Anna Celeste Burke's Blog, page 2
September 1, 2015
Mystery/Thriller Feature: Murder & Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction by Amy Metz
Murder & Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction
August 28, 2015
I had not heard a reference to Caledonia in decades, until I read Murder & Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction by Amy Metz. My mother from the deep south used that word as an expletive. Until the age of 4 or 5 I continued to bring her items from the cupboard hoping to figure out what the heck she was looking for when she uttered that cry! Caledonia is only mentioned in passing in this book, and is only one of many words, phrases, and mannerisms that brought back memories for me of my relatives with southern roots. Even if you don't have a mama from Mobile, I think you'll find each turn of phrase fascinating.
Murder & Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction is a wonderful first book in Amy Metz' series. The book is cleverly plotted, blending an old mystery set in the 1930s with a new contemporary one. The trouble starts almost as soon as Tess Tremaine arrives in Goose Pimple Junction. After a bad marriage ends, Tess thinks she's found the perfect spot to start over when she buys a lovely old home in an idyllic setting. The small town has a main street that might have inspired Disney!
Goose Pimple Junction is chock full of quirky characters who use colorful southern idioms as they get into each other's business. Figuring out all the 'southern speak' is daunting for Tess. Fortunately for her, Tess soon meets Mr. Wright--Jackson Wright that is. A handsome local celebrity who pens mystery novels, he is immediately taken with Tess and willingly steps in to translate all that local color.
He quickly gets called upon to do a lot more than translation, though. The town has more sinister elements, as Tess and Jack soon find out. Things heat up--some of that heat courtesy of the chemistry between Tess and Jack as they try to figure out who's behind all the murder and mayhem. The story is an old one of greed, pride, envy and rage--all told in quite a unique way. A thoroughly entertaining mystery drenched in southern charm, this is a perfect read for cozy mystery fans. FIVE HOOTS!
WHERE TO FIND THE BOOK:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mayhem-P...
WHERE TO FIND THE AUTHOR:
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/Amy-Metz/e/B008...
WEBSITE: http://amymetz.com
BLOG: http://abluemillionbooks.blogspot.com
FACEBOOK AUTHOR PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmyMet...
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/authoramymetz
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
BUT WAIT, there's more...Book 2 is out HEROES & HOOLIGANS IN GOOSE PIMPLE JUNCTION
August 28, 2015
I had not heard a reference to Caledonia in decades, until I read Murder & Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction by Amy Metz. My mother from the deep south used that word as an expletive. Until the age of 4 or 5 I continued to bring her items from the cupboard hoping to figure out what the heck she was looking for when she uttered that cry! Caledonia is only mentioned in passing in this book, and is only one of many words, phrases, and mannerisms that brought back memories for me of my relatives with southern roots. Even if you don't have a mama from Mobile, I think you'll find each turn of phrase fascinating.
Murder & Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction is a wonderful first book in Amy Metz' series. The book is cleverly plotted, blending an old mystery set in the 1930s with a new contemporary one. The trouble starts almost as soon as Tess Tremaine arrives in Goose Pimple Junction. After a bad marriage ends, Tess thinks she's found the perfect spot to start over when she buys a lovely old home in an idyllic setting. The small town has a main street that might have inspired Disney!
Goose Pimple Junction is chock full of quirky characters who use colorful southern idioms as they get into each other's business. Figuring out all the 'southern speak' is daunting for Tess. Fortunately for her, Tess soon meets Mr. Wright--Jackson Wright that is. A handsome local celebrity who pens mystery novels, he is immediately taken with Tess and willingly steps in to translate all that local color.
He quickly gets called upon to do a lot more than translation, though. The town has more sinister elements, as Tess and Jack soon find out. Things heat up--some of that heat courtesy of the chemistry between Tess and Jack as they try to figure out who's behind all the murder and mayhem. The story is an old one of greed, pride, envy and rage--all told in quite a unique way. A thoroughly entertaining mystery drenched in southern charm, this is a perfect read for cozy mystery fans. FIVE HOOTS!
WHERE TO FIND THE BOOK:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mayhem-P...
WHERE TO FIND THE AUTHOR:
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/Amy-Metz/e/B008...
WEBSITE: http://amymetz.com
BLOG: http://abluemillionbooks.blogspot.com
FACEBOOK AUTHOR PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmyMet...
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/authoramymetz
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
BUT WAIT, there's more...Book 2 is out HEROES & HOOLIGANS IN GOOSE PIMPLE JUNCTION
August 11, 2015
MYSTERY/THRILLER MONDAY FEATURE: LAST WRITES by CA LARMER
Fancy a quick jaunt down under, but don't have the time or money? Take a staycation instead with the third installment in C.A. Larmer's Ghostwriter Mystery series: LAST WRITES featuring Larmer's likable amateur sleuth.
Roxy Parker is back in this fun and entertaining murder mystery, LAST WRITES. The angsty protagonist is a well-developed character faced with all the challenges of a thirty-something woman trying not only to make a living, but have a life! A ghostwriter living in Sydney, with a mother nearby who gives her plenty of advice, it's not all that easy. She's got trouble with men and money, although she's not down and out by any stretch of the imagination on either front.
When Australia's celebrated writers start dying her troubles get a whole lot worse as Roxy is swept up in the drama. Well-drawn, quirky supporting characters, like Oliver her mouthy agent who is quite free in his use of expletives, add interest to the storytelling as the mystery unfolds. The bodies keep coming, too.
When a friend is implicated in the murders, Roxy is pulled deeper into the chaos and suspense. She takes matters into her own hands trying to figure out whodunit and clear her friend's name. All in all a satisfying mystery in a slightly exotic setting for those of us who live in the U.S.
BOOK BLURB FROM C.A. LARMER:
It's been a bad week for successful writers. A science-fiction author has been found dead, violently slashed with an ‘X’, a gardening guru bludgeoned with his own shears, and an erotic novelist poisoned by a juicy, red apple. All the evidence is pointing firmly at Oliver Horowitz, Roxy Parker's beloved agent, but the ghostwriter believes he's being framed.
With the help of alluring newcomer, investigative reporter David Lone, Roxy sets off on a quest to prove Oliver's innocence and track down the killer before another author meets their final sentence...
The third book in the best-selling Ghostwriter Mystery series sees the return of Roxy’s quirky friends and family including brooding photographer Max Farrell (how will he handle Roxy’s new love interest?), meddling mother, Lorraine, Scottish softie Lockie, and supercop Gilda Maltin. We also meet Max's cool sister Caroline and join Roxy on a nail-biting road trip up the north coast of Australia, the killer hot on her trail!
In C.A. Larmer's fifth book, and the third in the popular Ghostwriter Mystery series, we see yet again why Larmer is fast becoming Australia's number one cozy crime writer. There's suspense, humor, fashion and fun, not to mention a plot that will keep you on the edge of your manicured toes!
A Word of Caution About the Language
This story is set in Australia so you may come across some unusual colloquialisms and cursing. Both are an everyday part of our vernacular but I apologise for any confusion or offence; it is not intended.
FIND THE BOOK:
AMAZON US: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Writes-Gho...
SMASHWORDS: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
FOLLOW THE AUTHOR:
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/C.A.-Larmer/e/B...
BLOG: http://calarmerspits.blogspot.com.au/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/people/Ca-La...
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/CALarmer
WEBSITE: http://www.christinalarmer.com/
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
PREFER TO START WITH BOOK 1 IN THE SERIES?
KILLER TWIST by C.A. LARMER
Roxy Parker is back in this fun and entertaining murder mystery, LAST WRITES. The angsty protagonist is a well-developed character faced with all the challenges of a thirty-something woman trying not only to make a living, but have a life! A ghostwriter living in Sydney, with a mother nearby who gives her plenty of advice, it's not all that easy. She's got trouble with men and money, although she's not down and out by any stretch of the imagination on either front.
When Australia's celebrated writers start dying her troubles get a whole lot worse as Roxy is swept up in the drama. Well-drawn, quirky supporting characters, like Oliver her mouthy agent who is quite free in his use of expletives, add interest to the storytelling as the mystery unfolds. The bodies keep coming, too.
When a friend is implicated in the murders, Roxy is pulled deeper into the chaos and suspense. She takes matters into her own hands trying to figure out whodunit and clear her friend's name. All in all a satisfying mystery in a slightly exotic setting for those of us who live in the U.S.
BOOK BLURB FROM C.A. LARMER:
It's been a bad week for successful writers. A science-fiction author has been found dead, violently slashed with an ‘X’, a gardening guru bludgeoned with his own shears, and an erotic novelist poisoned by a juicy, red apple. All the evidence is pointing firmly at Oliver Horowitz, Roxy Parker's beloved agent, but the ghostwriter believes he's being framed.
With the help of alluring newcomer, investigative reporter David Lone, Roxy sets off on a quest to prove Oliver's innocence and track down the killer before another author meets their final sentence...
The third book in the best-selling Ghostwriter Mystery series sees the return of Roxy’s quirky friends and family including brooding photographer Max Farrell (how will he handle Roxy’s new love interest?), meddling mother, Lorraine, Scottish softie Lockie, and supercop Gilda Maltin. We also meet Max's cool sister Caroline and join Roxy on a nail-biting road trip up the north coast of Australia, the killer hot on her trail!
In C.A. Larmer's fifth book, and the third in the popular Ghostwriter Mystery series, we see yet again why Larmer is fast becoming Australia's number one cozy crime writer. There's suspense, humor, fashion and fun, not to mention a plot that will keep you on the edge of your manicured toes!
A Word of Caution About the Language
This story is set in Australia so you may come across some unusual colloquialisms and cursing. Both are an everyday part of our vernacular but I apologise for any confusion or offence; it is not intended.
FIND THE BOOK:
AMAZON US: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Writes-Gho...
SMASHWORDS: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
FOLLOW THE AUTHOR:
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/C.A.-Larmer/e/B...
BLOG: http://calarmerspits.blogspot.com.au/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/people/Ca-La...
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/CALarmer
WEBSITE: http://www.christinalarmer.com/
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
PREFER TO START WITH BOOK 1 IN THE SERIES?
KILLER TWIST by C.A. LARMER
April 20, 2015
MYSTERY/THRILLER MONDAY FEATURE: THE HEALER
The Healer
What makes a book a thriller? To some extent I suppose that's in the eyes of the beholder, If, as wikipedia suggests 'suspense, tension and excitement' are key features of the genre, The Healer has them all. The book is, of course, well-written--Christoph Fischer penned it. A fast-pace is also the hallmark of a thriller and this one does not disappoint on that feature either.it
’s a quick read that you will want to hurtle through in an afternoon, or over a weekend.
Thriller or not, to me character and plot matter most to me. At its core, The Healer offers interesting, enigmatic characters, and a clever plot. The story is told from the point of view of the main character, Erica Whittaker, who in midlife is diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It comes as no surprise that she’s desperate. Traditional medicine has nothing more to offer her. She is about to give up and accept her fate when, at the urging of her devoted office assistant, Hilda, Erica decides to pursue another path. That path takes her to the door of a once-renowned faith healer, Arpan. Using a different name, the man is, virtually, a recluse. A man with a mysterious past, Arpan also possesses a great gift, as testimonials from previous recipients of his healing bear out. He is, at first, reluctant to treat Erica. When he finally takes Erica on as a client, his treatment unleashes a series of unfortunate events, as big pharma and other opponents from his past, line up against him. Erica, who has secrets of her own, soon finds herself caught up in a web of intrigue, being stalked, cornered, and manipulated, fighting for her life. Will she survive? What will happen to Arpan, and those around him? You’ll have to read the book, of course, to find out.
What I like most about The Healer is the twist the book takes as the suspense, tension and excitement play out. I didn't see it coming. Quite entertaining and well worth the read, this book is highly recommended.
More Mystery/Thriller features to come at my website http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com
What do you think makes a thriller thrilling? Stop by and leave me your response!Anna Celeste Burke
What makes a book a thriller? To some extent I suppose that's in the eyes of the beholder, If, as wikipedia suggests 'suspense, tension and excitement' are key features of the genre, The Healer has them all. The book is, of course, well-written--Christoph Fischer penned it. A fast-pace is also the hallmark of a thriller and this one does not disappoint on that feature either.it
’s a quick read that you will want to hurtle through in an afternoon, or over a weekend.
Thriller or not, to me character and plot matter most to me. At its core, The Healer offers interesting, enigmatic characters, and a clever plot. The story is told from the point of view of the main character, Erica Whittaker, who in midlife is diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It comes as no surprise that she’s desperate. Traditional medicine has nothing more to offer her. She is about to give up and accept her fate when, at the urging of her devoted office assistant, Hilda, Erica decides to pursue another path. That path takes her to the door of a once-renowned faith healer, Arpan. Using a different name, the man is, virtually, a recluse. A man with a mysterious past, Arpan also possesses a great gift, as testimonials from previous recipients of his healing bear out. He is, at first, reluctant to treat Erica. When he finally takes Erica on as a client, his treatment unleashes a series of unfortunate events, as big pharma and other opponents from his past, line up against him. Erica, who has secrets of her own, soon finds herself caught up in a web of intrigue, being stalked, cornered, and manipulated, fighting for her life. Will she survive? What will happen to Arpan, and those around him? You’ll have to read the book, of course, to find out.
What I like most about The Healer is the twist the book takes as the suspense, tension and excitement play out. I didn't see it coming. Quite entertaining and well worth the read, this book is highly recommended.
More Mystery/Thriller features to come at my website http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com
What do you think makes a thriller thrilling? Stop by and leave me your response!Anna Celeste Burke
December 12, 2014
So you want to be a rock star?
Burning Down Rome by Melodie RamoneMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
So you want to be a rock star?
You might want to read BURNING DOWN ROME by MELODIE RAMONE first. Drugs, sex, rock and roll may sound like fun, but it can kill you if you’re not incredibly lucky and resourceful. The story of Cry Baby Jake’s rise to fame, and near-immolation of the band members, is not an entirely new one. We’ve all caught glimpses of the legacy that goes with rocketing to the top of the charts. Adoring fans, paparazzi, travel to exotic locales, wild parties, and newsworthy escapades all seem to go with the territory.
What’s not to like, you might ask? A bacchanal carnival, bring it on! As Melodie Ramone’s vivid portrayal shows us, though, it is a lonely, disorienting, and dehumanizing experience. Well that’ the price you pay for letting the artistic temperament go wild. Some of the carnage may well be attributed youthful excess in the face of too much access to the trappings of success, too fast. But, as this great book reveals, there’s more to it than that. There’s something inherent in the structure of the experience that’s a prescription for flaming out. Not just rock and rollers, but stars in other music genres, celebrities in sports, theater and films, often follow a similar trajectory toward crash and burn. For every tragic story of success there are many, many more sad tales of those who gave it their all and didn’t grab hold of the gold ring.
As Ramone points out, performance anxiety, even stage-fright, and a deep-seated insecurity is an occupational hazard. It is made so much worse in a ‘what-have-you-done-for-me-lately’ system of bloodthirsty critics, fickle fans, and callous studio execs. Pair that with the rootlessness, unhealthy lifestyle, and relentless pace of touring and it’s no surprise that rock and roll takes such a heavy toll. When things start to come apart, throw in dose after dose of feel-good drugs—some to make you big and some to make you small, and before you know it, you’re in wonderland. The problem is no one can live for long in that place. Can you even call it living at that point, when you hit the proverbial bottom?
Burning Down Rome takes us into that pit but doesn’t end there. It’s a great story about fighting back—not just rehab, but much more. Waging war against the machine, preserving artistic integrity, finding balance and developing a healthy relationship to what really matters are all themes this book explores. Is it worth it? Will it be enough to save Cry Baby Jake? You’ll have to read the book for yourself to find that out. Having married a rock star wannabe of my own, I have had glimpses of the life Ramone writes about even after my guitar man chose another path. This writer nails it! Not just the outward expressions of the life, but the inward struggle—a tour de force and a recommended read.
View all my reviews
October 17, 2014
THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS AS THEY SEEM...
Conditions by Christoph FischerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Things aren’t always as they seem...
We humans seem to love to name things, sort and tuck them neatly into categories. I get it. It’s a way for a busy, crowded brain to sift through and assimilate massive amounts of information in a reasonable amount of time. Can you imagine a world where every situation or event is taken on the face of it as a completely new and original one? It’s a kind of shorthand we use, an important and very basic capacity that lays the foundation for language and history and science and just getting through the day.
When it comes to people, we like to do the same thing. Despite that admonition not to judge a book by its cover, we often do just that. Peg people based on a superficial or incomplete understanding of who they are. For humans, labels, at best, convey something narrow and delimited about a particular aspect of an individual’s nature or status. That ‘shorthand’ strategy may not serve us quite so well.
All of this is a bit of a windup in order to place Christoph Fischer’s latest book, Conditions, in context. It’s an unassuming book that takes a thoughtful and intimate look at some very weighty subjects. One of those ‘slice of life’ stories, it captures interactions among a group of family and friends brought together by a key life event. In this case the death of the mother to Charles and Tony. The two brothers, struggling toward middle age, are central figures in the book. They couldn’t be more different, on the face of it. Tony is the successful responsible older brother, with a job, a mortgage, a wife and children. Charles, on the other hand, is a single man with a serious and persistent mental illness who, at times, is unable to even care for himself. Fischer’s book asks us to beware, however, of pigeon-holing these two brothers and tagging one as ‘normal’ and successful and the other as, well, less.
If labels are less than ideal when it comes to dealing with people, they’re even trickier when using them as a way to make sense out of the life and experience of persons with mental health conditions. Fischer doesn’t go there in his book. He sets aside the matter of naming Charles’ disorder, leaves it open-ended. I think that makes the man’s condition far more interesting—less a mental patient and more a human being facing his own limitations and trying to understand those of others. Like his brother. One of the big hurdles someone with a severe mental illness faces is the social distance created by difference. By avoiding the use of labels, Fischer closes the social distance between the two brothers, especially when some of Tony’s life struggles are revealed. On some level he and his brother are the same—two men looking for ways to deal with the problems of living.
The book provides glimpses into the challenges placed upon a person with a mental illness—challenges that impinge on friends and family, too. The helpless feeling those around Charles experience, at times, is all too familiar to anyone with a friend or family member like Charles. The brief descriptions of Charles’ encounters with the mental health system speak for themselves. After thirty years in the social and behavioral sciences, it’s a disappointment to me that we know so little, and fail to use what we do know, to support individuals with mental illness. Charles, for all the challenges of his condition, is a lucky man. In most any big city, or big city jail, it’s not hard to find with those like Charles who are less fortunate.
Bravo to Christoph Fischer for writing this gently provocative book. This book is recommended for readers who enjoy family sagas and stories about humans trying to do their best to figure it all out.
View all my reviews
October 7, 2014
Murder & Mayhem, no a laughing matter...or is it?
Murder and mayhem hardly seems to be the topic to evoke raucous humor. However, there are a surprising number of books, movies and television series that do just that. It’s not so much that murder is funny, per se. My angst-ridden sleuth, Jessica Huntington, rails against the cosmos about such evil deeds. More often than not the humor erupts when some poor schmuck stumbles upon a murder and has to figure out what happened. For whatever reason, many sleuths, amateur and professional alike, find that the path to unraveling life’s mysteries, especially when they involve murder, is fraught with irony and laugh out loud moments.
Mystery novels deemed cozy, or ‘blue skies’ mysteries, as the USA Network calls several of their offerings, probably best fit the mold of humorous sleuthing. Most notable was the USA network’s critically acclaimed series featuring Monk, the defective detective. So too, the team of deceptive detectives, from Psych, pretending to solve murders using psychic powers, are archetypes of sleuths in the murder-most-silly subgenre. Even the network’s spy thriller series, Burn Notice, and White Color, featuring FBI agents and a former con man investigating high-end murder and mayhem, bear the same lighthearted characteristics. Call it ‘murder and mayhem light’ or what the network regarded as their brand: “Aspirational, blue skies, upbeat, optimistic and character-driven” programming, featuring pretty people in lively, exotic settings. I think those are sentiments similarly evoked by my Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery series, although my heroine is more troubled by it all.
From lighthearted to darkly comic
In both film and print, humorous takes on murder and mayhem range from the most lighthearted farce to the darkly comic and even disturbing. I put Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum on the farcical end of the continuum, in print and film. In typical “Plum fun” fashion, a series of madcap episodes, punctuated by an occasional escapade in the boudoir with one of her sexy male sidekicks, ends in a flurry of revelation about murder most foul. More than a half a century ago, the terrific duo of Myrna Loy and William Powell romped across the screen. Bringing Dashiell Hammett’s Thin Man series to life, the films featured a lot of tipsy hijinks while the two romantically entangled sleuths went about the business of solving a murder. My favorite of the murderous farces has got to be Arsenic and Old Lace, featuring Cary Grant as the inadvertent amateur sleuth who stumbles upon the horrifying truth that there’s more than one serial killer among his kinfolk.
At the other extreme, on the darkly comic end of the continuum is another favorite, Blood Simple, a sardonic homage to film noir. That’s not surprising given that this film is the brainchild of the Coen Brothers who also gave us that darkly comedic mystery thriller, Fargo. At different points, along the comically macabre continuum, range the cinematic feature films brought to us courtesy of that master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. He not only had a good laugh about inserting himself into his films, making a cameo appearance in each of them, but he liked tweaking moviegoers in so many ways. That included scaring the living daylights out of us, of course, with memorable sequences including that famous bit in the shower from Psycho. Tame by today’s standards, it was terrifying in its day.
He also loved to tickle our funny bones. More “farce than fierce,” the most overtly comedic of his suspense films is The Trouble with Harry, based on a novel by Jack Trevor. The trouble with Harry is that he’s dead, and several members of the ensemble cast believe themselves to be the one whodunit. Easy to see how mayhem could ensue as residents of the quiet Vermont hamlet take turns trying to figure out how to solve the trouble with Harry by getting rid of the body. Harry turns up again and again in the oddest places.
Less farcical but still funny are moments in other Hitchcock films like those brought to us by Thelma Ritter in Rear Window. Cast as Stella, nurse to hobbled photographer Jeff Jeffries, they banter, cleverly, as the suspense grows, her voice drenched with sarcasm. Stella’s droll comments provide a cheeky counterweight to the mounting tension as Jeffries reveals his worst fears about what he’s seen from his rear window. That’s especially true as we watch Jeffries’ love interest, Lisa Carol Fremont played by Grace Kelly, step into the role of sleuth. As she’s about to be discovered by the suspected murderer, the moment is awash in suspense—a sarcastic witticism from Stella would be a welcome relief.
Light-hearted moments are evident in Hitchcock’s other films, too, like To Catch a Thief. The film features Cary Grant, cast as John Robie, a notorious jewel thief. The supposedly reformed thief finds himself a suspect, not only in a string of thefts, but murder. Mayhem ensues with the beguiling Grace Kelly, as Francie, pursuing John Robie with romantic intentions in mind. Her character introduces both levity and romance into the mix. Jessie Stevens, Francie’s mother, played by Jessie Royce Landis, is a hoot. She threatens to steal the show, at times, from the two more famous screen stars as they are all engaged in catching a thief and a murderer.
In North by Northwest, Cary Grant is cast, once again by Hitchcock, as the leading man. This time he portrays the hapless ad agency executive, Roger O. Thornhill. Like so many of Hitchcock’s protagonist’s, thanks to a case of mistaken identity, Thornhill becomes “the innocent caught in bizarre circumstances that he or she doesn't understand. The plot and its loopholes, however, provide the forum for the hero to do his or her 'stuff,' to demonstrate a charm and cleverness in getting out of tight spots.” Both wit and humor serve the Thornhill character well in his quest to disentangle himself from the fiasco in which he has become embroiled through no fault of his own.
Why do we laugh?
Okay, so why do we do it? Why do we create books and cinematic productions that blend humor with murder and mayhem? Why do read books or watch movies or TV series that evoke giggles, at a crime scene, when a sleuth tangles with a bad guy, or maybe even a grave site? It may have something to with the fact that most of us have experienced, albeit with far less drama, moments when we feel like Roger O. Thornhill.
We are suddenly cast in the part of the innocent caught in a bizarre circumstance that we don’t understand. Like finding ourselves, unceremoniously deposited on the ground after a slip and fall. Maybe it’s embarrassment or surprise, but once we figure out we’re not hurt we often laugh. Or, maybe it’s a car that won’t start when we’re on our way to an important meeting or to pick up the kids from school. It might even be something much bigger and more inexplicable, like an unexpected pregnancy or a pink slip telling us our job has been rendered redundant.
You know, what I’m talking about, right? One of those times when the world around us serves up a great bid dish of, say what? There may be a kind of a training aspect to reading about, or watching, annoying or even disastrous situations played out in print or on film, served up with a big dose of humor. We feel a giddy kind of relief as the hero demonstrates the ability to survive and get out of dire straits, making mental notes about how to face fearsome eventualities with aplomb.
Life changing events often present us with laugh-or-cry moments. At those points where the absurdity of the universe strikes without warning it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We’re reminded, perhaps with a touch of irony or, in an out and out slapstick pratfall kind of way, that we’re not masters of the universe or our own fate, after all. Such circumstances evoke a host of strong emotions—sometimes, exasperation and hilarity are two sides of the same coin. And so we laugh.
Humor is certainly one way to make dark subjects lighter. Laughter relieves stress, releases all sorts of good, life-sustaining and enhancing chemicals and sends them surging through our bodies. Surgical room teams, who hold lives in the palms of their collective hands, often use humor to defray anxiety about a delicate procedure that’s about to begin or underway. Laughter sends a social signal that binds us together in stressful situations. We reassure each other that we’re okay when we have a hardy laugh after hitting a snag—even a substantial one. Laughter, while recalling the good times shared with a loved one who has passed on, is healing and allows us to bear up under the challenge of saying goodbye.
Walking the line between humor and suspense
I’m surprised how often even traditional, more buttoned-down books and movies about crime solving are filled with humor, often wry or even sarcastic in nature. Hercule Poirot is often a very funny guy—even though I’m not sure, from the point of view of the well-drawn character, he intends to be. Ms. Marple and Father Brown often provide us with a reason to snigger at a pompous member of the constabulary taken down a peg or two by the amateur’s witty repartee. Columbo uses humor to disarm, or otherwise deflect, a savvy opponent from understanding the seemingly buffoonish moves he makes until it’s too late. The culprit is nabbed, often “hoisted by his own petard,” so to speak. We may laugh at both of them—the irritating and ostensibly inept detective who seems to be bumbling about, and the flummoxed or irate suspect, suddenly unmasked.
One of the challenges as a mystery writer is how to balance humor, along with all the other emotions that ought to be evoked by a good tale of murder, mayhem and mystery. Where on the continuum from farce to fierce, lighthearted to darkly comic, do you want your story to reside? How do you decide such a thing? I suppose, to some extent, as a writer or reader, that’s a matter of taste.
What do you think? Do you prefer farce or fierce, or something in between, when it comes to choosing to read or watch a mystery series? Who do you think wields the funniest pen when it comes to laugh out loud moments of murder and mayhem?
******
Drop by and say hello at http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com
Why we laugh
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/h...
The Writers Making “Characters Welcome” at USA Network by Sandra Berg
http://www.wga.org/writtenby/writtenb...
What’s behind the USA Network’s ‘Blue-Skies’ Formula?
http://www.mediapost.com/publications...
The Trouble with Harry
http://humor.about.com/od/moviecommen...
See also: The Trouble with Harry in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trou...
The 39 Steps by Deborah Holdstein
http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Th...
Mystery novels deemed cozy, or ‘blue skies’ mysteries, as the USA Network calls several of their offerings, probably best fit the mold of humorous sleuthing. Most notable was the USA network’s critically acclaimed series featuring Monk, the defective detective. So too, the team of deceptive detectives, from Psych, pretending to solve murders using psychic powers, are archetypes of sleuths in the murder-most-silly subgenre. Even the network’s spy thriller series, Burn Notice, and White Color, featuring FBI agents and a former con man investigating high-end murder and mayhem, bear the same lighthearted characteristics. Call it ‘murder and mayhem light’ or what the network regarded as their brand: “Aspirational, blue skies, upbeat, optimistic and character-driven” programming, featuring pretty people in lively, exotic settings. I think those are sentiments similarly evoked by my Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery series, although my heroine is more troubled by it all.
From lighthearted to darkly comic
In both film and print, humorous takes on murder and mayhem range from the most lighthearted farce to the darkly comic and even disturbing. I put Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum on the farcical end of the continuum, in print and film. In typical “Plum fun” fashion, a series of madcap episodes, punctuated by an occasional escapade in the boudoir with one of her sexy male sidekicks, ends in a flurry of revelation about murder most foul. More than a half a century ago, the terrific duo of Myrna Loy and William Powell romped across the screen. Bringing Dashiell Hammett’s Thin Man series to life, the films featured a lot of tipsy hijinks while the two romantically entangled sleuths went about the business of solving a murder. My favorite of the murderous farces has got to be Arsenic and Old Lace, featuring Cary Grant as the inadvertent amateur sleuth who stumbles upon the horrifying truth that there’s more than one serial killer among his kinfolk.
At the other extreme, on the darkly comic end of the continuum is another favorite, Blood Simple, a sardonic homage to film noir. That’s not surprising given that this film is the brainchild of the Coen Brothers who also gave us that darkly comedic mystery thriller, Fargo. At different points, along the comically macabre continuum, range the cinematic feature films brought to us courtesy of that master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. He not only had a good laugh about inserting himself into his films, making a cameo appearance in each of them, but he liked tweaking moviegoers in so many ways. That included scaring the living daylights out of us, of course, with memorable sequences including that famous bit in the shower from Psycho. Tame by today’s standards, it was terrifying in its day.
He also loved to tickle our funny bones. More “farce than fierce,” the most overtly comedic of his suspense films is The Trouble with Harry, based on a novel by Jack Trevor. The trouble with Harry is that he’s dead, and several members of the ensemble cast believe themselves to be the one whodunit. Easy to see how mayhem could ensue as residents of the quiet Vermont hamlet take turns trying to figure out how to solve the trouble with Harry by getting rid of the body. Harry turns up again and again in the oddest places.
Less farcical but still funny are moments in other Hitchcock films like those brought to us by Thelma Ritter in Rear Window. Cast as Stella, nurse to hobbled photographer Jeff Jeffries, they banter, cleverly, as the suspense grows, her voice drenched with sarcasm. Stella’s droll comments provide a cheeky counterweight to the mounting tension as Jeffries reveals his worst fears about what he’s seen from his rear window. That’s especially true as we watch Jeffries’ love interest, Lisa Carol Fremont played by Grace Kelly, step into the role of sleuth. As she’s about to be discovered by the suspected murderer, the moment is awash in suspense—a sarcastic witticism from Stella would be a welcome relief.
Light-hearted moments are evident in Hitchcock’s other films, too, like To Catch a Thief. The film features Cary Grant, cast as John Robie, a notorious jewel thief. The supposedly reformed thief finds himself a suspect, not only in a string of thefts, but murder. Mayhem ensues with the beguiling Grace Kelly, as Francie, pursuing John Robie with romantic intentions in mind. Her character introduces both levity and romance into the mix. Jessie Stevens, Francie’s mother, played by Jessie Royce Landis, is a hoot. She threatens to steal the show, at times, from the two more famous screen stars as they are all engaged in catching a thief and a murderer.
In North by Northwest, Cary Grant is cast, once again by Hitchcock, as the leading man. This time he portrays the hapless ad agency executive, Roger O. Thornhill. Like so many of Hitchcock’s protagonist’s, thanks to a case of mistaken identity, Thornhill becomes “the innocent caught in bizarre circumstances that he or she doesn't understand. The plot and its loopholes, however, provide the forum for the hero to do his or her 'stuff,' to demonstrate a charm and cleverness in getting out of tight spots.” Both wit and humor serve the Thornhill character well in his quest to disentangle himself from the fiasco in which he has become embroiled through no fault of his own.
Why do we laugh?
Okay, so why do we do it? Why do we create books and cinematic productions that blend humor with murder and mayhem? Why do read books or watch movies or TV series that evoke giggles, at a crime scene, when a sleuth tangles with a bad guy, or maybe even a grave site? It may have something to with the fact that most of us have experienced, albeit with far less drama, moments when we feel like Roger O. Thornhill.
We are suddenly cast in the part of the innocent caught in a bizarre circumstance that we don’t understand. Like finding ourselves, unceremoniously deposited on the ground after a slip and fall. Maybe it’s embarrassment or surprise, but once we figure out we’re not hurt we often laugh. Or, maybe it’s a car that won’t start when we’re on our way to an important meeting or to pick up the kids from school. It might even be something much bigger and more inexplicable, like an unexpected pregnancy or a pink slip telling us our job has been rendered redundant.
You know, what I’m talking about, right? One of those times when the world around us serves up a great bid dish of, say what? There may be a kind of a training aspect to reading about, or watching, annoying or even disastrous situations played out in print or on film, served up with a big dose of humor. We feel a giddy kind of relief as the hero demonstrates the ability to survive and get out of dire straits, making mental notes about how to face fearsome eventualities with aplomb.
Life changing events often present us with laugh-or-cry moments. At those points where the absurdity of the universe strikes without warning it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We’re reminded, perhaps with a touch of irony or, in an out and out slapstick pratfall kind of way, that we’re not masters of the universe or our own fate, after all. Such circumstances evoke a host of strong emotions—sometimes, exasperation and hilarity are two sides of the same coin. And so we laugh.
Humor is certainly one way to make dark subjects lighter. Laughter relieves stress, releases all sorts of good, life-sustaining and enhancing chemicals and sends them surging through our bodies. Surgical room teams, who hold lives in the palms of their collective hands, often use humor to defray anxiety about a delicate procedure that’s about to begin or underway. Laughter sends a social signal that binds us together in stressful situations. We reassure each other that we’re okay when we have a hardy laugh after hitting a snag—even a substantial one. Laughter, while recalling the good times shared with a loved one who has passed on, is healing and allows us to bear up under the challenge of saying goodbye.
Walking the line between humor and suspense
I’m surprised how often even traditional, more buttoned-down books and movies about crime solving are filled with humor, often wry or even sarcastic in nature. Hercule Poirot is often a very funny guy—even though I’m not sure, from the point of view of the well-drawn character, he intends to be. Ms. Marple and Father Brown often provide us with a reason to snigger at a pompous member of the constabulary taken down a peg or two by the amateur’s witty repartee. Columbo uses humor to disarm, or otherwise deflect, a savvy opponent from understanding the seemingly buffoonish moves he makes until it’s too late. The culprit is nabbed, often “hoisted by his own petard,” so to speak. We may laugh at both of them—the irritating and ostensibly inept detective who seems to be bumbling about, and the flummoxed or irate suspect, suddenly unmasked.
One of the challenges as a mystery writer is how to balance humor, along with all the other emotions that ought to be evoked by a good tale of murder, mayhem and mystery. Where on the continuum from farce to fierce, lighthearted to darkly comic, do you want your story to reside? How do you decide such a thing? I suppose, to some extent, as a writer or reader, that’s a matter of taste.
What do you think? Do you prefer farce or fierce, or something in between, when it comes to choosing to read or watch a mystery series? Who do you think wields the funniest pen when it comes to laugh out loud moments of murder and mayhem?
******
Drop by and say hello at http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com
Why we laugh
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/h...
The Writers Making “Characters Welcome” at USA Network by Sandra Berg
http://www.wga.org/writtenby/writtenb...
What’s behind the USA Network’s ‘Blue-Skies’ Formula?
http://www.mediapost.com/publications...
The Trouble with Harry
http://humor.about.com/od/moviecommen...
See also: The Trouble with Harry in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trou...
The 39 Steps by Deborah Holdstein
http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Th...
October 1, 2014
Who's your favorite mystery detective sidekick?
Dr. Watson, I presume. He may not be your favorite, but I’d wager Dr. Watson, sidekick to the inimitable Sherlock Holmes, is the best known. Then there’s Captain Hastings, frequent companion to the persnickety PI, Hercule Poirot. Hastings is also a familiar character, especially now that Hugh Fraser is back in the role, alongside David Suchet. I’m bracing myself for their performances in Poirot’s last case based on Curtain. The novel was written in 1942, but Agatha Christie kept it locked in a bank vault for 30 years. It was published in 1975, shortly before Christie’s death in 1976. In any case, Hastings, like Watson, is there at the beginning, standing side by side with Hercule Poirot, playing a similar role as chronicler of the detective’s deeds, and again when the PI takes on his final case in Curtain.
Hastings and Watson are not the only sidekicks to have emerged during the so-called Golden Age of the mystery genre. Rex Stout created Archie Goodwin to assist Nero Wolfe, not as a chronicler of the detective’s feats but as a ‘legman’. Goodwin had an active role to play in the snooping enterprise, gathering information and tracking down clues.
Mervyn Bunter, who slid off the pen of Dorothy L. Sayers, served as valet and confidant to her sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey. Bunter often created an opportunity for Peter Wimsey to reflect on aspects of the case, acting as a sounding board for the sleuth, but also adding insights of his own. Victoria Janssen points out that this “factotum,” as she refers to Bunter, “has professional photography skills, which he uses at crime scenes, and he is invaluable at questioning suspects, particularly servants who might be distrustful of an aristocrat.”
One of my favorite sidekicks is the burglar-turned-manservant, Magersfontein Lugg. He is set out in gruff counterpoint to the polished well-mannered sleuth, Albert Campion, brainchild of Margery Allingham. Lugg not only brings quite a different point-of-view to matters of murder and mayhem, but has special connections to the underworld that, on occasion, prove useful. Like Bunter he’s often privy to the goings-on downstairs as Campion tries to sort things out upstairs in their class-divided world. Lugg also steps in as ‘muscle’ on occasion.
Even more contemporary mystery writers have created ‘seconds,’ standing at the ready, offering assistance of some kind while working alongside the protagonist. Lugg finds new life as Ranger in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. He’s more mysterious than Lugg, but has a past where he moved in more unsavory circles, rooted in Special Forces and black ops. That may be true about his present, too as the enigmatic sidekick moves in and out of the skip tracing business. The hapless Plum, who stumbles upon bounty-hunting as a way to make a living the hard way, depends a lot on the expertise of Ranger. He shows her the ropes. So that’s an interesting ‘twist’ on the notion of a sidekick—the sidekick who has a larger skill set than the sleuth.
Lee Goldberg's Adrian Monk is surprisingly dependent on an assistant. His assistants do just about everything for the ‘defective detective’ with a talent for solving mysteries, despite an obsessive compulsive disorder. One of the most interesting pairings is the duo created by Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith, in his mystery series, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Precious Ramotswe, the first female private investigator in Botswana, is assisted, both in and out of the office, by Grace Makutsi, agency secretary and her assistant.
Sidekicks are integral to storytelling
Despite all the many things they may do, sidekicks are not always appreciated by the sleuth they assist. Inspector Morse, one of the last of the British “gentlemen detectives” has his “Lew-is!” he calls upon to do his bidding. That includes quite a lot of dirty work and not all of it meted out to Lewis in the most polite manner. Lewis is a good example of the tough time sidekicks often face, although, he at least, eventually steps into the role as lead detective. Lewis is much more mentor than curmudgeon when he has a sidekick of his own, the cerebral, but less seasoned, James Hathaway.
Poirot, too, is wont to take his sidekick to task for any number of issues. “Murder is not a game, Captain Hastings,” he chides. As such, sidekicks serve as a foil to make us all the more aware of the lead sleuth’s remarkable abilities or quirky habits. As a sounding board, they also allow for discussion about the details of the case as they unfold. Dialogue makes the storytelling more dynamic, livelier and more animated than a long uninterrupted narrative or soliloquy would do.
Sidekicks occasionally reveal interesting bits of background about the lead sleuth, either by word or in the context of their interaction with the sleuth-in-charge. At other times, sidekicks are wry or funny, providing comic relief, or adding a dash of sarcasm, underscoring a sleuth’s weakness. No one does that any better than Nora Charles who went so far as to marry the sleuth she partners. She has quite a knack for witty repartee with the private detectve she married, Nick Charles, in Dashiell Hammet's Thin Man series.
There’s no going it alone, or is there?
Whatever the specific functions they serve, sidekicks reveal another interesting aspect of investigations into murder and mayhem. Despite the apparent heroics, and even grandstanding of some of the most famous detectives, most don’t go it alone. Agatha Christie's, Miss Marple, who doesn’t have a sidekick, per se, routinely employs the witting or unwitting assistance of the constabulary as she unravels, and reveals, the truth of the mystery behind murder most foul. Similarly, G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown has a sort of fractious relationship with the local police as he, and several loyal parishioners, go about the business of sleuthing. Even sleuths with sidekicks, like Campion, also work with Scotland Yard detectives, and Poirot has his longstanding relationship with Inspector Japp.
Police procedurals routinely demonstrate the importance of a team approach to the discovery of the facts in the case that reveal ‘whodunit,’ how and why. Motive, means and opportunity, all laid bare through diligent effort by a cadre of investigators under the command of someone like Detective Chief Inspector Janine Lewis in Blue Murder, or DCI Jane Tennison in the award-winning British Series, Prime Suspect. Their lot is not always an easy one, mind you, as women who have chosen to 'serve and protect.' James Patterson's, Women's Murder Club, features a team of four interesting women, each with a different take on crime-fighting, and determined to do just that.
The CSI franchise employs the same team approach whether it is honchoed by a police lieutenant or the head of the Crime Lab. My point is that it may not ‘take a village’ to solve crimes, but ferretting out the truth behind the most heinous antisocial acts is, often, a strikingly social enterprise.
Okay, so does that mean there’s no going it alone when it comes to detecting? No, that’s not quite true. In the mystery genre it seems like someone has taken a stab [no pun intended] at almost every variant imaginable when it comes to creating sleuths. Hard-boiled P.I.s, like Raymond Chandler's, Philip Marlowe, Hammet's, Sam Spade, and Sara Paretsky's, V.I. Warshawski, come closest to the model of detectives as lone wolves. In their seedy office, a sparsely furnished, third floor walk-up, they often face villainy alone. Although, even these loners may have a dutiful secretary or receptionist, filing her nails while waiting for the next client to call. Sometimes these solitary crime fighters go about their business in opposition to authority who bark at them to stay out of police business. On occasion, they may even become suspects. As they pursue evildoers, they are forced to stay a step ahead of the bad guys and the police. As lone wolves, set out to expose the fiends ‘whodunit’ and bring them to justice, how do they engage us as readers? By speaking to us directly. The author, writing in the first person, makes us the sidekick. Haven’t you ever wanted to warn Marlowe or VI not to go somewhere or do something you know is unwise?
They are we...
Perhaps that is the most interesting claim made by others who have written about the role of sidekicks in mystery novels, cinema and television—the notion that sidekicks are stand-ins for us. They pull us into the story, asking questions or making observations that we might make as we follow along behind the esteemed detective. We may feel rather clever when we make sense of a clue before the great Sherlock Holmes figures it out. So, careful, there, you haughty lead detectives. When you bash your sidekicks, go a little easy. We, your readers may take it personally. Show us that, underneath it all, you value the POV of those at your side. Display some appreciation or affection for the camaraderie they provide. And so they do. Every so often the great detectives will give their faithful companions a pat on the back or a bit of recognition for the contributions they make. Well-deserved, if I do say so myself!
Does my amateur sleuth, Jessica Huntington of the Huntington Beach Huntingtons, have a sidekick? Oh yes! A Dead Husband
A Dead Sister
So, what do you think? What do sidekicks bring to the work of mystery fiction? Who are your favorite sidekicks?
Want to read more?
Sidekicks and assistants
http://margotkinberg.blogspot.com/200...
Golden Age Sidekicks: The heirs of John Watson by Victoria Janssen
http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/...
Dr. Watson to Detective Sergeant Lewis: Colin Dexter on his ten greatest sleuthing sidekicks
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosli...
Hastings and Watson are not the only sidekicks to have emerged during the so-called Golden Age of the mystery genre. Rex Stout created Archie Goodwin to assist Nero Wolfe, not as a chronicler of the detective’s feats but as a ‘legman’. Goodwin had an active role to play in the snooping enterprise, gathering information and tracking down clues.
Mervyn Bunter, who slid off the pen of Dorothy L. Sayers, served as valet and confidant to her sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey. Bunter often created an opportunity for Peter Wimsey to reflect on aspects of the case, acting as a sounding board for the sleuth, but also adding insights of his own. Victoria Janssen points out that this “factotum,” as she refers to Bunter, “has professional photography skills, which he uses at crime scenes, and he is invaluable at questioning suspects, particularly servants who might be distrustful of an aristocrat.”
One of my favorite sidekicks is the burglar-turned-manservant, Magersfontein Lugg. He is set out in gruff counterpoint to the polished well-mannered sleuth, Albert Campion, brainchild of Margery Allingham. Lugg not only brings quite a different point-of-view to matters of murder and mayhem, but has special connections to the underworld that, on occasion, prove useful. Like Bunter he’s often privy to the goings-on downstairs as Campion tries to sort things out upstairs in their class-divided world. Lugg also steps in as ‘muscle’ on occasion.
Even more contemporary mystery writers have created ‘seconds,’ standing at the ready, offering assistance of some kind while working alongside the protagonist. Lugg finds new life as Ranger in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. He’s more mysterious than Lugg, but has a past where he moved in more unsavory circles, rooted in Special Forces and black ops. That may be true about his present, too as the enigmatic sidekick moves in and out of the skip tracing business. The hapless Plum, who stumbles upon bounty-hunting as a way to make a living the hard way, depends a lot on the expertise of Ranger. He shows her the ropes. So that’s an interesting ‘twist’ on the notion of a sidekick—the sidekick who has a larger skill set than the sleuth.
Lee Goldberg's Adrian Monk is surprisingly dependent on an assistant. His assistants do just about everything for the ‘defective detective’ with a talent for solving mysteries, despite an obsessive compulsive disorder. One of the most interesting pairings is the duo created by Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith, in his mystery series, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Precious Ramotswe, the first female private investigator in Botswana, is assisted, both in and out of the office, by Grace Makutsi, agency secretary and her assistant.
Sidekicks are integral to storytelling
Despite all the many things they may do, sidekicks are not always appreciated by the sleuth they assist. Inspector Morse, one of the last of the British “gentlemen detectives” has his “Lew-is!” he calls upon to do his bidding. That includes quite a lot of dirty work and not all of it meted out to Lewis in the most polite manner. Lewis is a good example of the tough time sidekicks often face, although, he at least, eventually steps into the role as lead detective. Lewis is much more mentor than curmudgeon when he has a sidekick of his own, the cerebral, but less seasoned, James Hathaway.
Poirot, too, is wont to take his sidekick to task for any number of issues. “Murder is not a game, Captain Hastings,” he chides. As such, sidekicks serve as a foil to make us all the more aware of the lead sleuth’s remarkable abilities or quirky habits. As a sounding board, they also allow for discussion about the details of the case as they unfold. Dialogue makes the storytelling more dynamic, livelier and more animated than a long uninterrupted narrative or soliloquy would do.
Sidekicks occasionally reveal interesting bits of background about the lead sleuth, either by word or in the context of their interaction with the sleuth-in-charge. At other times, sidekicks are wry or funny, providing comic relief, or adding a dash of sarcasm, underscoring a sleuth’s weakness. No one does that any better than Nora Charles who went so far as to marry the sleuth she partners. She has quite a knack for witty repartee with the private detectve she married, Nick Charles, in Dashiell Hammet's Thin Man series.
There’s no going it alone, or is there?
Whatever the specific functions they serve, sidekicks reveal another interesting aspect of investigations into murder and mayhem. Despite the apparent heroics, and even grandstanding of some of the most famous detectives, most don’t go it alone. Agatha Christie's, Miss Marple, who doesn’t have a sidekick, per se, routinely employs the witting or unwitting assistance of the constabulary as she unravels, and reveals, the truth of the mystery behind murder most foul. Similarly, G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown has a sort of fractious relationship with the local police as he, and several loyal parishioners, go about the business of sleuthing. Even sleuths with sidekicks, like Campion, also work with Scotland Yard detectives, and Poirot has his longstanding relationship with Inspector Japp.
Police procedurals routinely demonstrate the importance of a team approach to the discovery of the facts in the case that reveal ‘whodunit,’ how and why. Motive, means and opportunity, all laid bare through diligent effort by a cadre of investigators under the command of someone like Detective Chief Inspector Janine Lewis in Blue Murder, or DCI Jane Tennison in the award-winning British Series, Prime Suspect. Their lot is not always an easy one, mind you, as women who have chosen to 'serve and protect.' James Patterson's, Women's Murder Club, features a team of four interesting women, each with a different take on crime-fighting, and determined to do just that.
The CSI franchise employs the same team approach whether it is honchoed by a police lieutenant or the head of the Crime Lab. My point is that it may not ‘take a village’ to solve crimes, but ferretting out the truth behind the most heinous antisocial acts is, often, a strikingly social enterprise.
Okay, so does that mean there’s no going it alone when it comes to detecting? No, that’s not quite true. In the mystery genre it seems like someone has taken a stab [no pun intended] at almost every variant imaginable when it comes to creating sleuths. Hard-boiled P.I.s, like Raymond Chandler's, Philip Marlowe, Hammet's, Sam Spade, and Sara Paretsky's, V.I. Warshawski, come closest to the model of detectives as lone wolves. In their seedy office, a sparsely furnished, third floor walk-up, they often face villainy alone. Although, even these loners may have a dutiful secretary or receptionist, filing her nails while waiting for the next client to call. Sometimes these solitary crime fighters go about their business in opposition to authority who bark at them to stay out of police business. On occasion, they may even become suspects. As they pursue evildoers, they are forced to stay a step ahead of the bad guys and the police. As lone wolves, set out to expose the fiends ‘whodunit’ and bring them to justice, how do they engage us as readers? By speaking to us directly. The author, writing in the first person, makes us the sidekick. Haven’t you ever wanted to warn Marlowe or VI not to go somewhere or do something you know is unwise?
They are we...
Perhaps that is the most interesting claim made by others who have written about the role of sidekicks in mystery novels, cinema and television—the notion that sidekicks are stand-ins for us. They pull us into the story, asking questions or making observations that we might make as we follow along behind the esteemed detective. We may feel rather clever when we make sense of a clue before the great Sherlock Holmes figures it out. So, careful, there, you haughty lead detectives. When you bash your sidekicks, go a little easy. We, your readers may take it personally. Show us that, underneath it all, you value the POV of those at your side. Display some appreciation or affection for the camaraderie they provide. And so they do. Every so often the great detectives will give their faithful companions a pat on the back or a bit of recognition for the contributions they make. Well-deserved, if I do say so myself!
Does my amateur sleuth, Jessica Huntington of the Huntington Beach Huntingtons, have a sidekick? Oh yes! A Dead Husband
A Dead Sister
So, what do you think? What do sidekicks bring to the work of mystery fiction? Who are your favorite sidekicks?
Want to read more?
Sidekicks and assistants
http://margotkinberg.blogspot.com/200...
Golden Age Sidekicks: The heirs of John Watson by Victoria Janssen
http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/...
Dr. Watson to Detective Sergeant Lewis: Colin Dexter on his ten greatest sleuthing sidekicks
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosli...
September 23, 2014
RETAIL THERAPY--REALLY? Yes, really
Retail therapy—really? Yes, really. Since I wrote A DEAD HUSBAND, I’ve been asked this question, or a similar one, many times. Jessica Huntington, amateur sleuth actually goes on a shopping bender at Saks after tangling with a bad guy wearing pantyhose on his head. Retail therapy—really? In the middle of a murder investigation? Yes, really.
What is that about? It depends on who you ask. Mama’s got a brand new bag, Joss Stone will tell you, when she belts out her version of that James Brown classic. Oh yeah, Jessica says, dozens of them in fact, as she tries so desperately to turn over a brand new leaf in her life that’s come undone.
When the going gets tough a surprising number of the tough, and not so tough, go shopping. In a 2013 poll reported in the Huffington Post, one in three Americans reported shopping to deal with stress. Stress-shopping is right up there with stress-eating and stress-exercising as ways to cope with a bad day at the office or a fight with an intimate partner. It may come as no surprise that women are twice as likely as men to say they stress-shop. But does it really reduce stress? Yes, it appears that shopping can provide a quick boost in mood. It provides an avenue for escape, a mini-vacation, like Jessica standing for a few minutes in the eye of the hurricane swirling about her as she racks up items at Saks.
For some, shopping is practically a national pastime, and it’s almost un-American to suggest that there is such a thing as buying too much, too often. Almost like suggesting that there’s something wrong with the sport enthusiasts’ zeal during March Madness or the playoffs leading up to the Super Bowl or the World Series. “Score,” it’s the perfect outfit for that big meeting, like making a touchdown on the football field. And on sale, it’s a stolen base at home plate.
For Jessica, like many recreational shoppers, there’s an aesthetic and sensual aspect to shopping. She is carried away by the cut, color and feel of the fabric in the clothes she fancies. The buttery soft leather of the perfect bag or the glossy sheen on those Jimmy Choo heels. It’s also a way of exerting control as it is for many American shoppers smitten with the idea of choice.
For Jessica that’s a big deal. Her job went belly up with the Great Recession, strike one. She tried for several years to have a baby without any luck, strike two. Her husband turns up in her own bed with Hollywood Barbie, strike three, you’re out! And, omg, her best friend’s husband has been murdered and her friend is a likely suspect. All circumstances beyond her control, but one swipe of her black AMEX card and a cinnamon colored duvet in a silky imported Italian fabric is a done deal. Yes!
Technology has made it so much easier to indulge. Daily flash sale fanatics can have Gilt and other fashion sites like Rue La La, Haute Look, Ideeli, Zulily, etc. blitz them with notices of bargains. Easier to indulge when that exquisite item pops up on your smartphone at 50% off! Jessica Huntington readily admits she can do much more damage, in a shorter period of time, shopping online.
Okay, so like comfort food, comfort shopping is a quick and simple way to assuage a host of emotions. Not just diffusing stress but celebrating good news. In a Time Psychology of Money post a case is made that retail therapy can, indeed, be a good thing. Not just by providing a little R & R, but by helping ease transitions. The post cites marriage and pregnancy as two situations in which shopping can provide a framework to anticipate and plan for a life transforming event.
“Dress for Success,” a popular credo among professionals, may serve as the excuse some women need to buy things for themselves. Shopping to improve your appearance is more than ego-boosting, although it can do that. While we all know better than to judge a book by its cover, we do! Trust me, I’m an author, I know. Cover art is a BIG deal when trying to draw attention to a book.
A good deal of research suggests that first impressions matter, creating a ‘halo effect’ that sets up later evaluations of our performance. That first impression is very much ‘facist’ that is, humans tend to rate more attractive people, more favorably on all sorts of traits. Not fair, but it happens, all the time...too short [for men], too fat [for both men and women], bald, gray-haired, crooked or missing teeth, an unkempt appearance, or any number of superficial factors can taint the perception of who we are. That’s so not fair, but we’re bombarded by culturally-based images of youth and beauty that can send even the most politically correct among us out to hunt for the best pair of cross trainers and yoga pants that won’t make our behinds look too big.
Is it any wonder then, that Rebecca Bloomwood, the protagonist in Sophie Kinsella’s book Confessions of a Shopaholic, is desperate to own that luxurious silk scarf? [The book is far better than the movie of the same name, btw]. As we all know, too much of a good thing isn’t good. When it comes to shopping, too much can lead to one hell of a hangover. ‘Buyer’s remorse’ can set in quickly, undermining the boost in mood that comes from that latest ‘score’ on the bargain-hunter’s playing field. Guilt and regret are even more likely to set in when it comes time to pay the bills.
My amateur sleuth, Jessica Huntington is filthy rich so she doesn’t have money problems. But a shop-‘til-you-drop approach to dealing with problems in your life isn’t, in the long run, the best coping strategy. Like eating ice cream or having a drink, shopping is, at best a quick fix to manage stress. It’s an external prop, best used in moderation for those little daily stressors that are unavoidable, like rush hour traffic, dropped calls, or sitting through yet another poorly-run meeting.
Over reliance on avoidant coping strategies can backfire. At some point we have to stop and reflect on the source of the stress and figure out more direct strategies for addressing our problems. Otherwise, we may be doomed to repeat our mistakes and get locked into unhealthy patterns.
“Look deeper into the mystery,” as Father Martin tells Jessica in A DEAD SISTER. In that case he’s urging her to, among other things, figure out what went wrong with her marriage. There’s life after divorce, to be sure, but better to face it head on rather in the throes of a shopping stupor.
Shopping, like food, alcohol or drugs, can become a very bad habit. Lest we think this is a completely modern problem, Mary Todd Lincoln is said to have had a shopping addiction, running up and concealing spending sprees that filled her with glee followed by a crash back down to earth when the consequences of her actions came home to roost.
Hiding or lying about purchases is often an early sign that shopping has gone from a good thing to a bad one. Letting out a big ‘ouch,’ or a low moan, when trying to balance the checkbook is another. There are others signs: using multiple credit cards to pay for something because there’s not enough room on one, asking for limits on cards to be increased, or using one credit card to pay the minimum due on another are all indications that shopping has become a problem. If attempts to lock up the credit cards and stick to a budget fail, it’s time to ask for help.
Even when money is no object, as in Jessica’s case, shopping may start out as retail therapy only to become a disorder with a fancy name. Call it what you will: oniomania, compulsive buying disorder [CBD] or shopping addiction, it all means the same thing. When shopping becomes a source of distress, instead of an occasional respite from it, time to make a change.
Can Jessica put that black AMEX card away and overcome her tendency to run for the nearest fashion boutique when calamity strikes? Only time, and book 3, will tell. Her battle continues in A DEAD DAUGHTER.
So, what do you think is there a place for retail therapy or is it just a cover for shopaholism?
Know someone who needs help?
Shopaholics Anonymous
Overspenders Anonymous
Debtors Anonymous
http://www.goodtherapy.org/therapy-fo...
The cure for shopping addicts
http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/th...
Want to read more?
Drop by http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com for links to posts cited here, books and articles too!
What is that about? It depends on who you ask. Mama’s got a brand new bag, Joss Stone will tell you, when she belts out her version of that James Brown classic. Oh yeah, Jessica says, dozens of them in fact, as she tries so desperately to turn over a brand new leaf in her life that’s come undone.
When the going gets tough a surprising number of the tough, and not so tough, go shopping. In a 2013 poll reported in the Huffington Post, one in three Americans reported shopping to deal with stress. Stress-shopping is right up there with stress-eating and stress-exercising as ways to cope with a bad day at the office or a fight with an intimate partner. It may come as no surprise that women are twice as likely as men to say they stress-shop. But does it really reduce stress? Yes, it appears that shopping can provide a quick boost in mood. It provides an avenue for escape, a mini-vacation, like Jessica standing for a few minutes in the eye of the hurricane swirling about her as she racks up items at Saks.
For some, shopping is practically a national pastime, and it’s almost un-American to suggest that there is such a thing as buying too much, too often. Almost like suggesting that there’s something wrong with the sport enthusiasts’ zeal during March Madness or the playoffs leading up to the Super Bowl or the World Series. “Score,” it’s the perfect outfit for that big meeting, like making a touchdown on the football field. And on sale, it’s a stolen base at home plate.
For Jessica, like many recreational shoppers, there’s an aesthetic and sensual aspect to shopping. She is carried away by the cut, color and feel of the fabric in the clothes she fancies. The buttery soft leather of the perfect bag or the glossy sheen on those Jimmy Choo heels. It’s also a way of exerting control as it is for many American shoppers smitten with the idea of choice.
For Jessica that’s a big deal. Her job went belly up with the Great Recession, strike one. She tried for several years to have a baby without any luck, strike two. Her husband turns up in her own bed with Hollywood Barbie, strike three, you’re out! And, omg, her best friend’s husband has been murdered and her friend is a likely suspect. All circumstances beyond her control, but one swipe of her black AMEX card and a cinnamon colored duvet in a silky imported Italian fabric is a done deal. Yes!
Technology has made it so much easier to indulge. Daily flash sale fanatics can have Gilt and other fashion sites like Rue La La, Haute Look, Ideeli, Zulily, etc. blitz them with notices of bargains. Easier to indulge when that exquisite item pops up on your smartphone at 50% off! Jessica Huntington readily admits she can do much more damage, in a shorter period of time, shopping online.
Okay, so like comfort food, comfort shopping is a quick and simple way to assuage a host of emotions. Not just diffusing stress but celebrating good news. In a Time Psychology of Money post a case is made that retail therapy can, indeed, be a good thing. Not just by providing a little R & R, but by helping ease transitions. The post cites marriage and pregnancy as two situations in which shopping can provide a framework to anticipate and plan for a life transforming event.
“Dress for Success,” a popular credo among professionals, may serve as the excuse some women need to buy things for themselves. Shopping to improve your appearance is more than ego-boosting, although it can do that. While we all know better than to judge a book by its cover, we do! Trust me, I’m an author, I know. Cover art is a BIG deal when trying to draw attention to a book.
A good deal of research suggests that first impressions matter, creating a ‘halo effect’ that sets up later evaluations of our performance. That first impression is very much ‘facist’ that is, humans tend to rate more attractive people, more favorably on all sorts of traits. Not fair, but it happens, all the time...too short [for men], too fat [for both men and women], bald, gray-haired, crooked or missing teeth, an unkempt appearance, or any number of superficial factors can taint the perception of who we are. That’s so not fair, but we’re bombarded by culturally-based images of youth and beauty that can send even the most politically correct among us out to hunt for the best pair of cross trainers and yoga pants that won’t make our behinds look too big.
Is it any wonder then, that Rebecca Bloomwood, the protagonist in Sophie Kinsella’s book Confessions of a Shopaholic, is desperate to own that luxurious silk scarf? [The book is far better than the movie of the same name, btw]. As we all know, too much of a good thing isn’t good. When it comes to shopping, too much can lead to one hell of a hangover. ‘Buyer’s remorse’ can set in quickly, undermining the boost in mood that comes from that latest ‘score’ on the bargain-hunter’s playing field. Guilt and regret are even more likely to set in when it comes time to pay the bills.
My amateur sleuth, Jessica Huntington is filthy rich so she doesn’t have money problems. But a shop-‘til-you-drop approach to dealing with problems in your life isn’t, in the long run, the best coping strategy. Like eating ice cream or having a drink, shopping is, at best a quick fix to manage stress. It’s an external prop, best used in moderation for those little daily stressors that are unavoidable, like rush hour traffic, dropped calls, or sitting through yet another poorly-run meeting.
Over reliance on avoidant coping strategies can backfire. At some point we have to stop and reflect on the source of the stress and figure out more direct strategies for addressing our problems. Otherwise, we may be doomed to repeat our mistakes and get locked into unhealthy patterns.
“Look deeper into the mystery,” as Father Martin tells Jessica in A DEAD SISTER. In that case he’s urging her to, among other things, figure out what went wrong with her marriage. There’s life after divorce, to be sure, but better to face it head on rather in the throes of a shopping stupor.
Shopping, like food, alcohol or drugs, can become a very bad habit. Lest we think this is a completely modern problem, Mary Todd Lincoln is said to have had a shopping addiction, running up and concealing spending sprees that filled her with glee followed by a crash back down to earth when the consequences of her actions came home to roost.
Hiding or lying about purchases is often an early sign that shopping has gone from a good thing to a bad one. Letting out a big ‘ouch,’ or a low moan, when trying to balance the checkbook is another. There are others signs: using multiple credit cards to pay for something because there’s not enough room on one, asking for limits on cards to be increased, or using one credit card to pay the minimum due on another are all indications that shopping has become a problem. If attempts to lock up the credit cards and stick to a budget fail, it’s time to ask for help.
Even when money is no object, as in Jessica’s case, shopping may start out as retail therapy only to become a disorder with a fancy name. Call it what you will: oniomania, compulsive buying disorder [CBD] or shopping addiction, it all means the same thing. When shopping becomes a source of distress, instead of an occasional respite from it, time to make a change.
Can Jessica put that black AMEX card away and overcome her tendency to run for the nearest fashion boutique when calamity strikes? Only time, and book 3, will tell. Her battle continues in A DEAD DAUGHTER.
So, what do you think is there a place for retail therapy or is it just a cover for shopaholism?
Know someone who needs help?
Shopaholics Anonymous
Overspenders Anonymous
Debtors Anonymous
http://www.goodtherapy.org/therapy-fo...
The cure for shopping addicts
http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/th...
Want to read more?
Drop by http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com for links to posts cited here, books and articles too!
September 7, 2014
The Mysterious Case of Agatha Christie's Lost Days
Quick quiz: Which of the following statements is true?
* Around 4 billion copies of Agatha Christie’s novels have been sold worldwide.
* Agatha Christie books rank third, after Shakespeare and the Bible, as the most widely-published.
* Agatha Christie acquired her extensive knowledge of poisons by working in the pharmacy at London’s University College Hospital.
* Agatha Christies wrote romance novels using a pen name, Mary Westmacott, as well as 66 detective novels, numerous short stories and plays.
* Agatha Christie became Dame Agatha Christie courtesy of Queen Elizabeth II.
* All of the above.
If you said all of the above you are correct.
That’s astounding! You would be hard-pressed to come up with a more impressive resume for any writer in history, male or female. It is all the more remarkable that much of what this prolific author achieved occurred while the Western world was still debating the role of women. The predominant ethos of the time favored a view of women as atavistic or childlike in their potential to govern themselves. Perhaps, morally bereft, and yet, so enticing—the beguiling Eve, tempting Adam to damnation with that apple.
What if I told you there was an episode in this woman’s life that rivaled anything found in the pages of Christie’s mystery novels? What happened? Why? It’s 9:45 p.m. Friday December 3, 1926. The woman is well-known with the release of her sixth book, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It was a hit. Still there was trouble afoot.
After kissing her daughter goodnight, Christie climbs into her green Morris Cowley and goes for a drive. The next morning her car is found abandoned. The car has rolled down an embankment and into a tree. The door is ajar, lights on, a small suitcase and other items are strewn about. One of those items is an expired driver’s license belonging to Agatha Christie.
Where in the world is Agatha Christie? Media frenzy ensues. Hundreds of police officers organize with 15,000 volunteers to conduct a massive search of the area in which the car was found. Tracker dogs are no help. They dredge the lake nearby, nothing. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy L. Sayers, Christie’s compatriots on the writing field, go to the scene, to no avail. For ten more days there’s no word about her whereabouts, even after offering £3,000 in reward money. That’s quite a chunk of change, in 1926.
As the days wore on without her return, the police began to suspect foul play. Why? Well, for one thing, they had received a note from the missing woman right before she disappeared saying she feared for her life. They apparently began to take her concern seriously, even after they learned she had sent another note to her brother-in-law saying she was going on vacation. A vacation was not off to a good start, if that was the case. But who could have wanted to abduct her, or worse, wanted her dead?
Enter the cheating husband. Twelve years into their marriage, Archie Christie revealed that he had fallen in love with a woman ten years younger than Agatha who was in her mid-30s at the time. Some sources say he asked for a divorce the night before she disappeared. They quarreled. He left the house to spend the weekend with friends, yes, including his mistress.
Okay, so there’s a potential motive for murder, if she was unwilling to grant him a divorce. What about opportunity? Well, his infidelity, soon exposed to the public, provided him with a great deal of embarrassment but also, an alibi. He was, indeed, with friends, and the other woman, when Agatha Christie disappeared.
How upset was Agatha Christie after discovering that her husband had not only been unfaithful to her, but wanted out of their marriage? It wasn’t the only shock she experienced that year. Her mother died and a number of friends and family members knew she was sad and depressed, even before Archie dropped that bombshell. Was she suicidal, so confused and distraught she wandered off? Was she intent on getting revenge on her faithless husband by causing him to worry about her whereabouts? Was it a tantrum that got out of hand, creating an enormous public scandal and making Archie the target of a police investigation? The investigation continued and debate raged in the headlines of the day.
Meanwhile, outside London, in a fashionable hotel, a woman sat, day after day in the dining room taking her meals alone. She had checked into the hotel on December 4th, as Teresa Neele, one small bag and no companions. All around her, news swirled. The search efforts ramped up, as did police interrogation and surveillance of their chief suspect, Archie Christie, humiliated as his private indiscretion was now very public. Rumors flew as the public demanded to know what had happened to Agatha Christie.
Wait just a moment. What was the ‘other woman’s’ name? Neele, yeah, that’s it, Nancy Neele. The same last name as that given to hotel staff by the quiet woman seated at a table for one. Was is it the last name that convinced a musician at the hotel that Teresa Neele was, in fact, Agatha Christie? She had laughed it off when several hotel guests noted her resemblance to the missing woman splashed across the headlines. When the musician finally reported his suspicions to the police, they sent Archie Christie to the hotel to identify the woman. Tuesday, December 14, when Archie arrived, Agatha reportedly commented, "Fancy, my brother has just arrived."
What was that about? Was she suffering from some sort of dissociative condition? Had she lost it completely, forgotten who she was when she checked into that hotel under an assumed name? A whole new wave of speculation and accusation was set off by the discovery of Agatha Christie in that hotel, hidden away in a swanky setting as the world searched furiously for her for ten days.
Doctors were called in upon Christie’s return to her home. They claimed that Christie had indeed suffered a bout of amnesia, brought on by the trauma associated with her mother’s death. A rare condition, to be sure, many remained unconvinced. She did awfully well finding her way to that hotel after her car ended up in a ditch. Not only did she have to walk back to town and find transportation to London, where it was later revealed she had spent the night at her secretary’s house. But, she had to make her way to that lovely hotel, check in without looking too disheveled or disembodied, to draw attention to herself. None of that could have happened unless she had plenty of cash with her at the time. Was it coincidence, delusion, or revenge that she had checked into the hotel using the surname that belonged to her husband’s paramour?
Some members of the disgruntled public went so far as to claim the whole incident had been a publicity stunt. Her latest book had done quite well, but sales skyrocketed after that incident. At some point, when he came under suspicion for the murder of his wife, Archie Christie was quoted in the Daily News as saying: “My wife said to me, some time ago, that she could disappear at will and would defy anyone to find her. This shows the possibility of engineering her disappearance was running through her mind.” He believed that she was capable of resorting to such a stunt.
Perhaps, it was enough to have masterminded such an event as a way to set him up to experience the humiliation and dread she must have felt when Archie revealed his deceit. In a fictionalized account of the story, the 1979 movie Agatha, it’s suggested she may have intended to commit suicide, perhaps with the idea of framing her husband for her disappearance. That remains a matter for speculation.
Agatha Christie never mentioned the incident again. She and Archie divorced in 1928 and he married his mistress Nancy Neele. In 1930 Agatha Christie remarried, this time to Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, a British Archeologist. In Agatha Christie: An Autobiography, published in 1977, after her death, she revealed: “So, after illness, came sorrow, despair, and heartbreak. There is no need to dwell on it. I stood out for a year, hoping he would change. But he did not. So ended my first married life.” Rather cryptic, to the end!
Okay, what’s your theory of her disappearance?
Was it a publicity stunt to boost sales of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd?
Was it an act of revenge towards Archie and a bid to embarrass him, or to frame him for her kidnapping and disappearance? Was it a nervous breakdown, involving a rare form of stress-induced amnesia?
You decide and let me know: What do you think?
Drop me a line at:
http:www.desertcitiesmystery.com
where I have a few mysteries of my own!
* Around 4 billion copies of Agatha Christie’s novels have been sold worldwide.
* Agatha Christie books rank third, after Shakespeare and the Bible, as the most widely-published.
* Agatha Christie acquired her extensive knowledge of poisons by working in the pharmacy at London’s University College Hospital.
* Agatha Christies wrote romance novels using a pen name, Mary Westmacott, as well as 66 detective novels, numerous short stories and plays.
* Agatha Christie became Dame Agatha Christie courtesy of Queen Elizabeth II.
* All of the above.
If you said all of the above you are correct.
That’s astounding! You would be hard-pressed to come up with a more impressive resume for any writer in history, male or female. It is all the more remarkable that much of what this prolific author achieved occurred while the Western world was still debating the role of women. The predominant ethos of the time favored a view of women as atavistic or childlike in their potential to govern themselves. Perhaps, morally bereft, and yet, so enticing—the beguiling Eve, tempting Adam to damnation with that apple.
What if I told you there was an episode in this woman’s life that rivaled anything found in the pages of Christie’s mystery novels? What happened? Why? It’s 9:45 p.m. Friday December 3, 1926. The woman is well-known with the release of her sixth book, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It was a hit. Still there was trouble afoot.
After kissing her daughter goodnight, Christie climbs into her green Morris Cowley and goes for a drive. The next morning her car is found abandoned. The car has rolled down an embankment and into a tree. The door is ajar, lights on, a small suitcase and other items are strewn about. One of those items is an expired driver’s license belonging to Agatha Christie.
Where in the world is Agatha Christie? Media frenzy ensues. Hundreds of police officers organize with 15,000 volunteers to conduct a massive search of the area in which the car was found. Tracker dogs are no help. They dredge the lake nearby, nothing. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy L. Sayers, Christie’s compatriots on the writing field, go to the scene, to no avail. For ten more days there’s no word about her whereabouts, even after offering £3,000 in reward money. That’s quite a chunk of change, in 1926.
As the days wore on without her return, the police began to suspect foul play. Why? Well, for one thing, they had received a note from the missing woman right before she disappeared saying she feared for her life. They apparently began to take her concern seriously, even after they learned she had sent another note to her brother-in-law saying she was going on vacation. A vacation was not off to a good start, if that was the case. But who could have wanted to abduct her, or worse, wanted her dead?
Enter the cheating husband. Twelve years into their marriage, Archie Christie revealed that he had fallen in love with a woman ten years younger than Agatha who was in her mid-30s at the time. Some sources say he asked for a divorce the night before she disappeared. They quarreled. He left the house to spend the weekend with friends, yes, including his mistress.
Okay, so there’s a potential motive for murder, if she was unwilling to grant him a divorce. What about opportunity? Well, his infidelity, soon exposed to the public, provided him with a great deal of embarrassment but also, an alibi. He was, indeed, with friends, and the other woman, when Agatha Christie disappeared.
How upset was Agatha Christie after discovering that her husband had not only been unfaithful to her, but wanted out of their marriage? It wasn’t the only shock she experienced that year. Her mother died and a number of friends and family members knew she was sad and depressed, even before Archie dropped that bombshell. Was she suicidal, so confused and distraught she wandered off? Was she intent on getting revenge on her faithless husband by causing him to worry about her whereabouts? Was it a tantrum that got out of hand, creating an enormous public scandal and making Archie the target of a police investigation? The investigation continued and debate raged in the headlines of the day.
Meanwhile, outside London, in a fashionable hotel, a woman sat, day after day in the dining room taking her meals alone. She had checked into the hotel on December 4th, as Teresa Neele, one small bag and no companions. All around her, news swirled. The search efforts ramped up, as did police interrogation and surveillance of their chief suspect, Archie Christie, humiliated as his private indiscretion was now very public. Rumors flew as the public demanded to know what had happened to Agatha Christie.
Wait just a moment. What was the ‘other woman’s’ name? Neele, yeah, that’s it, Nancy Neele. The same last name as that given to hotel staff by the quiet woman seated at a table for one. Was is it the last name that convinced a musician at the hotel that Teresa Neele was, in fact, Agatha Christie? She had laughed it off when several hotel guests noted her resemblance to the missing woman splashed across the headlines. When the musician finally reported his suspicions to the police, they sent Archie Christie to the hotel to identify the woman. Tuesday, December 14, when Archie arrived, Agatha reportedly commented, "Fancy, my brother has just arrived."
What was that about? Was she suffering from some sort of dissociative condition? Had she lost it completely, forgotten who she was when she checked into that hotel under an assumed name? A whole new wave of speculation and accusation was set off by the discovery of Agatha Christie in that hotel, hidden away in a swanky setting as the world searched furiously for her for ten days.
Doctors were called in upon Christie’s return to her home. They claimed that Christie had indeed suffered a bout of amnesia, brought on by the trauma associated with her mother’s death. A rare condition, to be sure, many remained unconvinced. She did awfully well finding her way to that hotel after her car ended up in a ditch. Not only did she have to walk back to town and find transportation to London, where it was later revealed she had spent the night at her secretary’s house. But, she had to make her way to that lovely hotel, check in without looking too disheveled or disembodied, to draw attention to herself. None of that could have happened unless she had plenty of cash with her at the time. Was it coincidence, delusion, or revenge that she had checked into the hotel using the surname that belonged to her husband’s paramour?
Some members of the disgruntled public went so far as to claim the whole incident had been a publicity stunt. Her latest book had done quite well, but sales skyrocketed after that incident. At some point, when he came under suspicion for the murder of his wife, Archie Christie was quoted in the Daily News as saying: “My wife said to me, some time ago, that she could disappear at will and would defy anyone to find her. This shows the possibility of engineering her disappearance was running through her mind.” He believed that she was capable of resorting to such a stunt.
Perhaps, it was enough to have masterminded such an event as a way to set him up to experience the humiliation and dread she must have felt when Archie revealed his deceit. In a fictionalized account of the story, the 1979 movie Agatha, it’s suggested she may have intended to commit suicide, perhaps with the idea of framing her husband for her disappearance. That remains a matter for speculation.
Agatha Christie never mentioned the incident again. She and Archie divorced in 1928 and he married his mistress Nancy Neele. In 1930 Agatha Christie remarried, this time to Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, a British Archeologist. In Agatha Christie: An Autobiography, published in 1977, after her death, she revealed: “So, after illness, came sorrow, despair, and heartbreak. There is no need to dwell on it. I stood out for a year, hoping he would change. But he did not. So ended my first married life.” Rather cryptic, to the end!
Okay, what’s your theory of her disappearance?
Was it a publicity stunt to boost sales of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd?
Was it an act of revenge towards Archie and a bid to embarrass him, or to frame him for her kidnapping and disappearance? Was it a nervous breakdown, involving a rare form of stress-induced amnesia?
You decide and let me know: What do you think?
Drop me a line at:
http:www.desertcitiesmystery.com
where I have a few mysteries of my own!
September 2, 2014
SUMMER'S END
It seems hard to believe that summer’s over. We just celebrated Labor Day weekend, here in the U.S., so it must be true. Kids all over the country have gone back to school, and the College football season has started. Soon, in the parts of the country where there are big leafy deciduous trees, the leaves will start to turn and the air will be tinged with a chill. Scarves and sweaters will suddenly appear; jackets and mittens to follow. That glorious riot of autumn color will surrender to a winter world of muted shades.
Here in California, the desert in particular, it’s a land of endless summer. Still there are changes of season, albeit more subtle. It does cool down, yay! That means those of us who enjoy hiking can take to the trails again. The snow birds and tourists who fled from the summer heat will make their way back, drawn by blue skies and sunshine. As the prodigal sons and daughters of the desert return, the pace picks up. The ‘season’ here moves into full swing mid-January, but the streets and shops in Palm Springs, and throughout the Coachella Valley, will start to jump and jive long before that.
I don’t know about you but there’s a kind of wistfulness that goes with summer’s end. “Summer time and the livin’ is easy,” so goes the lyric from that Porgy and Bess tune paying tribute to the season. It’s not so much the weather, although that does matter. You wear fewer clothes in the summer, so easier to just pick up and go if the mood strikes you. Even here sweaters and jackets will put in an appearance soon. If it drops into the sixties that’s parka weather for a lot of us full-time, desert dwellers.
That’s hardly a reason to feel nostalgic about the passing of another summer. Maybe it’s a holdover from all the years when, as a child, summer felt like freedom. Remember how liberating it was? No school bells ringing, with sanctions for being a few minutes late. No juggling tasks all day long, then, coming home and worrying about getting your homework done. With all that free time, summer wasn’t just easy, but filled with adventure. California summers in and around San Diego were spent at the beach swimming or body surfing; at tide-pools, grunion runs, cooking out or camping out. Hiking up into the mountains and through canyons, you never knew what you might find around the next bend or over the next ridge. Those languid days lasted a long time—sunsets and bed times pushed back. Even after dark there were balmy breezes, not to mention fireflies, massive silvery moons and starry nights. All set up as the perfect backdrop to a first kiss.
Shorter, cooler, darker, busier—those are the promises of autumn days. No wonder we sigh a little as summer passes. We’ll adjust quickly, though. We have to because on the heels of summer’s end is a rush of celebrations—Halloween, Yom Kippur, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve...whew! That’s on top of back-to-school get-togethers, tailgating and the usual birthday and anniversary celebrations, wedding showers and baby showers. Did I say whew? So be it. Bring on the planning and prepping. We’re ready after those, long, lazy summer days. Let the partying begin!
Hey, wait a minute. Why not bring a hint of summer along? Let’s do potluck and Secret Santa’s instead of formal dinners and buying something for everyone at the school or office. When we carve the pumpkin or that turkey why not carve out a tiny wedge of time for doing nothing, or indulging ourselves in a good book and mug of spicy cider or mulled wine? If we can have Christmas in July, why not surf’s up in October or November?
Here in California, the desert in particular, it’s a land of endless summer. Still there are changes of season, albeit more subtle. It does cool down, yay! That means those of us who enjoy hiking can take to the trails again. The snow birds and tourists who fled from the summer heat will make their way back, drawn by blue skies and sunshine. As the prodigal sons and daughters of the desert return, the pace picks up. The ‘season’ here moves into full swing mid-January, but the streets and shops in Palm Springs, and throughout the Coachella Valley, will start to jump and jive long before that.
I don’t know about you but there’s a kind of wistfulness that goes with summer’s end. “Summer time and the livin’ is easy,” so goes the lyric from that Porgy and Bess tune paying tribute to the season. It’s not so much the weather, although that does matter. You wear fewer clothes in the summer, so easier to just pick up and go if the mood strikes you. Even here sweaters and jackets will put in an appearance soon. If it drops into the sixties that’s parka weather for a lot of us full-time, desert dwellers.
That’s hardly a reason to feel nostalgic about the passing of another summer. Maybe it’s a holdover from all the years when, as a child, summer felt like freedom. Remember how liberating it was? No school bells ringing, with sanctions for being a few minutes late. No juggling tasks all day long, then, coming home and worrying about getting your homework done. With all that free time, summer wasn’t just easy, but filled with adventure. California summers in and around San Diego were spent at the beach swimming or body surfing; at tide-pools, grunion runs, cooking out or camping out. Hiking up into the mountains and through canyons, you never knew what you might find around the next bend or over the next ridge. Those languid days lasted a long time—sunsets and bed times pushed back. Even after dark there were balmy breezes, not to mention fireflies, massive silvery moons and starry nights. All set up as the perfect backdrop to a first kiss.
Shorter, cooler, darker, busier—those are the promises of autumn days. No wonder we sigh a little as summer passes. We’ll adjust quickly, though. We have to because on the heels of summer’s end is a rush of celebrations—Halloween, Yom Kippur, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve...whew! That’s on top of back-to-school get-togethers, tailgating and the usual birthday and anniversary celebrations, wedding showers and baby showers. Did I say whew? So be it. Bring on the planning and prepping. We’re ready after those, long, lazy summer days. Let the partying begin!
Hey, wait a minute. Why not bring a hint of summer along? Let’s do potluck and Secret Santa’s instead of formal dinners and buying something for everyone at the school or office. When we carve the pumpkin or that turkey why not carve out a tiny wedge of time for doing nothing, or indulging ourselves in a good book and mug of spicy cider or mulled wine? If we can have Christmas in July, why not surf’s up in October or November?
