Mystery and Suspense

Notes

Mrs. Kinney

Basic Definition

• Subgenre of narrative fiction; often thought of as detective fiction

• Usually involves a mysterious death or crime to be solved– Each suspect must have a credible motive– Central character is usually a “detective” who

solves a crime

Tip-Offs to Mystery Genre

• Mystery, crime or puzzle to be solved• Main character who is a detective and sets out

to solve a crime• Suspects and motives• Overt clues presented• Hidden evidence• Suspense• Foreshadowing• Red herrings—kind of foreshadowing clue that

leads readers to false conclusions

Elements Common to Most Mysteries

• Law enforcement• Crime• Weapon (s)• Settings (i.e. haunted houses, city streets,

deserted areas, dark streets, alleys, warehouses, etc.)

• Mood setters (foggy nights, cemeteries, creaking gates, footsteps, thunder, wind, screams, blood, etc.)

• Key words (alibi, motive, clues, evidence, victim, sleuth, witness, suspect, red herrings, etc.)

Sub-Genres

• Amateur detective—protagonist is someone who does not solve crimes for a living

• British-mystery set in England• Comic—makes you laugh about the crime• Cozy—amateur detective with a few more rules

—no overt violence, very little or no bad language, no overt sex, set in small town, nothing bad happens to anyone good

• Hard-boiled—criminal tends to be the protagonist rather than the crime fighter. Has lots of bad language, graphic violence, and general examination of society’s underbelly.

• Historical—set in a time period substantially earlier that when first published; often have real people and/or events in the background and may be well researched

• Noir—hard-boiled with a few more rules; set in the 1940s or 50s; the men are disenchanted, disillusioned, corrupt or down on their luck; the women are completely loyal, dutiful, loving and plain or completely self-centered, manipulative, mysterious and gorgeous

• Police Procedural—protagonist is normally a police detective; Urban settings, dark humor, hard working, street-smart police populate these stories. Also includes profilers, medical examiners, forensic anthropologists, etc.

• Private Detective—protagonist is a private detective

• Romantic—must have a romantic storyline between the two main characters (not just a “love interest” for the main character) and the romantic storyline must be given page-time roughly equal to the mystery storyline

• Supernatural—anything from ghosts to psychics to time-traveling detectives

• Traditional/Classic—puzzle is presented to the reader at the beginning. The plot follows a fairly straight path, strewn with clues, to the solution of the puzzle

History

• Edgar Allan Poe introduced fiction’s first fictional detective in 1841 (birth of mystery as we know it): Auguste C. Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”

• Acknowledged as the father of the mystery story• http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/search/

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• “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is the most famous example of a mystery style known as the locked room (a murder victim is found inside an apparently sealed enclosure and the detective’s challenge is to discover the murderer’s reasoning)

Wickie Collins

• 1858—”The Unknown Public” (essay) suggested readers read more to reflect the changing pace in society; the rising literacy rates combined with more leisure time contributed greatly to the popularity of novels and mysteries in particular

Anna Katherine Green

• 1878—first woman to write a detective novel—The Leavenworth Case

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• Sherlock Holmes character had a distinct style and flair for deducing clues

• Reliable sidekick: Dr. Watson

British Mysteries

• 1920s-British mysteries became popular with the introduction of the cozy mystery

Golden Age

• Also in the 1920s

• Time of growing prosperity in England and America

• Popularity of mystery at all time high

Agatha Christie

• Wrote more than 80 novels

• Career spanned more than 50 years

• Probably the best known mystery writer in history

• Wrote novels about her famous Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (some of these stories can still be seen on A&E)

Dorothy Sayers

• Famous character—Lord Peter Wimsey

• His style and intelligence won over many readers

Penguins

• Developed by Allen Lane and his 2 brothers

• During height of Golden Age• Paperback line issued in 1935 with only 10

titles but quickly grew to 70 titles within a year

• Easily accessible to the public due to their much lower cost and availability in department stores

1930s and 1940s

• American detective fiction reached its peak

Ellery Queen

• Pseudonym for cousins Mandfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay

• 1929-introduced detective named Ellery who worked with his father Richard Queen

• Drury Lane was introduced into the mix in 1932

Hard-Boiled Fiction

• Also known as Black Mask fiction

• Developed in the 1920s with rise of magazines known as pulps

• Most famous was Black Mask

• Originally published adventure stories of all kinds but eventually devoted itself to detective fiction

Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett

• Popular authors in the pulps

• Hammett’s character Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon)

• Chandler’s character Philip Marlowe

Charlie Chan

• 1930s

• Quirky character who used the sage of the Orient to solve crimes

• Introduced by Earl Derr Bigger

Erle Stanley Gardner

• Perry Mason—main character

• First introduced in 1933

• Crime-solving attorney

• His friend, detective Paul Drake, and secretary, Della Street, helped him

• Went head-to-head with District Attorney Hamilton Burger

Mickey Spillane

• 1947

• Book called I, The Jury

• Mike Hammer was main character

• Strong emphasis on sex and violence

• Appealed mostly to male readers

The Shadow

• 1940s

• Radio shows took off and became very popular

• Most famous radio mystery

New Genres

• television– Murder, She Wrote (Jessica Fletcher)– Hawaii 5-O– Kojak– Hill Street Blues– Columbo (Lt. Columbo)– The Rockford Files (Jim Rockford)– Law and Order– CSI– Etc.

Contemporary Authors

• Patricia Cornwell

• Tess Gerritsen

• Lisa Jackson

• Robin Cook

• Sue Grafton

• Robert B. Parker

• James Patterson

Children’s Mysteries

• Nancy Drew

• The Hardy Boys

• Encyclopedia Brown

• The Goosebump Series by R.L. Stine

Common Vocabulary

• Case—a matter requiring investigation• Victim—the person negatively affected by a

mysterious event or crime• Clue—something that appears to give

information toward solving a crime• Sleuth-person who investigates a crime or

mysterious event• Evidence—someone or something that proves

who committed a crime or was involved in the mysterious event

• Suspect—person who appears to have a motive to have committed the crime

• Witness—person who has personal knowledge about the crime or event

• Alibi—evidence offered by a suspect to prove they were not at the scene of the crime

• Deduction—collecting facts and using them to draw a conclusion

• Mood—state of mind or feeling

• Motive—thought or feeling that makes one act; incentive

Suspense• Hitchcock says suspense bears no relationship to fear.

Instead, it is the state of waiting for something to happen.

• Crucial to the Hitchcockian thriller is the difference between suspense and surprise. To put it simply, the director said that if you have a scene where two characters are conversing in a cafe, and a bomb suddenly goes off under the table, the audience experiences surprise. On the other hand, if the audience sees the saboteur place the bomb, is told that it will go off at one o'clock, and can see a clock in the scene, the mundane conversation between two cafe patrons now becomes one of intense suspense, as the audience holds its collective breath waiting for the explosion. Fifteen minutes of suspense, as opposed to fifteen seconds of surprise. It was therefore necessary, to Alfred Hitchcock, that the audience be as fully informed as possible

• Based on this principle, the suspense thriller has been loosely defined as a story in which the audience is waiting for something significant to happen. The protagonist's job is to prevent the speeding bus from exploding, or the aliens from eating the crew. The reader experiences a vicarious thrill by identifying with the hero and the danger he faces, becoming a participant in the chase.

• A mystery, on the other hand, is a novel of revelation, with action more mental than physical. A significant event, usually a murder, has just occurred, and the protagonist's job is to discover who committed the crime, and why. The dilemma created for the writer of traditional mysteries is the fact that the villain and the details of the crime must remain unidentified, breaking Hitchcock's rule of keeping the audience informed.

Crime Fiction Requirements

• Must be fiction. Names, places and events may be real, but the plot is fictitious. True crime is not a sub-category.

• Must be a crime

• Must be an investigative process

• Must be a solution for the crime

Detective Fiction

• Typically has a recurring character who is usually the investigator

• Classic example is the Private Eye—normally fall into the sub-genres hard-boiled and soft-boiled

• Cozy is a popular form—normally has a non-professional detective

• Police-procedurals fit in this category too

Arc-of-Suspense

• Suspense drives fiction. Arcs stretch suspense. An arc-of-suspense is the technique of making the reader aware of what will happen next and teasing him/her with the possibilities.

Types of Acrs

• Secrecy and mystery• Unfinished scene• Time pressure arc (beating the clock)• Arc to the next chapter• Incidental arc• Arc of the bizarre• Hubris arc (extreme ego)• Arc of fate• Arc of justice• Arc of mistaken identity• Arc of one hidden prohibition