Wednesday, September 24, 2008

It's a Mystery

Why are we in this financial mess? It's a mystery, or is it?

If it's due to incompetence then the telling of the story does not meet the criteria for the mystery genre.
If it is due to a criminal act, or a criminal act is implied then it does belong to the mystery genre.

Who says so?

Well, the authors, no less, of Mystery Writing in a Nutshell, John and Andrew McAleer.

Paragraph 1.1 quotes Otto Penzler's definition of a mystery as, "Any short work of fiction in which a crime or threat of a crime is central to the theme or plot. It is a broad definition, covering detective, espionage, suspense, and crime fiction. Horror or supernatural is not included."

So there you have it, at least for the purpose of Crimestalker's Casebook.

I'm told the library has a copy of this excellent little book, used by Andrew McAleer, Professor of Crime Fiction at Boston College, to teach his course.

If you want to get into mystery writing, (and by the way, it goes way beyond - a sort of Strunk and White for fiction writers) it is also available at Amazon.com for $9.95 new or less secondhand.