Why aren’t people afraid of reading books about murder?
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
I once developed a wonderful method of killing someone with a tea bag. I was making tea at the time, standing by the sink with a dripping packet of Raspberry Zinger dangling from one hand, when inspiration dawned on me.
“Hey,” I said to my roommate. “I just thought of the greatest way to murder someone with a tea bag.”
After that, I don’t think she was eager to drink tea with me again. But the excuse for my somewhat eccentric line of thought was an overdose. Not, as might be assumed, a tea overdose, but rather a far more dangerous drug: mystery novels.
Author Agatha Christie recently lured me into the genre, and after devouring her I moved on to others without pause. It took about 120 murders or so before I realized how I was entertaining myself. I was whiling away time with death.
If the result of my addiction is a future as an ax murderer, at least I’ll have company. The mystery genre is intensely popular. It may have begun in the 19th century with Edgar Allen Poe’s “Murder in the Rue Morgue,” but the genre is still going strong in the 21st. It’s evolving, too: In the “Library Journal” Random House declared mysteries their most popular audiobooks.
The ever-steady demand for the genre seems odd, given that most mystery novels concern what few want to think about: death.
“The better fictional homicides today are accomplished — like those in real life — by shooting, strangling, stabbing, pushing (off cliffs and buildings and into water), bashing, and poisoning; not necessarily in the order named,” Howard Haycraft writes in “Murder for Pleasure,” a study of the mystery genre.
Writers have quite the menu of murder options, but no matter what the method homicide is still nasty. So why do we revel in doing away with our own kind?
Perhaps the genre’s modern success is rooted in its exploding variety. Today’s mysteries, like magazines, cater to niche demographics. Murder is committed in 17th century Japan and space stations in the future. The detectives are anything from hardened cops to elderly women.
“The mystery genre is just enormous and can satisfy anything you’re looking for,” said Lisa Stockton, a KU student and one of the owners of The Raven bookstore in downtown Lawrence, which specializes in selling mystery novels.
Stockton offers another reason for the genre’s popularity, saying, “There is a grisly aspect to it, but you regain a sense of order and justice” at the end.
The clue to the mystery genre’s success, then, is that ultimately the mystery is always solved. In a mysterious world with few explanations and death perhaps the most inexplicable of all, it’s reassuring to know that at least in mystery novels it will all make sense in the end.
As for my own brilliant murder method, I’ll discuss it with anyone interested over a nice cup of tea.
Blankenau is a Lincoln, Neb., sophomore in journalism and English.
Discussion
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I enjoyed reading your article. I'm a UK Crime Writer of marine mysteries featuring my flawed and rugged DI Horton, and the author of two thrillers and obviously have a long term fascination with the genre. I know from my own reading experience and my reader feedback that what people like is a puzzle to solve, a mystery to pit their wits against, a thrill, lots of action and the psychology of characters. Yes, in fiction justice is indeed served and the results neatly tied up, not like in messy real-life.
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