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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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Deborah Tuttle The broadening of the mystery genre has been positive on the whole. By keeping pace with the changes in society the mystery story has remained fresh and imaginative while appealing to an expanding base of readers. This will be a strong point in favor of its survival in the new century, when more and more distractions eat into our leisure time. In the last few years there has been a disturbing trend by several publishing houses to desert their mid-list mystery writers. However, from the small signs I’ve seen, I think there will be an about face in the future. These signs include things such as a decision by a major house to reprint out of print mysteries; TV programs, such as PBS’s Mystery, that create a demand for mystery writers the general public may not be aware of; and the still-in-its-infancy books on demand technology, which will keep alive many more mystery writers than ever before by its ability to produce a single copy of a title inexpensively and as needed. The champions of the mystery genre have little to fear and much to hope for in the coming century. Perhaps there will even be another Golden Age of mystery, with even more diversity. Deborah Tuttle is a salesperson with Simon & Schuster. |