A tribute to crime fiction

I love crime and mystery fiction. Many are of the opinion that crime fiction is not “literature at all”. The practitioners of “classical literature” like to look upon the writers of this genre as inferior to them. This discrepancy is more profound in Bengali literature. The amount of crime fiction written for adults in contemporary Bengali literature is negligible. For children and young adults, however, the situation is not that bad; on the contrary, some juvenile magazines are actually overdosing the young readers with crime fiction. However, I will not go into this controversy any further. But the only thing I want to say is that it is not easy to write a good crime story. The writer needs to focus on building the mystery properly, as well as on the solution of the crime committed, tying up all the loose ends nicely and logically in the process. Also, the writer has to be well-versed in the police procedural and other details involved in the field.

In the last 2-3 years, I have read a number of crime fictions by various authors. Agatha Christie has been, and will be, my all time favorite in this genre. Leaving her aside, I would like to mention about a few authors whose works I have enjoyed during this period.

At the top of this list, I have Val McDermid. She is a Scottish author, and writes two very successful series- one featuring Dr.Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, and another is Lindsay Gordon, a journalist. Along with these, she has also written some standalone novels. Among these, A Place of Execution deserves special mention.  The novel has two parallel storylines: one in 1963 and the other the present day (1999). Winner of various awards, this novel is a must for all mystery lovers.

 Tony Hill-Carol Jordan series is also enjoyable.  The Mermaids Singing is the first in this series, where we come across Dr. Tony Hill, who is a clinical psychologist. Teaming up with Detective Inspector Carol Jordan, Dr. Hill acts as a profiler for solving serial killing cases. A profiler is one who tries to build up the characteristics of an offender (killer) based on the clues obtained from the crime scene.  This helps to predict the future movements of the killer so that the police can trap and arrest him. McDermid has shown the methods of criminal profiling in minute details and great expertise. All the novels of this series are good, especially The Mermaids singing and Fever of the Bone. McDermid has the ability to hook her readers from the start. However, the details of the killings are sometimes gory.

Dashiell Hammett is my other favorite. Himself a Pinkerton detective, he is known as the Father of Hard-boiled detective fiction in the USA. He has created many legendary characters. Sam Spade is one of them. Although he has appeared in a single novel (The Maltese Falcon) and only a few short stories, but his characterization and style have influenced many private investigators of later years.

 Nick and Nora Charles, a charismatic couple who “loves to solve murder mysteries over a couple of drinks”, is another creation of Hammett. They have appeared in The Thin Man, which is a tout murder mystery. Once again, Hammett never brought back this couple in his subsequent works.

The only character that appeared frequently in Hammett’s works is the nameless Continental Op.  A private investigator of the Continental Detective Agency’s San Francisco office, he has appeared in two novels: The Red Harvest and The Dain Curse. Apart from these, he is the protagonist in a number of short stories. A man of strange principles, the Continental Op is “free of any human feelings” and a master manipulator. To him, the goodwill of his agency and the interest of his client are the only matters of interest.  The stories are collected in the books The Continental Op, The Big Knockover and Nightmare Town.

Hammett’s stories are action-packed and fast-paced. The detectives are beaten up and jailed often. The readers may question their morality in occasions, but in the end, the cases are solved and the criminals are either caught or killed. The detectives’ ways of operation are different from their “classical” counterparts. Although a fan of classical detective fiction, I love Hammett’s detectives, especially the Continental Op.

The name of Philip Marlowe is well-known to mystery fans worldwide. Raymond Chandler’s iconic creation, Marlowe is a classical example of a hard-boiled detective. He has appeared in all of Chandler’s novels (altogether 7) and a few short stories. A lover of Bourbon Whisky, Marlowe knows the city of Los Angeles like the palm of his hand.  All of Chandler’s novels give a vivid description of city life; especially Los Angeles during the ‘40s and ‘50s is described nicely.  The branch of “hard-boiled crime fiction”, as started by Hammett, has been further refined and popularized by Chandler.

 One interesting feature I noticed in Chandler’s novels is that the initial case is quite simple.  But as Marlowe starts dealing with it, he stumbles upon dead bodies, double crosses, threats, secrets and the overall scenario gets very complicated. Being 100% loyal to the client, Marlowe doggedly fights against all odds, and tries to provide justice for his client. Among the novels, my favorites are The Long Goodbye, The Big Sleep, The High Window and Farewell, My Lovely.

Apart from these three writers, I have enjoyed the works of Steve Hamilton (The Lock Artist), Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse series), Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael series) and Peter Lovesey (Sergeant Cribb series).  Recently, I have heard a lot of good things about Keigo Higashino, author of mystery novels like The Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint. I am waiting to get hold of these books and hopefully, will love them.

I wish all the writers of this genre all over the world good luck and hope that they will continue to puzzle readers like me through their creations, continuing the guessing game forever.

The pictures of the authors have been taken from the internet.

M for Mystery

My first introduction to mystery stories was through my grandfather, who used to read a lot of story books borrowing from the local library. The book was titled Doshhu Mohan, written by Sasadhar Datta. Mohan was the Bengali version of Robinhood, and was quite famous in those days. There were 10-12 volumes in all(the exact number I cannot recollect) , each consisting of five or six novels. My grandfather read them all, and coping up with his fast pace, I also managed to read almost all of them, if not all.

The novels of Mohan were more action and thriller rather than mystery, and were not quite fit for boys of my age (I was 7-8 then), although that aspect was not able to restrain me from reading those. After the Mohan series got finished, I started reading Hemendrakumar Roy, the stories of Jayanta-Manik, which were very adventurous and full of action. The TV serial Aabar Jokher Dhan was the main source which drew me towards them.

When I was in class V or VI, I got introduced to Kiriti Roy, and after a short while, to the one and only Prodosh C Mitter. It was then that I got to know the actual taste of mystery stories, where the brain was more powerful than the muscle. I must say that I liked Feluda much better than Kiriti, the level of satisfaction on reading Feluda was much higher than that of Kiriti. The presence of Topshe and Jatayu and the characterisation of Feluda made them much more lively and attractive.

While I was swallowing Feluda and Kiriti, I had read some bengali translations of Sherlock Holmes, but did not like it. In class VIII, I got hold of the unabridged full volume of Sherlock Holmes in english from my uncle (I borrowed the book, and have not returned yet!) . That was my introduction to mystery in English literature, and the person of 221B, Baker Street completely mesmerised me. The intricate details and the way of solving the crimes from the simplest of clues astomished me to the hilt.

I got introduced to Byomkesh Bakshi much later, just after my class 10 Board exams. It is really unfortunate that I did not read Byomkesh before. But when I finally read, it was a nice experience. I got the same razor-sharp intellect and intricate logical reasoning as that in Holmes, and Byomkesh occupied my top list among the Bengali detectives, dethroning Feluda.

I had heard the name of Agatha Christie from my mother but did not quite get a chance to grab her books. The college library gave me that opportunity. During the 3 years in my college, I finished almost the entire Agatha Christie collection. No other stories had that capability of holding the mystery till the end, where you get to know the real culprit in the last page. Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot both have their own unique characteristics, and according to me, Agatha Christie is the most prolific mystery writer in English.

Recently, I read a novel by P D James, featuring her protagonist Adam Dalgliesh, a commander in Scotland Yard. I liked the novel very much, and am planning to finish the works of P D James one by one.

Through this post, I would like to pay homage to all the detectives mentioned above and also to their creators, who have been overshadowed by their own creations.