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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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Barbara Peters As the century draws (nearly) to its close, I find myself redefining "mystery" as "crime novel." The traditional detective story is having a hard time finding an audience, and any market share, in an era of corporate publishing and wide but shallow distribution. Thus the bookseller, and the mystery reader, ever in quest of the well written story, must widen their horizons. They would then find, for example, good crime novels like Joanne Harris, Chocolat (1999); Nicole Mones, Lost in Translation (1998). Few would place these books under the heading mystery, but they have strong crime elements in their plots. By the way, I think one reason for the popularity of the historical mystery, aside from the dearth of historical novels which, I add, are beginning to make a comeback, is that the historical lends itself well to the structure of the detective story. 1999 was a particularly difficult year to capture the good First Novel; these were all over the place in terms of subject, setting, and quality, the whole reflecting ways in which authors and publishers hope to attract an audience in a crowded marketplace by going for something distinctive. I love the different, but fear it may quickly result in the bizarre (along with the banal) dominating the lists. As I have too often said, the time is ripe for smaller publishers using exciting new technologies to both take a chance on something daring, and, equally as important, to cherish the classical mystery forms. I don’t think the core mystery audience will dissipate, but it needs nurturing. Literary cycles go up and down. It’s my perception that the mystery has been so overworked, and is currently being ridden so hard — sometimes in pursuit of an agenda, sometimes to catch the movie brass ring, often to meet pressure of that dreaded demand "break out" — that it can’t help but swing down. Those who love it must keep a persistent stream flowing until the next ride up. Barbara Peters is the owner of the The Poisoned Pen, a bookshop in Scottsdale, Arizona, and of the Poisoned Pen Press. |