RARA-AVIS: mystery fiction as a genre

LLThrasher (baty@teleport.com)
Thu, 20 Nov 1997 21:29:13 -0800 Thanks to John and Kevin for their kind words, but this writer at least
has found that fans are far more knowledgeable about mysteries than many
mystery writers. In my case, I discovered mysteries fairly late. I did
read Nancy Drew when I was a kid and Agatha Christie and Earl Stanley
Gardner in high school. But except for Ed McBain, whose works I
discovered back in the early sixties, I wasn't even particularly aware
of "mysteries" as separate from "fiction" until about 1985. I liked
good books, and some of the ones I read were mysteries but I truly
didn't realize "mystery" was a genre unto itself. Believe it or not,
when a reviewer likened the main character in Cat's-Paw, Inc. to Travis
McGee, I had to go out and buy a Travis McGee book to see what he
meant. MacDonald gained a fan very quickly, although I'm not sure how
accurate the reviewer's comment was. I still haven't read all the McGee
novels, though, and I just started one of the non-McGee books, One
Monday We Killed Them All.

Since I'm rambling on, I'llexplain how I happened to discover mysteries
as a genre. I moved to a town with a small public library. Near the
front door was a tiny room that had obviously been a closet originally.
They had removed the door, lined all three walls with bookshelves and
filled the shelves with--you guessed it--mystery fiction. I guess none
of the libraries I had frequented before had separated mysteries from
general fiction, or if they did I never noticed. Well, after my first
visit I was hooked. I loved that tiny little room and couldn't get
enough of the books in it. About four years later I decided to write a
mystery after I got mad at one of my favorite authors and decided I
could do better than his latest book, which had really disappointed me.
I think this is where I say, "and the rest is history."

Linda
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