Mystery and Suspense
Notes
Mrs. Kinney
Basic Definition
• Subgenre of narrative fiction; often thought
of as detective fiction
• Usually involves a mysterious death or
crime to be solved
– Each suspect must have a credible motive
– Central character is usually a “detective” who
solves a crime
Tip-Offs to Mystery Genre
• Mystery, crime or puzzle to be solved
• Main character who is a detective and sets out
to solve a crime
• Suspects and motives
• Overt clues presented
• Hidden evidence
• Suspense
• Foreshadowing
• Red herrings—kind of foreshadowing clue that
leads readers to false conclusions
Elements Common to Most
Mysteries
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Law enforcement
Crime
Weapon (s)
Settings (i.e. haunted houses, city streets,
deserted areas, dark streets, alleys,
warehouses, etc.)
• Mood setters (foggy nights, cemeteries, creaking
gates, footsteps, thunder, wind, screams, blood,
etc.)
• Key words (alibi, motive, clues, evidence, victim,
sleuth, witness, suspect, red herrings, etc.)
Sub-Genres
• Amateur detective—protagonist is someone who
does not solve crimes for a living
• British-mystery set in England
• Comic—makes you laugh about the crime
• Cozy—amateur detective with a few more
rules—no overt violence, very little or no bad
language, no overt sex, set in small town,
nothing bad happens to anyone good
• Hard-boiled—criminal tends to be the
protagonist rather than the crime fighter.
Has lots of bad language, graphic
violence, and general examination of
society’s underbelly.
• Historical—set in a time period
substantially earlier that when first
published; often have real people and/or
events in the background and may be well
researched
• Noir—hard-boiled with a few more rules; set in
the 1940s or 50s; the men are disenchanted,
disillusioned, corrupt or down on their luck; the
women are completely loyal, dutiful, loving and
plain or completely self-centered, manipulative,
mysterious and gorgeous
• Police Procedural—protagonist is normally a
police detective; Urban settings, dark humor,
hard working, street-smart police populate these
stories. Also includes profilers, medical
examiners, forensic anthropologists, etc.
• Private Detective—protagonist is a private
detective
• Romantic—must have a romantic storyline
between the two main characters (not just a
“love interest” for the main character) and the
romantic storyline must be given page-time
roughly equal to the mystery storyline
• Supernatural—anything from ghosts to psychics
to time-traveling detectives
• Traditional/Classic—puzzle is presented to the
reader at the beginning. The plot follows a fairly
straight path, strewn with clues, to the solution of
the puzzle
History
• Edgar Allan Poe introduced fiction’s first fictional
detective in 1841 (birth of mystery as we know
it): Auguste C. Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue”
• Acknowledged as the father of the mystery story
• http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/search/
assetDetail.cfm?guidAssetID=7530b706-81d64233-86bf1988081fee7c&tabDisplay=myContent
• “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is the most
famous example of a mystery style known
as the locked room (a murder victim is
found inside an apparently sealed
enclosure and the detective’s challenge is
to discover the murderer’s reasoning)
Wickie Collins
• 1858—”The Unknown Public” (essay)
suggested readers read more to reflect the
changing pace in society; the rising
literacy rates combined with more leisure
time contributed greatly to the popularity of
novels and mysteries in particular
Anna Katherine Green
• 1878—first woman to write a detective
novel—The Leavenworth Case
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Sherlock Holmes character had a distinct
style and flair for deducing clues
• Reliable sidekick: Dr. Watson
British Mysteries
• 1920s-British mysteries became popular
with the introduction of the cozy mystery
Golden Age
• Also in the 1920s
• Time of growing prosperity in England and
America
• Popularity of mystery at all time high
Agatha Christie
• Wrote more than 80 novels
• Career spanned more than 50 years
• Probably the best known mystery writer in
history
• Wrote novels about her famous Belgian
sleuth Hercule Poirot (some of these
stories can still be seen on A&E)
Dorothy Sayers
• Famous character—Lord Peter Wimsey
• His style and intelligence won over many
readers
Penguins
• Developed by Allen Lane and his 2
brothers
• During height of Golden Age
• Paperback line issued in 1935 with only 10
titles but quickly grew to 70 titles within a
year
• Easily accessible to the public due to their
much lower cost and availability in
department stores
1930s and 1940s
• American detective fiction
reached its peak
Ellery Queen
• Pseudonym for cousins Mandfred B. Lee
and Frederic Dannay
• 1929-introduced detective named Ellery
who worked with his father Richard Queen
• Drury Lane was introduced into the mix in
1932
Hard-Boiled Fiction
• Also known as Black Mask fiction
• Developed in the 1920s with rise of
magazines known as pulps
• Most famous was Black Mask
• Originally published adventure stories of
all kinds but eventually devoted itself to
detective fiction
Raymond Chandler and Dashiell
Hammett
• Popular authors in the pulps
• Hammett’s character Sam Spade (The
Maltese Falcon)
• Chandler’s character Philip Marlowe
Charlie Chan
• 1930s
• Quirky character who used the sage of the
Orient to solve crimes
• Introduced by Earl Derr Bigger
Erle Stanley Gardner
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Perry Mason—main character
First introduced in 1933
Crime-solving attorney
His friend, detective Paul Drake, and
secretary, Della Street, helped him
• Went head-to-head with District Attorney
Hamilton Burger
Mickey Spillane
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1947
Book called I, The Jury
Mike Hammer was main character
Strong emphasis on sex and violence
Appealed mostly to male readers
The Shadow
• 1940s
• Radio shows took off and became very
popular
• Most famous radio mystery
New Genres
• television
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Murder, She Wrote (Jessica Fletcher)
Hawaii 5-O
Kojak
Hill Street Blues
Columbo (Lt. Columbo)
The Rockford Files (Jim Rockford)
Law and Order
CSI
Etc.
Contemporary Authors
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Patricia Cornwell
Tess Gerritsen
Lisa Jackson
Robin Cook
Sue Grafton
Robert B. Parker
James Patterson
Children’s Mysteries
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Nancy Drew
The Hardy Boys
Encyclopedia Brown
The Goosebump Series by R.L. Stine
Common Vocabulary
• Case—a matter requiring investigation
• Victim—the person negatively affected by a
mysterious event or crime
• Clue—something that appears to give
information toward solving a crime
• Sleuth-person who investigates a crime or
mysterious event
• Evidence—someone or something that proves
who committed a crime or was involved in the
mysterious event
• Suspect—person who appears to have a
motive to have committed the crime
• Witness—person who has personal
knowledge about the crime or event
• Alibi—evidence offered by a suspect to
prove they were not at the scene of the
crime
• Deduction—collecting facts and using
them to draw a conclusion
• Mood—state of mind or feeling
• Motive—thought or feeling that makes one
act; incentive
Suspense
• Hitchcock says suspense bears no relationship to fear.
Instead, it is the state of waiting for something to
happen.
• Crucial to the Hitchcockian thriller is the difference
between suspense and surprise. To put it simply, the
director said that if you have a scene where two
characters are conversing in a cafe, and a bomb
suddenly goes off under the table, the audience
experiences surprise. On the other hand, if the audience
sees the saboteur place the bomb, is told that it will go
off at one o'clock, and can see a clock in the scene, the
mundane conversation between two cafe patrons now
becomes one of intense suspense, as the audience
holds its collective breath waiting for the explosion.
Fifteen minutes of suspense, as opposed to fifteen
seconds of surprise. It was therefore necessary, to Alfred
Hitchcock, that the audience be as fully informed as
possible
• Based on this principle, the suspense thriller has been
loosely defined as a story in which the audience is
waiting for something significant to happen. The
protagonist's job is to prevent the speeding bus from
exploding, or the aliens from eating the crew. The reader
experiences a vicarious thrill by identifying with the hero
and the danger he faces, becoming a participant in the
chase.
• A mystery, on the other hand, is a novel of revelation,
with action more mental than physical. A significant
event, usually a murder, has just occurred, and the
protagonist's job is to discover who committed the crime,
and why. The dilemma created for the writer of traditional
mysteries is the fact that the villain and the details of the
crime must remain unidentified, breaking Hitchcock's
rule of keeping the audience informed.
Crime Fiction Requirements
• Must be fiction. Names, places and
events may be real, but the plot is
fictitious. True crime is not a sub-category.
• Must be a crime
• Must be an investigative process
• Must be a solution for the crime
Detective Fiction
• Typically has a recurring character who is
usually the investigator
• Classic example is the Private Eye—
normally fall into the sub-genres hardboiled and soft-boiled
• Cozy is a popular form—normally has a
non-professional detective
• Police-procedurals fit in this category too
Arc-of-Suspense
• Suspense drives fiction. Arcs stretch
suspense. An arc-of-suspense is the
technique of making the reader aware of
what will happen next and teasing him/her
with the possibilities.
Types of Acrs
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Secrecy and mystery
Unfinished scene
Time pressure arc (beating the clock)
Arc to the next chapter
Incidental arc
Arc of the bizarre
Hubris arc (extreme ego)
Arc of fate
Arc of justice
Arc of mistaken identity
Arc of one hidden prohibition