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The Drood Review Mystery's Second Century A forum on the future of the genre Original essays Our thoughts Follow-ups This site is copyright (c) 2000-3 by The Drood Review. The Drood Review
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Ted Fitzgerald What of the private eye in the new century? Will the crime fiction character I love the most become obsolete in the new millennium? Assuming that publishing, the mystery story and books themselves survive the rapid-fire assault of technological, economic and social change, I think the private eye story will persevere. It does that well, being among the hardiest and most adaptable of mystery genres. The private eye dropped into this century off the back of the cowboy’s horse and will likely pulse into the next over fiber optic cable. The best PI fiction is vital, entertaining, timely and inspirational, rich in characterization and detail, bearing witness to and reflecting the social, political and criminal customs and changes of its time and place, charged with a sense of discovery as it uses twisty, gingerly unwinding plots to delve into the crimes of the heart as well as the hand, and doing so with a protagonist — hero, rogue, crusader, conscience, wiseass, sometimes a combination of all of them — who is often the sole expediter of justice in a cold, final world and, when that’s impossible, its most articulate mourner. Yes, I have my worries: that too many good writers with stories to tell will be discarded by bottom-line publishers looking for the Next Big Thing; that earlier writers and their works will be dismissed by those readers, writers or reviewers too ignorant, impatient or self-referential to learn from their progenitors; that we’ll see too many books that are a hundred pages too long, or too many books whose authors rely on characterization and minutiae to cover an absence of solid plotting. They don’t overwhelm the field, but I fear they will reproduce and multiply. Despite all that, the PI field is the richest it’s ever been in volume, diversity, voice and approach to storytelling. It’s a remarkable genre that can lay proud claim to both Dashiell Hammett and James Sallis, one whose best storytellers continue to successfully use a venerable form to take us places we’ve never been and make the familiar fresh and invigorating. How will the private eye change in the new millennium? The fun will be in finding out. I think the PI novel will handle the 21st Century just fine. My one hope is that publishers will allow it to do so. |