August 2023 – Ink-Stained Wretches

AND THE GRANDE DAMES OF MYSTERY

Reprint by Francine Paino AKA F. Della Notte

Originally submitted in 2021, I thought the story of the grand old men and women of mystery was worth a reprint. At the end, I have added three books not on the original list, presenting additional feisty, not-to-be ignored seniors who make their way through crimes – sometimes committing them.

Overall, fiction provides a brief respite from the realities in our lives. In those few precious hours of distraction, we shut off the conscious minds’ worries and efforts to find solutions to problems or imagine worst-case scenarios. In real-life crises, the subconscious must see an issue with fresh eyes and a different perspective, perhaps even finding a new approach. The most popular category for that escape in the U.S., as revealed by Nielson Bookscan Services, is the mystery/thriller/crime novels, which beat all others by two to one. But if we seek to escape from real-life problems, why is this genre more popular than romance or comedy?

Explanations are offered everywhere, even in psychology periodicals. One reason for the popularity of murder, mayhem, and crime is that they allow a safe way to immerse oneself in high drama without the destructive aftermath touching the reader in reality. Another is that it is exciting to be emotionally flung about as if on an amusement park ride. Then there is the experience of entering the criminal’s mind—oh, horror—something we don’t get to see in real life—at least not before the evil deed is done. Readers can also figure out, see, or at least suspect what will happen before it happens, and hopefully, by the end, there is the satisfaction of Yes. Makes sense. It was in the clues all along. Most often, that is not the case in real life. These reasons help explain why this genre is the most popular, but why are stories with elderly sleuths so well-liked?

Unlike the many Mediterranean, Native American Indian, and Asian cultures, and despite the growing economic difficulties and stresses on those societies’ families, their elderly are respected; their knowledge and wisdom are put to good use, whereas in the U.S., youth has become a preoccupation. It has the mind of younger people so entrapped in worrying about maintaining youthful looks that they often miss the grace, wisdom, and knowledge acquired with age and experience.

Aging in a culture that puts enormous emphasis on being young or appearing youthful creates a constant struggle for those susceptible to that fetish. Yet,—interest in stories employing older people in mysteries is widespread – even among the more youthful readers.

In mystery fiction, older protagonists have already made the mistakes that younger detectives haven’t yet experienced. Whether professional or amateur, senior detectives see the world through more experienced and seasoned eyes. Thus, their mistakes are different and perhaps even more enjoyable.

Neha Patel, writing for Book Riot, suggests several mystery thriller books starring older women, starting with the Grande Dame of Mystery, Miss Marple, who at age 70 solved the first of her 13 mysteries in Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie.

Before She Was Helen, by Caroline B. Cooney, explores the dangers of confronting your own past life.

In Three Things About Elsie, by Joanna Cannon, the sleuth is 84 years old, and in Partners In Crime, by Gallagher Gray, Lil is a feisty woman of 84 who considers herself “84-years-young,” and has a love of playing detective and Bloody Marys. (My kinda-gal!)

A metaphysical mystery/thriller, Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh, has a 72-year-old widow coming across a haunting. The only clue is a note saying, “Her name was Magda.”

Writing for Early Bird Books, Paul Wargelin offers a list of feisty, intelligent, and frequently underestimated amateur sleuths over 60, beginning with Grey Mask, by Patricia Wentworth, about a retired governess. Written two years before Agatha Christie’s first Miss Marple novel, Ms. Wentworth went on to write 32 Miss Silver mysteries.

In Tish Plays the Game, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, Tish Carberry isn’t suited for retirement activities, preferring to use her idle hands and mind to solve mysteries.

Stephanie Matteson’s Murder at the Spa introduces Charlotte Graham, a successful actress who, after four decades of screen and stage success, takes on the role of a sleuth in real life.

“Does age really bring wisdom?” asks Rochelle Melander. She writes, “Recent studies affirm this adage. Older adults…recover quickly after making mistakes and use their brains more efficiently than younger adults.” In Melander’s article Crime Fiction: Savvy Sleuths Over 50, she offers some fascinating crime stories featuring elderly sleuths.

Celine, by Peter Heller. Celine is an artist and P.I. in her late 60s. In Rage Against the Dying, by Becky Masterman, a 59-year-old ex-FBI agent is haunted by the unsolved murder of her protégé. After an attempt on her life, she needs to unearth the truth.

Not to be accused of gender discrimination, here are two books starring elderly gentlemen. Don’t Ever Get Old, by Daniel Friedman, is about an 87-year-old retired Memphis police officer, Buck Schatz, who learns that a Nazi officer who’d tortured him might still be alive with a stash of hidden gold. He teams up with his grandson, and they get more than they bargained for.

Summer of the Big Bachi, by Naomi Hirahara, is set in L.A. and Hiroshima. Japanese-American gardener Mas Arai, age 69, is hiding a secret. He faces bachi—the spirit of retribution when a stranger asks about his old gambling buddy Joji Haneda. Joji is murdered, and Mas must try to make things right.

Perhaps one of the qualities that fascinate readers, and they may not even realize it, is that often the elderly almost disappear, even standing in plain sight. They are overlooked, leaving them free to move about, observe, listen, eavesdrop, and study circumstances without anyone realizing what they’re doing.

These, and many other senior Grande Dames and Grands Hommes of mystery, show how being older does not mean life stops. There is still inquisitiveness, a desire for adventure, and the need to use one’s brain. There are still mysteries and crimes to be solved—they do it with humor, grace, and aplomb.

Grab a bunch and enjoy!

PS: Add to the original list:

Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, series, featuring the senior citizens of a retirement home.

Catherine Ingel-Sundberg’s, The Little Old Lady who Broke All the Rules, starring 79-year-old Martha Anderson and her four oldest friends, self-dubbed, the league of pensioners.

Robert Thorogood’s, The Marlow Murder Club, headed up by feisty 77-year-old, Judith Potts.

Writers are always told to read widely and voraciously because you can’t write if you don’t read. With that suggestion usually comes a list of recommended reading, stories which are meant to exemplify the best writing.

I’ve been contemplating “best of” and “recommended reading” lists of short stories lately. I like to peruse the lists to see which stories would make my own personal list, which ones I’ve read, and which ones I haven’t read. Sometimes the lists inspire me to seek out the titles I haven’t read. Other times, I shrug my way through a list, wondering why someone thought “that” title deserved such a coveted spot.

Some stories on the lists went in one ear and out the other, leaving little behind other than the ability to say, “Oh, yeah, I read that.”

Other stories moved into my brain and took up residence. For the purposes of this blog, I’m calling those stories the most memorable.

The first short stories I remember reading that affected me so profoundly that they stuck in my memory with a single reading were by Ray Bradbury. “All Summer in a Day,” which I first read in junior high, made me feel ill, horrified by the casual cruelty of children towards their classmate. A few years later, I remember the sense of dread from reading “There Will Come Soft Rains.” While I read Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” around the same time as I read “All Summer in a Day,” and I remember it clearly, it didn’t haunt me the way the Bradbury stories did.

Poe, 1849 “Annie” Daguerrotype, Wikipedia.

In fact, when I began to make a personal list of short stories that stuck with me over the years, I realized that many of the short stories I remembered the best had inspired unease, dread, or anxiety. Of course, in the case of Edgar Allan Poe, making a shiver run down one’s spine was his goal. Who isn’t made uneasy by the idea of being walled into a basement and left to die, as in “The Cask of Amontillado”?

While what one human could do to another or to humanity as a whole is terrifying, somehow, when the enemy is nature and the danger is impersonal and implacable, the dread I felt was even worse. That is why Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” stayed with me.

Disgust made Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” memorable. The less said about that novella, the better.

The characters willing to give up their prized possessions for each other in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” rather than inspiring me, perplexed and annoyed me. I remember thinking that if those people had communicated better, the end result would have been much better. But then I’m not one for trying to surprise people with gifts. The story remained in my brain though. Of O. Henry’s works, I preferred “The Ransom of Red Chief” for its humor.

Humor is why Thurber’s “Sitting in the Catbird Seat” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” stayed with me in spite of their more serious themes.

For humor coupled with shock and horror, I have to list Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” I did not see where that one was going, so it shocked me. The form of the story is also startling, disobeying all the rules one is generally taught for short story writing.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories made an impact en masse. But I read them long after Encyclopedia Brown short stories taught me the form of a detective story as a child.

I can think of other memorable stories, but the ones above top my list. Listing memorable novels would take a whole separate blog. How about you? Do you have a particular story or list of stories that have stuck with you when others have faded away?

*****

N. M. Cedeño is a short story writer and novelist living in Texas. She is active in Sisters in Crime- Heart of Texas Chapter and is a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Find out more at nmcedeno.com