Hello crime fiction aficionados,

Do you ever find yourself riding a train or walking to work or waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night wondering, what makes a mystery a mystery? How does horror writing intersect with mystery fiction? Is suspense a subgenre or an element of craft? Is it both? In what ways can mystery writers stretch the genre without breaking the rules readers need? What, now that I’m thinking of this, are the conventions that must be followed?

If so – join me. If not – proceed with caution.

What makes a mystery a mystery?

A lot of other people who are pretty brilliant have written extensively about this. (For more, check out this MWA guide or this CrimeReads article about mystery tropes). A quick google yields all sorts of the collective wisdom about tropes and subgenres and conventions. Otto Penzler defines a mystery as “any work of fiction where a crime or threat of crime is central to the plot or theme.” (For more, you can read his CrimeReads article on subgenres in mystery fiction.)

I’ve heard others espouse to a more purist view, saying that “mystery” without any qualifiers can be interpreted to mean “traditional mystery” (think “Golden Age of Detective Fiction”) which entails a murder (or crime), a detective or investigator, clues, and a villain. Some form of justice is meted out at the end and the dead body is more a necessary detail than a fully developed character. The author of a traditional mystery follows the fair game rules and includes other tools of the genre like MacGuffins and red herrings.

I’m curious – what does mystery mean to you? When you think about your own internal barometer, where do you draw the line? Why?

On Tropes

Foundational to any genre are the often loved, often hated tropes. Tropes are common themes or ideas that recur. In the hands of some, they are clichés. All genre fiction leverages tropes to build the guardrails of the story structure and help readers see the rules of the game. Mystery readers are unique in that we love our rules and we also enjoy a well-done twist.

In mysteries tropes may include but are not limited to: locked rooms in which something bad happens, red herrings, unreliable narrators, MacGuffins, amateur sleuths, femme fatales, a sidekick (think Holmes and Watson, Hastings and Poirot, Rizzoli and Isles, Nero and Archie), morally grey detectives, and the list goes on.

I myself am a fan of classic tropes reimagined, especially noir and hard-boiled tropes that explore gender, identity, and power.

In the hands of exceptional writers, a classic trope can be twisted into something else entirely.

I’m curious – what is your stance on tropes? What are your favorites? What do you avoid? Do you have an author who does something very, very well?

If you’re still with me, I invite you a little deeper into the workings of my brain.

You are welcome.

A Visual Representation of the Intersection of Subgenre and Sleuth

In order to explore some of these ideas, I’ve invested a little too much time in building an X-Y paradigm for some of my favorite characters in a series. I’ve taken common subgenres (running from Cozy to Noir with Traditional roughly in the middle) and run them up the Y axis. The sleuth runs from amateur to professional on the X axis.

(See the image I’ve very thoughtfully included. Again, you’re welcome.)

My Findings

I realized that, while some sleuths may start out as amateurs, the more dead bodies they encounter, the more skilled they become. At what point do we say that Miss Marple, who is featured in 12 novels and 20 short stories, is beyond an “amateur” sleuth? I considered adding arrows to indicate growth over time, but this became messy. And sometimes, there is no growth over time. Sometimes the amateur is static.

Secondly, I had definitive clusters of sleuths at different points. I went through a real crisis when trying to determine if police were to the right or left of private investigators. (I decided on right.)

Finally, my top left quadrant is very empty. I have theories about this. Authors like S.A. Cosby, Morgan Talty, Gabino Iglesias, Megan Abbot, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia have stand alone characters that belong in the upper left quadrant. And I wonder if there is something to be said for the upper left quadrant tiptoeing into other spaces? Maybe horror? Literary Fiction?

Perhaps in another entry, I’ll explore the intersection crime with different genres. Maybe a 3 part Venn diagram comparing Red Harvest to Yojimbo to A Fistful of Dollars? I love to see how arts iterates and ultimately reflects the society in which we live.

If you write, where do your characters live? Lower left? Upper right? Somewhere in between? Who did I miss? Where would you put them on this paradigm? What do you think I got wrong and why?  Are there any other paradigms you think are worth exploring in crime writing?

Thanks for indulging me and hoping to connect again soon,

Gabi