STORYTELLING AND THE ART OF THE MYSTERY GENRE by Penny Hutson

Storytelling likely existed well before recorded history, but the traditional mystery genre is actually quite new compared to some of the earliest stories. Homer’s Illiad and the Odyssey, for example, are generally dated in the late 8^th to early 7^th century BC.  Written in verse, these poems detailed the exploits of all the heroes and heroines, kings and queens, gods and goddesses in the Trojan war, and later King Odysseus’s travels home from the war.

Rarely were stories told or written about the common or everyday folk. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were one exception, but they were not written until the 14^th century. Even the few Shakespearean tales of the seemingly ordinary folk like Prospero or Sly included kings, dukes or other noblemen and women. The infamous bards of the Middle Ages dabbled in local lore and legends, but still told of larger-than-life figures who were well known by their audiences. Robin Hood, William Tell, and the Pied Piper came to mind. Those storytellers were also well-versed in the local gossip and scandals of the Royal Court of the day, as well as tales of the heroes in myths and legends such as Hercules or King Arthur. Interest in folklore, tales about the common people, didn’t begin until the late 1700s in Europe, and then later bloomed when the Brothers Grimm published their fairy tales in 1812.

So, until nearly the 19^th century, essentially no one would have been interested in reading or hearing about the murder of an ordinary unknown woman, much less the alcoholic woman who witnessed that murder from the window of a train she rode every day to the job she no longer possessed. People only wanted to hear tales of royalty or larger-than-life heroes righting wrongs, killing monsters, or performing amazing feats.

I believe that is why the mystery genre with its traditional detective or amateur sleuth solving crimes of everyday citizens didn’t appear until the mid to late 1800s. When Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “Murders in the Rue Morgue” first introduced Auguste Dupin’s uncanny analytical abilities and horrific murders to the world in 1841, society was ready. And because the characters were ordinary people, it brought readers closer to the story. This was unlike the kings, heroes, and gods of old who did extraordinary things because they were extraordinary individuals, and in many cases, born to be great. When Perseus slew Medusa or Theseus the Minotaur, it was expected. Monsters were supposed to die.

Now, for the first time in fictional history, the monsters were humans, and the victims were ordinary people like the innocent mother and daughter in Poe’s gruesome short story. Poe’s work brought a new kind of fear to the readers, a new kind of thrill, that literary scholars now agree marks the beginning of the modern detective story. Wilkie Collins’ lesser-known work, The Moonstone, published in 1877, remains one of the earliest examples of a full-length modern detective novel, despite being subtitled as a romance.  By the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet,” was published in 1887, the world was hooked.

A new genre had been born, and it’s still going stronger than ever today. The modern detective story shares many traits with the old myths and legends. The main characters are often smarter, richer, stronger or better in some way than the average person. No one outsmarted Doyle's famous detective or Agatha Christie’s famed Hercule Poirot. They never failed to capture their man or woman. And of course, reading or hearing about characters solving a crime or tracking down a killer is still a far cry safer and easier than doing those things yourself.

The difference lies in the nature of the stories—the way they’re told. In today’s crime fiction, readers are taken into the heart of the killer’s den, the mind of the brilliant detective, or the body of the victim. They see the blood, feel the knife, hear the gunshot, smell the burnt flesh. Although the old myths and legends had plenty of blood and guts, what distinguishes the current genre are the sensory details, and that the killers, as well as the victims could be anyone or someone just like us. That heightens the tension. Makes it more real.

So, I suppose it’s no mystery that even after nearly 200 years, the mystery and suspense genre is still so popular. According to Wikipedia, only the Bible and William Shakespeare’s works have surpassed the sales of Agatha Christie’s two billion copies of novels and short stories. Well-known mystery and suspense writer James Patterson “has been selling more books than any other living author for many years now,” according to a July 2022 article in the New Yorker magazine. Investors.com and Wikipedia quote sales of more than 425 million copies of Patterson's works worldwide.

Only romance readership tops that of mysteries today, according to Nancy Curteman’s “Mystery Novels: Why so popular?” Many other sources speak of the continued popularity and high sales of this genre. So, if you love mysteries, suspense, and thrillers, you’re in good company; and if you like writing those kinds of stories, you’re in luck. A cornucopia of readers abounds, and it doesn’t appear that the interest will die down any time soon unless someone invents something new and more exciting than mysteries.

Maybe that writer will be you.