Who doesn’t enjoy working a puzzle to a satisfying ending? That written, I have to confess I’m not a big fan of puzzles. I enjoy mahjong and I play chess and that is about the extent of my puzzle solving endeavors. So why do I enjoy reading mysteries? A good question that.
I have to confess, when it comes to mysteries, I’m pretty fussy. They pretty much need to be private detective stories told in the first person by the “Watson”. Third person narrative puts me right off. I’ll accept a story told by the detective in the first person. It’s just that it bugs the life out of me when he or she says he or she knows who did it but it won’t tell us.
The other thing I’m fussy about when it comes to mysteries, is that I don’t care a fig about the mystery. We all know the detective is going to solve the crime. So big deal. No matter how puzzling, the detective will undo Gordian Knot.
What I find fascinating is the detective him or herself. If he or she isn’t an interesting person, then the author has lost me. That’s because any story I read must have interesting characters who deal with the nitty-gritty of life. Machinations of plot hold no interest for me. It’s the people. After all, isn’t it people who make life interesting? And if people make life interesting, it is also people who make fiction interesting as well.
So if I don’t particularly like puzzles, why do I write mysteries? After all mysteries are considered to be literary puzzles. I write mysteries because crime and murder are part of life. The dark side of people interacting with people. Macbeth murders the king and sets off a chain of events. We know he won’t get away with it. What interests us is how his life falls apart.
We know Sherlock Holmes will solve the problem. What’s interesting is his interaction with Watson, the suspects, and how he goes about collecting clues.
When I watch a movie directed by Yasujiro Ozu, there is barely any plot to speak of. What’s of interest is the interaction of the characters and how they go about attempting to solve whatever is the problem in the story. And the problem is usually rather mundane.
For me, writing a mystery is no different than writing any other novel. I either start out with the characters or I start out with a scene and then people it. Then, as Ray Bradbury advised, I let my characters do their thing and the result is the story.
In writing my forthcoming Justinia Wright mystery, But Jesus Never Wept, I started with a scene: Tina and Harry’s client has just been murdered by seppuku, Japanese ritual suicide. That is what I started with. Along the way my daughter told me about the Yakuza, Japanese organized crime, I liked the color it could provide, and it entered into the story. How the Yakuza fit in I wasn’t sure, but figured that’s Tina’s job. She’s the detective, after all. I was over halfway through the book and had pretty much exhausted my list of characters before I figured out who did the murder and why. I was on pins and needles wondering if I’d finish the tale without solving the murder. Not really. Because Tina gets the culprit. It’s what detectives do.
Near the end of my short story “Minneapolis’ Finest”, Tina tells Harry:
“First off, Harry, you read too many mystery novels. Every case in those books is a complex puzzle and things blow up and people are being murdered left and right. Real detective work is, for the most part, dull routine. Boring even. If mystery writers wrote what really happened, they wouldn’t sell a damn thing. Cozies are the worst. I pray to God you don’t read cozies.”
“I don’t.”
“Good. Detective work is dull routine mostly because criminals are dull and boring twits with big egos.”
And I think that is very much the case. Real crime is boring. Therefore mysteries, to be interesting, are for the most part fantasy. Fictional murders are complicated, done by a mastermind for nefarious ends. No mystery writer writes about a normal murder. If they did, who’d read it?
Because most mystery readers are looking for the puzzle aspect, I don’t specifically call my mysteries “mysteries”. Justinia Wright is a private detective. The books are subtitled “A Justinia Wright, PI Novel”. The focus is on her as a person, not the puzzle. I think of it as I’m writing character-driven private eye stories.
In some ways I see The Maltese Falcon as the model. The Maltese Falcon is full of interesting characters, none of them, including Spade, are particularly likable. I think the mystery itself is weak, overshadowed by the MacGuffin. Did Brigid really kill Spade’s partner? Or did Spade just throw her under the bus? The story is a classic not because of the plot, the puzzle, in my opinion, but due to the interesting characters. And that’s why I read mysteries. And write them, too.
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Interesting post. I’ve not really read many mysteries other than Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie (not really a fan of Poirot) and Poe’s fantastic Dupin ‘trilogy’.
I’m curious about the Yakuza within your story and would be interested to see how you handled them. I once shared a hot spring and a couple of beers on a snow-covered mountain in Oita with two members of the Yakuza (down for the New Year from Osaka).
I like the focus you put on the detective themselves rather than the mystery. I imagine that could work. Hmm. You’ve given me an idea for a mystery-themed story that I am going to have to jot down right this minute… cheers! 🙂
How very interesting: having a couple beers with Yakuza members. Did they have tattoos?
I think the detective is what makes the mystery. If the detective isn’t interesting, then it’s just a plot with no people. Boring.
Get going on that mystery-themed idea! I want to see what you come up with.
They did indeed…
It had just turned 2010 and I was with a colleague who grew up in the region and knew the best spots. We hiked up to the springs through the snow, stripped off, and hopped into the steaming water. About half an hour later, some others came along, but saw us there and moved on to another place.
Not long after, two more came along. They decided to stay and promptly hopped in the other side. I think they were just curious because I was a foreigner and I had an unusual tattoo on my shoulder. They had full back prints from calf to neck. The younger one had a similar design, but it looked somewhat incomplete.
They produced a few cans of Kirin from a carrier bag and offered us each one. My friend took his reluctantly. Neither spoke much English and my Japanese at the time was largely non-existent. They chatted on and off with my friend and threw the occasional question at me regarding football and music (seeing the t-shirt I’d left with my clothes).
After the better part of an hour, my friend suggested we make our way back. He had grown increasingly uncomfortable and even though my Japanese was basic, his answers seemed hesitant. The two men behaved largely nonchalant throughout and barely said anything when we left other than a simple wave despite my friends deep bowing for the beers they’d shared.
On our way back down the mountain, my friend seemed eager to get home. When I enquired, he told me who the two men were and that they had been asking questions about him and his business. They were low-level Yakuza at best. Nothing special, but they had certainly made him uncomfortable. As an outsider, the effect was more curiosity.
To me, they were just two blokes taking a break and enjoying a beer during the new year holiday.
Fascinating story! All I can say is if I was a business owner and they were asking questions I’d be very nervous. Thinking about “protection” money and all.