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Mysteries

This version was saved 15 years, 10 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Tamara Simons
on May 22, 2008 at 12:14:56 pm
 

Definition

Everyone loves a good mystery! It is one of the most popular genres for leisure reading. People love mysteries because they provide a story with a definite storyline, they love the challenge of solving the mystery, they can read about crimes that they could or would never commit themselves, or they can always count on good triumphing over evil. Also, mysteries are just fun - they are pure entertainment. There are several different variations of mysteries. One is detective fiction, where a central character like Sherlock Holmes, solves crimes. Another is suspense fiction, wherein the main character is involved in a roller coaster of adventure as he or she solves the mystery, like James Bond.

 

For a mystery to be successful, certain elements must be present according to Donelson and Nilsen in Literature for Today's Young Adults. It is only fair that the reader knows the same facts surrounding the case that the protagonist does and that he is introduced to all the suspects early on in the story. The fun of a mystery is trying to figure out 'whodunnit', but the reader should never be disappointed by actually being able to figure it out easily or prematurely.

 

History

Mystery has its origins in Gothic romance. Gothic romance was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in England. Most Gothic romances, however, contained elements of the supernatural, taking place in dark settings often involving curious characters with shady pasts.  Often the mysterious nature of the characters and plot created a sense of suspense, which can be said of many modern-day mysteries. 

 

Edgar Allan Poe can be called the first true mystery writer. With a central detective character in The Purloined Letter (1844) and The Murders in  Rue Morgue (1841), he helped lead the way in creating the mystery as a distinct genre. Mystery was not a true genre until around this time.

 

The golden age of the detective story took place nearly a century later in the 1920s. Agatha Christie was a prominent force in the growing popularity of mysteries at this time, writing over eighty novels. She is known for her two female crime solvers, Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. At this same time, Dorothy L. Sayers created the detective Lord Peter Wimsey. In the 1930s and 1940s the mystery craze was sweeping the United States thanks to Ellery Queen, the pseudonym of two cousin co-writers, Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay. Ellery Queen produced thirty-three novels during this time.

 

Other variations of the mystery genre appeared during the golden age. Tough guy detectives appeared in what are labeled Black Mask or hard-boiled fiction. Perry Mason was created at this time by Erle Stanley Gardner.

In the 1930s the quirky detective appeared, led by Charlie Chan, an oriental crime solver created by Earl Der Bigger. Another tough guy, Mike Hammer, was created by Mickey Spillane in the 1940s. Also in the forties, the police procedural formula appeared. In these, the mystery is presented from the police point of view with descriptions of the detailed procedures followed at the crime scene.

                                                                                                                                                                 

Well-known Mystery Writers

Most everyone can name a few of the most famous mystery writers of all times - Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Ian Fleming (James Bond), and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes is the poster boy for the genre. Today, there are many authors who write mysteries and it is still one of the most popular genres for leisure reading today. Sue Grafton, Lois Duncan, Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts are just a few of the more recognizable names.

 

James Patterson is one of the bestselling mystery writers of modern times. He has sold over 150 million books, thirty-nine of them bestsellers. He created two of the bestselling detective series of the last ten years - The Alex Cross series and the Women's Murder Club series. Patterson's first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery. Patterson is the founder of the James Patterson PageTurner Awards, with which he gives away monetary prizes to people and organizations promoting reading.

 

Sue Grafton is very well-known for her Alphabet Series( A is for Alibi, N is for Noose, T is for Trespass, etc.) featuring Kinsey Millhone as the private investigator. She is nothing like her famous protagonist, who is twice divorced and was orphaned at a young age. Grafton has been married for twenty years and has three children and two grandchildren. She was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Her mother taught high school chemistry and married her high school sweetheart, who worked in Louisville as an attorney. Grafton has written many mysteries, several of which have been made into movies. Her books have been translated into twenty-six different languages, a true testament to the popularity of mysteries.

 

Another big name in the mysteries genre is Nora Roberts who is just as well known for her pseudonym J.D. Robb. As J.D. Robb she wrote the very popular Innocent in Death series, a police procedural, about NYPD lieutenant Eve Dallas. She started the series as a three-title experiment, but it has grown to twenty-five books. Eighteen of those have been on the bestseller list. Roberts was born in Silver Springs, Maryland, the youngest of five children, all the rest boys. She was always a reader. After working briefly as a legal secretary, she became a stay-at-home mom with her two little boys. During a blizzard in 1979, she picked up a pencil and notebook to keep from going stir crazy and so began her prolific writing career.      

                                                                         

Joan Lowery Nixon is a popular children's mystery writer. She has written over 130 books for children ranging from kindergarten age to young adult. Perhaps she writes for children because she has four of her own. She is the only writer to have received the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Juvenile Mystery four times. Nixon comes from California and Texas and studied journalism in college. She grew up loving mystery. She recalls listening to a radio program, I Love a Mystery, as a child which set her on her career path. She says that writing mysteries is even more fun than reading them.

 

Mary Higgins Clark is another name associated with the mystery genre. She has a BA in philosophy, which she says helps when writing mysteries. Like many of the other writers discussed thus far, she stayed home with her five children. She had always dreamed of being a writer so when she got married she quit her job as an international stewardess to stay at home and she took writing classes at NYU. She was writing short stories until her publisher told her to write a book. Her first book was a biographical novel about George Washington. She thought of it as an accomplishment but wanted her next book to sell better. So she looked at her bookshelves to see what interested her and saw Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. Writing mysteries was a natural choice. She has written twenty mysteries and all of her books except for the first one about George Washington have been bestsellers. 

 

Popular books with synopsis

Richard Peck is another well-known mystery author. One of his most notable books is Are You in the House Alone? Gail Osborne is the main character who receives a series of threatening and obscene telephone calls. The book deals with the loneliness and fear associated with the aftermath of rape. Osborne is austracized by her friends in the small suburban Connecticut community where she is stalked.

 

Black Mirror by Nancy Werlin is another mystery for young adults. Werlin is a past winner of the Edgar Award. In the book, 16 year old France Leventhal and her brother Daniel attend a preppy boarding school thanks to a scholarship from the charitable school organization Unity. But after her brother dies of a drug overdose, she begins to question his association with Unity and is convinced that his death was not really a suicide but a murder.

 

Yet another YA mystery is Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan. This is a mystery, but with supernatural undertones due to the inclusion of the topic of astral projection. The 17 year old central character thinks she is being spied on. It turns out to be her twin sister Lia who is projecting herself into Laurie's life to wreak havoc on it. The two were separated at birth, Laurie being adopted and Lia growing up in a series of foster homes. The mystery here is not 'who dunnit' but rather where Laurie's true loyalties lie. 

 

John Grisham, the king of the thriller, has written several mysteries, including The Brethren. The brethren are three judges who are in a low security prison for committing white-collar crimes. Inside the jail they run a mail scam in which they blackmail wealthy gay men. Congressman Anthony Lake, up to no good himself, becomes one of their targets. A complex plot keeps the reader enthralled although in this book everyone is corrupt and there is no good guy.

 

Where are the Children? is the first mystery novel written by Mary Higgins Clark. Nancy Harmon is on trial at the beginning of the book for the murder of her children. She is freed because of a technicality - one of the main witnesses flees the country. She moves across the country, changes her identity, remarries, and has two more children. The mystery begins when she looks out the window one day and finds that her children have disappeared and she is being framed for their murder.

 

Resources

"About James Patterson: A Biography." 21 Oct. 2007. James Patterson The Official Website. 2008. Hachette Book Group      USA. 7 May 2008<http://www.jamespatterson.com/about_biography.html>

 

Donelson, Kenneth L., and Alleen Pace Nilsen. Literature for Today's Young Adults. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2005.

 

"Gothic Romance." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. 2007. Bartleby.com. 7 May 2008

      <http://www.bartleby.com/65/go/Gothicro.html>

 

 Grafton, Sue. Sue Grafton. 2008. 7 May 2008<http://www.suegrafton.com>

 

Haycraft, Howard, and John Beecroft, eds. A Treasury of Great Mysteries. Garden City: NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1957.

 

"History of the Mystery." MysteryNet.com. 2005. MysteryNet and Newfront Productions. 7 May 2008.

     <http://www.mysterynet.com/timeline/timeline.shtml>

 

Landrum, Larry N. "Mystery, suspense, and detective fiction." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 2 May 2008

     <http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0202700-07>

 

Magill, Frank N. Cyclopedia of World Authors. 4th ed. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2004.

 

Roberts, Nora. Nora Roberts. 2008. 8 May 2008<http://www.noraroberts.com>

 

"Spotlight on... Joan Lowery Nixon." Teachers at Random. 2004. Random House Children's Books. 8 May 2008.

     <http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/authors/results.pperl?authorid=22240>

 

Weich, Dave. "Mary Higgins Clark Reveals: 'Pan Am was the airline.'" 13 May 1999. Powell's Books. 2008.

     8 May 2008<http://www.powells.com/authors/higginsclark.html>

 

 

 

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