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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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Susan Oleksiw First, I think mysteries and detective fiction will enter the mainstream, in the same way that Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone was a mainstream novel. Second, I think there will be two tiers of crime fiction. The first will be of work as good as Collins’ novels, giving full consideration to the requirements of the genre and treating it with respect; the second tier will continue to be filled with the god-awful stuff that is written by people desperate to be published and read by people who are hoping for a good read and instead get a breathless chase to the end, where they are invariably disappointed. Crime fiction is due to be accepted as one more type of fiction used by good writers to explore ideas and human behavior, just as writers use the coming of age novel, the adventure story, the domestic novel, or the road story to deal with certain themes. There’s no reason for crime fiction to be the "only" type of fiction mystery writers write, and no reason for so-called mainstream writers not to write a mystery now and then. We can’t all be as prolific as Joyce Carol Oates, but we can certainly appreciate her sense of inclusiveness. Part of this requires a maturing of the perspective of readers and publishers, as well as writers, and I certainly think we have arrived. |