Mysteries then and now

It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

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I would like to talk about mystery novels. Many of you write mysteries, and millions of readers enjoy reading mysteries, especially cozy mysteries. I’m not one of them.

For some reason, most mystery writers put their detectives in danger during their investigations. That’s what puts me off mysteries. I dislike reading about people risking their lives, especially decent people, people I sympathize with. One of the rare mystery writers I do enjoy, Dorothy Sayers, wrote about her sleuth Peter Wimsey solving mysteries as intellectual puzzles. There was almost no danger to Peter in any of his novels, and I liked it that way. Agatha Christie wrote in a similar vein, and her worldwide fame speaks for itself. Unfortunately, both  Christie and Sayers were active during the first half of the 20th century. Such mysteries are rare nowadays. 

I recently tried reading Emma Jameson’s mystery series, Lord and Lady Hetheridge. It’s written very well. The series has 7 books in it (so far), and I’ve been reading them one by one. The series started as a police procedural, with little danger to the heroes, and I enjoyed the first few installments. But as the series progressed, the danger to the protagonists escalated. It came to a head in book #5, Blue Blooded, which was my least favorite in the series. I decided not to read more of this series after that. I didn’t want to see the heroes hurt again.

What about you? Do you like mysteries? Are you OK with the heroes getting hurt? Do you know of mysteries where the heroes are not in danger? Do you write mysteries. Tell me in the comments.