Are we obsessed with murder? Well this month’s Red Herrings, the bulletin of the Crime Writers’ Association seems to think so. In an article by Connie Berry she suggests that the British mystery is one in which a seemingly impossible crime, usually a murder, occurs in a remote setting with a limited number of suspects. A brilliant, and often amateur detective sifts through alibis, clues, and red herrings until justice and order are re-established.
As Anthony Horowitz said, “There is a sort of warmth about detective fiction, a sort of comfort… they remind us of a different world, or a pace that is slower… At the end of the day, the whole journey from the murder to the investigation, to the final solution is a journey towards comfort.”
There is a wonderful thought from Richard Osman: “The vicar? Murderer. The elementary school teacher? Murderer. The old lady collecting for charity in the park? Serial killer… In Britain, everyone is incredibly polite, right up until the moment they murder you. That’s how we operate… In a British crime novel, the more polite a person is, the more suspicious you should be of them.”
When I’ve finished my coffee, and finished writing this, I will settle to write a little more of Cade’s Point (working title), the sixth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. My theme is very clear. There are crimes, but whether they tip over into murder, I am yet to decide. I certainly plan an attempted murder. I have my detective, a limited number of suspects, and I’m marshalling the red herrings and clues. It is set in early 17th century Italy, but that’s OK. Agatha Christie had no imperative to set her mysteries in sleepy English villages. All right, I can’t think of any Miss Marple mysteries which weren’t set in England, but Poirot often worked overseas. It’s the formula, not the setting.