Why do people read detective stories? Edmund Wilson posed this question in a 1944 New Yorker essay. He went on to say that since Sherlock Holmes there hadn’t really been anything worthwhile published in that genre. He had nothing nice to say about Agatha Christie and his comment on Dashiell Hammett was this: “‘The Maltese Falcon’ … seems not much above those newspaper picture strips in which you follow from day to day the ups and downs of a strong-jawed hero and a hardboiled but beautiful adventuress.”
Wilson dismisses contemporary detective fiction as being a reaction to guilt and fear of the years between WWI and WWII. “Nobody seems guiltless, nobody seems safe; and then, suddenly, the murderer is spotted, and—relief!—he is not, after all, a person like you or me. He is a villain—known to the trade as George Gruesome—and he has been caught by an infallible Power, the supercilious and omniscient detective, who knows exactly how to fix the guilt.” Of course, detective fiction and mystery fiction in general has thrived since Wilson dismissed it as not worthy his time. Today, there are more sub-genres than ever.
It was a pleasure interviewing fellow author Sharon Dean on my radio show last Friday. Sharon is the author of the Susan Warner mysteries and a member of my writing group. She grew up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. From Massachusetts, it was a small leap to the University of New Hampshire and a degree in English. When her husband was assigned to Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, she seized the opportunity to enter graduate school at UNH.
into the mindset of the novel, I read or re-read all of my favorite Southern novelists among whom are Pat Conroy, John Hart, Flannery O’Connor, Fannie Flagg, and Zora Neal Hurston, just to name a few. Plus, being a researcher by trade, I researched cave diving and actual cases of divers drowning in the caves. I listened and watched the people and customs of locals with the ardor of an anthropologist (Margaret Mead would’ve been my best friend). I read the history of the area, including a 1948 novel, Seraph on the Suwannee by famed novelist Zora Neal Hurston. I frequently kayaked the Suwannee, tubed down Itchtuknee Springs, and listened to locals’ tales about the history of the area. I read books about the Florida laws and dangers of underwater cave diving, conducted Internet research, and interviewed local expert dive outfitters about the technical aspects of their underwater treks.