The other day, a visitor asked me a question that I did not entirely know how to answer: why does Skidompha have so many mysteries in our collection? At the time, the only response I had to offer was: well, people like them. But I have been thinking about it in the meantime, and have decided to delve a little deeper. I myself am an avid reader (and watcher, and listener) of mysteries, and have been for most of my life. But why? What is it about mysteries that is so enjoyable?
Let’s look a little at the history of mysteries. While the early nineteenth century was rife with stories, plays, and songs referencing violence and murder, most literary historians will point to specifically the 1860s as the birth of the genre, citing The Notting Hill Mystery (written and serialized by Charles Felix from 1862 through 1863), Revelations of a Lady Detective (William Stephens Hayward, 1864), and – most prominently – The Moonstone (published by Wilkie Collins in 1868). These stories each had aspects of what would later become the standards of the genre, marking a shift away from the gothic and melodrama and more towards true detective stories. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published “A Study in Scarlet” in 1887, and gave the world Sherlock Holmes, the idea of the detective hero found its throne as one of the key archetypes of English-language literature.
But even Sherlock Holmes didn’t fully codify the mystery genre. We the audience are, like Doctor Watson, simply there to marvel at the Great Detective’s mental prowess. We take his leaps of logic and sudden reveals for the fun flourishes that they are, but can’t replicate them ourselves. It wasn’t until 1920, and the publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, that a then thirty-year-old Agatha Christie made the biggest shift in mystery writing: she invited us to play along.
And that really is the main feature of mysteries, from the so-called “Golden Age of Detective Fiction” (1920-1940, roughly) to the modern day, isn’t it? They are, in some ways, like literary puzzles, but with narrative and emotion.
In 1928, author S. S. Van Dine published “20 Rules for Writing Detective Stories” and laid out the framework for the genre as we know it today. The detective story was, he wrote, “a kind of intellectual game.” Therefore, for it to be played fairly, everyone needed to be playing by the same rules. The first, and most important, was: “The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.”
Some of Van Dine’s rules have long since been thrown out (such as #3: “There must be no love interest. The business in hand is to bring a criminal to the bar of justice, not to bring a lovelorn couple to the hymeneal altar.” which is ignored so regularly by mystery authors that I could fill a whole letter just listing examples; or #4: “The detective himself, or one of the official investigators, should never turn out to be the culprit.” which may still get people calling foul, but is not an un-heard-of plot twist). In 1930, a group of British mystery authors (including Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton, and Dorothy L. Sayers, just to name a few) formed a group called The Detection Club, and brought the rules down to a mere ten (referred to as “Knox’s Commandments” in honor of Ronald Knox, who wrote them down). Some of these rules unfortunately reflect the racism of the British Empire. Some of them make me laugh (#3 is simply: “Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable”). Most are simply entreaties to play fair (#8 “The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader”).
Sometimes the fun comes entirely from playing with, and even subverting, the expectations of the genre. Agatha Christie herself regularly threw out the rules. Josephine Tey, another luminary of the Gold Age, once wrote an entire novel (The Franchise Affair) built around proving that a crime had not happened at all. More recently, books like Christopher Huang’s A Gentleman’s Murder or movies like Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series have given us brilliant and entertaining homages to the Golden Age, while forcing us to view them from a different angle. Both writers make us question whose perspectives we privilege in our mysteries, and what we accept as justice. On top of that, and likely also because of it, they are still exceedingly satisfying mysteries!
I’m not sure I can fully answer why so many of us love mysteries so much. I can offer theories, and point to the sheer number of them published and produced every year to illustrate their popularity, but that’s not an answer. It’s a fun game, with a long modern history, and likely a long future. Familiarity and longevity have not made the mystery genre stale – they have given us a rich tradition to play in and explore. Mysteries let us explore the darker sides of humanity in a safe and mediated way, wherein the people who do bad things are recognized and exposed, and the people who do good find the answers. They offer a sensible, orderly universe. They’re fun intellectual exercises. And, to fall back on a meme: “I just think they’re neat.”
Stay curious, friends.
Meghan
Meghan Hawkes
Skidompha Public Library