Talking About Detective Fiction
If you were going to write a mystery, where would you start? The body? The murder weapon? The detective? P.D. James starts with the setting. 鈥淢y own detective novels, with rare exceptions, have been inspired by the place rather than by a method of murder or a character;...鈥� she writes in her new work of nonfiction, Talking About Detective Fiction.
鈥淒evices and Desires,鈥� for example, was born on a deserted shingle beach in Britain鈥檚 East Anglia, when James turned her head and saw a nuclear power plant in the distance. Fans of Baroness James鈥檚 20 novels will be rewarded by plenty of such insights into how she approaches her chosen profession, as well as some intelligent and well-read discussion of a genre that has perhaps never been more popular.
That popularity may stem from our own uncertain times, James posits, since the mystery novel surges in popularity during periods of unrest, promising a restoration of order through human reason and ingenuity. 鈥淲hether we live in a more violent age than did, for example, the Victorians is a question for statisticians and sociologists, but we certainly feel more threatened by crime and disorder than at any other time I remember in my long life,鈥� James writes in her conclusion. 鈥淭he detective story deals with the most dramatic and tragic manifestations of man鈥檚 nature and the ultimate disruption of murder, yet the form itself is orderly, controlled, formulaic, providing a secure structure within which the imaginations of writer and reader alike can confront the unthinkable.鈥�
At just over 200 pages, 鈥淭alking About Detective Fiction鈥� reads like a master class on British mysteries, with heavy emphasis on the Golden Age (roughly defined as the years between World Wars I and II). Since there are few living mystery writers more widely respected than James, it鈥檚 hard to imagine a better guide.
In case that sounds too heavy for holiday reading, James also includes a collection of witty cartoons that will delight mystery fans and inspire them to make T-shirts. (Under a picture of a butler bearing a tray, the caption reads, 鈥淵our red herring. My Lord.鈥�)
The jacket copy overstates its case, claiming that James 鈥渆xamines the genre from top to bottom.鈥� Well, hardly. At 200 pages, James couldn鈥檛 have covered the whole of the wide-ranging field if she had used all her pages to simply list titles.
What she does is retrace the genre鈥檚 beginnings with William Godwin鈥檚 鈥�Caleb Williams鈥� and Wilkie Collins鈥檚 鈥淭he Moonstone.鈥� (She even includes details about the unsolved murder and investigator that inspired Collins.) Then she devotes some real estate to iconic characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Philip Marlowe, and Sam Spade, before talking in depth about four female writers of the Golden Age. Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham come off rather better than Ngaio Marsh and Agatha Christie, although James cites the latter鈥檚 鈥渇ormidable cunning.鈥� And James acknowledges a debt to all four, who, in her estimation, succeeded in moving the genre forward and provided a valuable sociological portrait of Britain during the 1930s and 鈥�40s, especially regarding the lives of working women.
James also carries readers through the 鈥渞ules鈥� of mystery writing, as originally laid down by Ronald Knox. These range from essential fair play 鈥� 鈥淭he detective must never be in possession of more information than the reader鈥� 鈥� to the seemingly arbitrary: 鈥淣o Chinamen must figure in the story.鈥� (Yeah, James couldn鈥檛 come up with a satisfactory explanation for that one, either.)
Among the tidbits about her own writing life, James says that, were she to start today, her detective would be a woman. (In the 1950s, women weren鈥檛 allowed to be police detectives, and thus, Adam Dalgliesh is not an Anna.) She writes repeatedly of the importance of setting: 鈥淚 regard the description of the finding of the body as one of the most important chapters of a detective novel.鈥� And when discussing the sublimely humane 鈥淔ather Brown鈥� stories, James writes of G.K. Chesterton鈥檚 influence on her own career. 鈥淏efore he even planned the Father Brown stories, Chesterton wrote that 鈥榯he only thrill, even of a common thriller, is concerned somehow with the conscience and the will.鈥� Those words have been part of my credo as a writer. They may not be framed and on my desk but they are never out of my mind.鈥�
And James is generous with both her predecessors and her colleagues. Among the current writers she cites, James highlights both American Sara Paretsky, whom she calls 鈥渢he most remarkable of the moderns,鈥� and Scotland鈥檚 Ian Rankin. When it comes to policing in 21st-century Edinburgh, James says, 鈥渨e can learn more from Ian Rankin鈥檚 Rebus novels than we can from any official guidebook.鈥�
I didn鈥檛 learn anything new about Holmes or his creator, and the chapter on Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler also went over well-trodden (and well-loved) ground. But when it came to Golden Age writers, James completely schooled me. I thought I鈥檇 read a fair swath of Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Josephine Tey, and Ngaio Marsh, but she kept throwing new titles at me.
Perhaps the least interesting chapter is one in which James tackles longstanding criticisms of the genre. Since Edmund Wilson couldn鈥檛 be bothered to read even one mystery (Sayers鈥檚 鈥淭he Nine Tailors鈥�) from cover to cover before formulating his criticisms in 鈥淲ho Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?鈥� it hardly seems worthwhile to go to the trouble to refute them. Also, since it鈥檚 highly unlikely anyone who shares Wilson鈥檚 prejudices is going to pick up this book, James is basically talking about detective fiction to people who already love it. On a side note, although I am sure literary snobbery is alive and well, are there still mystery readers out there who feel judged? I thought folks had moved well past that to just feeling intellectually superior that they bothered to read at all.
Assuming they鈥檝e gotten over any residual shame from reading genre fiction, readers will want to keep paper and pen handy to jot down titles. Topping my ever-growing reading list is Kate Summerscale鈥檚 鈥淭he Suspicions of Mr. Whicher.鈥� In it, James says, Summerscale provides a credible hypothesis for the long-unsolved Road Hill House murders, which electrified Victorian England.
Other intriguing titles include Edmund Crispin鈥檚 鈥淭he Moving Toyshop,鈥� Frances Fyfield鈥檚 鈥淏lood From Stone,鈥� and Nicola Upson鈥檚 series starring 鈥淒aughter of Time鈥� author Josephine Tey. (Hey, if Jane Austen can solve crime, why not Tey? At least she has a background in detection.) Also, I need to reread 鈥淭he Fashion in Shrouds鈥� and 鈥淢ore Work for the Undertaker.鈥� And all of 鈥淔ather Brown.鈥�
You鈥檒l have to excuse me. I鈥檓 off to the library.
Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews fiction for the Monitor.
