Sometimes, on panels or at book club visits, I’m asked, “Why mysteries?” Other than that I love to read them, that I grew up spending hours in the company of yet another Agatha Christie or Dick Francis, I like to reply that mysteries, and crime fiction in general, provide the satisfaction of structure.
Crime fiction demands a beginning, middle, and an end. Even when the central mystery remains unresolved, the structure remains. And structure is everything. It forces writers to learn how to plot, and how to control pacing. If you don’t give readers the answer they’re looking for in crime fiction—the whodunnit or whydunnit—it’s still incumbent on the narrative to show why the answer is being withheld, and why, in the context of the particular novel or story, that makes sense.
As a mystery writer, you’re in it for your readers, you need to meet the expectations of the genre: to keep readers guessing, entertained and engaged on every page. Writing mysteries keeps me honest—and for my more literary-minded friends, I would point to the words of the immortal Jorge Luis Borges:
“Oscar Wilde has observed that rondeaus and triolets prevent literature from being at the mercy of genius. At this point one could observe the same of detective fiction. Whether mediocre or awful, the detective story is never without a beginning, a plot and a denouement. The literature of our time is exhausted by interjections and opinions, incoherences and confidences; the detective story represents order and the obligation to invent.”
Radha Vatsal is the author of two historical mysteries, of A Front Page Affair (Library Journal, starred review, and Debut Mystery of the Month), and Murder Between the Lines (Book Riot’s 100 Must-Read Books Of US Historical Fiction) both set in World War I-era New York.
You make so many great points in this post. I am drawn to writing and reading mysteries for the same reasons. While characters in literary fiction will change and grow in some way by the end of the story/novel, I find the structure and plot of a mystery story drives the characters in a way that holds my attention and keeps me interested more than any other genre.