list exceptions … but I can’t think of a single suspense novel by a former mystery writer that I liked better than their “category” mysteries.
No mystery why there’s no mystery
I know the reason for the change, of course. Suspense novels sell better. I don’t know why they sell better, however. It’s tempting to say that mysteries appeal to the brain and suspense appeals to the gut. But I’m not here to go genre-bashing.
What’s the proper name for this type of book? Suspense, thriller, blockbuster? Donald E. Westlake said — way back in 1977 — that when you see: “an ad for a book, it says the book is a blockbuster, that means it’s a category crime novel – usually forty thousand words too fat — breaking for the big money.”
There is a brand new organization called International Thriller Writers and I guess that means that they see themselves as doing something different from the mystery writers, too.
The Disappearing Lady Disappears
One of my favorite authors, Thomas Perry, used to blur the lines with some of his books. I guess they were suspense novels that felt like mysteries. They had a series hero, Jane Whitefield, a supporting cast, and a set of crimes to be solved, bad guys to be caught.
But in some ways Jane was the anti-detective, Instead if catching criminals she helped them escape. As one character says in Dance For The Dead, the best of the series, Jane will help “if a person is in trouble — not the kind of trouble where the cops take them to court, but the kind where the cops find their head in a Dumpster.” She called herself a guide and she guides you to a place where the bad guys can’t find you.
There are five books about Jane Whitefield and in each one she faces more impossible odds. (In the first book she is battling one bad guy; in the last she is up against the whole mob.) I understand Perry, in a fit of realism, planned to kill her in the last book, but the publisher talked him out of it.
And now he is writing one-off suspense novels. Oh well. I hope they make a lot of people happy. I’ll go look for a mystery.
Have you considered that writers might choose to write a one-off because they feel penned in by their series? I would imagine that writing a series character could get very boring after a while. Probably to a point where the writer feels like he could sleepwalk his way through the story. As a reader I usually find that by the fifth book in a series, I’m almost as bored as the writer. Writers need to strech their writing muscles by trying something different. Some in other genres, others by using new characters. Writers need to explore new places and new styles so they can grow. Accusing them of doing it for the money because they “sell better” is belittling to the author who is writing something different to improve his skills, who is trying to stretch the boundaries of what he knows.
As short story writers we do that every time we sit down to write. We write in different genres, we experiment with styles, we stretch the boundariers with each story we write. Why not afford the novelist the same luxury?
Rob, I’m with you. Some who write about the current ascendency of thrillers seem to think they are onto something new, but there’s nothing in the contemporary thriller that doesn’t have roots in earlier crime fiction. It’s just done (as Westlake pointed out) at greater and usually unnecessary length. I have nothing against the International Thriller Writers, which includes some very good people, but giving their first two lifetime achievement awards to Clive Cussler and James Patterson doesn’t evince much commitment to quality prose. As for whether series writers’ standalones are a desire to stretch their wings or a response to commercial pressures, I suspect it’s more often the latter, but who’s to know? We can only judge them by the quality of their work.
Many authors who write a series mystery are not getting picked up by their publishers. So they go to the suspense/thriller/romance whatever.
I agree with Jon. The mystery field still has some of the best writers. In all honesty I’m surprised at the level of writing by some, not all, “thriller” writers. But why am I surprised anymore.
One of the ideas behind forming ITW was to bring more attention to thrillers and it has certainly done that.
I think it happens in all genre. Romance used to be romance, with the writer or reader picking how far they can take it and still have “romance.” Now you have to make it with vampires, wolves, aliens of some sort, OR go to church and find it there. Then there is extremely close to porn, now called erotica. I wonder at times what happened, then I remember it is crying all the way to the bank. True form genre lovers (and writers) find themselves frustrated.
Well, Rob, I agree with you! I’m not sure about whether I’m being an apologist for mysteries, but I do admit to liking plain old mysteries where justice is served in the end and the reader participates in the process of finding the villain. I have a tape of P. D. James giving a seminar at a Montreal university. I like what she had to say about the history of mysteries: That in part, they helped to keep a society civil and aware of the consequences for bad actions, much like the old morality plays did. For me, ttoday’s hrillers and suspense novels seem to have an excess of action, chases or tiresome scenes serving more as filler than substance.
Just my perspective.
Best to you,
Pat H.
Good to hear from you, Pat. Long time and all that.
My sneaking suspicion is that the appeal of the traditional mystery is that when someone is found guilty the reader is grateful to be found innocent. But then,I was raised Catholic.
Cheers.