|
I love mysteries and thrillers. Always have.
When I was in my early teens, I read every single one of Agatha Christie's mysteries, in one summer (mysteries bring out the obsessive in a person). All the Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence and the rest. And being not only a fan, but also a trifle pushy (which would serve me well in my later reporting career at The Wall Street Journal), I wrote a letter to Dame Agatha on the occasion of her 80th birthday.
I didn't just send her best wishes. No. Wise guy and teenage know-it-all that I was, I pointed out where in later novels she'd re-used plot elements (including "The Murder of Roger Aykroyd") and certain situations. And of course which books of hers I really, really loved ("And Then There Were None" and "The ABC Murders" at the time).
To my great surprise, the Queen of Crime sent me a response. A few months after I'd posted my note, I received an airmail letter from Britain at my parent's home in Queens, N.Y. It was written on the thinnest onion-skin paper, and obviously composed on a manual typewriter. It was signed in a spidery hand - by Agatha Christie! I was...flabbergasted (a word I'd only encountered up to that point in Agatha Christie novels).
In her response, Dame Agatha combined the lethal kindness of Miss Marple with the Belgian sangfroid of Hercule Poirot.
Not only did she thank me for reading all her novels at such a young age - naturally I had told her that I was 14 at the time, patting myself on the back for being so industrious and ahead of other boys - she thanked me most politely for pointing out where she'd re-used some plot elements.
Of course, she made sure to tell me that she realized what she was doing (she was a professional after all, a concept I didn't understand at the time). What she was doing - and this was the kind of slap in the face that only someone as skilled as she could deliver with such suavity - she wanted to explore different aspects of crime by using a certain particular plot element and trying it from a different angle. Humans were complicated and unpredictable, worthy of continual reconsideration. Left unsaid, of course, was that in all my callow youth, I hadn't noticed how she'd changed what I had considered a lazy formula. I
hadn't noticed the craft behind it all.
Several decades later, I'm still in thrall to the mystery and thriller (and still remember as if it were yesterday receiving that letter from one of the most popular writers of all time). And I know that if you're reading this newsletter, you're the kind of person who might have considered sending a letter to your favorite mystery or thriller writer yourself. Though it's likely you wouldn't have been as tone deaf as I was all those years ago.
But what we want to do in "The Criminal Element," our new monthly newsletter highlighting the wealth of exciting and absorbing crime fiction from MacMillan, is to give you the kind of behind-the-scenes talk about craft, community and writing that Agatha Christie provided to me.
There are many descendants of Agatha out there, and many other writers of excellent thrillers and mysteries of all sorts who want to connect with their fans, and provide a window into their inspiration, their craft, their art. Today, the universe of mysteries and thrillers is large, and sometimes difficult for readers to navigate amid such a wealth of material. Our goal is to help you choose, to help you discover a new author or rediscover a classic one.
"The Criminal Element" combines some of the features of our previous newsletters The Labyrinth and Picador Crime, including brief interviews with authors, and expands on them to give you a new opportunity to explore the variety of mysteries, thrillers and novels of suspense we publish.
Each month you will find a feature that illuminates the ways in which authors of mystery and crime novels examine our behavior, our relationships, our worlds. This month, we look at the espionage genre, and how our fictional fascination with spycraft grew.
"The Criminal Element" will also feature an in-depth interview with a featured author we think you should know better. This month, it's Paul Doiron, whose debut novel, "The Poacher's Son," has received rave pre-publication reviews.
Ireland a half century back features in our look at Benjamin Black's "Elegy for April," the latest thriller from the acclaimed Irish author John Banville, who uses his Benjamin Black pen name to craft satisfying tales of truth and lies.
We've got an ambitious program planned for you as we move ahead with future issues of "The Criminal Element," including contests, interactive maps of cities featured in novels by our authors, and more.
This is just the start of our commitment to offering you a new destination for more about your favorite crime writers and for a discussion of what interests you. Yes - we'd like to hear from you, and direct your questions and your thoughts to today's Agatha Christies of all stripes. So tell us about your favorite writers, favorite mysteries, the kind of book you want us to highlight, the author you want to hear from.
Write to us at: [email protected]
Robert J. Hughes
Editor
The Criminal Element
[back to top]
| 
