Quirky Characters

Transcript

Speaker: Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke. Hi, Sarah. Today we're going to talk about quirky characters in mystery fiction.

Speaker: Oh, this is such a great topic because I think that quirky characters in mystery often go hand in hand. Definitely. And the genre seems to love them so much. because unusual characters have been a part of mysteries almost from the beginning.

Speaker: I mean, Sherlock Holmes is hardly an ordinary Victorian gentleman. And then Agatha Christie gave us memorable characters like Poirot, Miss Marple, and Ariadne Oliver.

Speaker: That tradition has continued into modern mysteries where an eccentric personality can belong to the sleuth, a sidekick, a suspect, or sometimes even an entire cast of characters.

Speaker: Quirky characters certainly aren't unique to mystery fiction, but they seem especially at home here. And while we most of the time associate them with the more cozy or traditional sector of mysteries, they really do appear across the genre. From those classic detective stories that I mentioned to darker crime fiction, even including thrillers.

Speaker: So today we'll get into why quirky characters work so well in mysteries, the different roles that they play, a few of our favorite examples, and whether there can ever be too much of a good thing.

Speaker: Sounds great. i'm I'm looking forward to this conversation, Brooke. Me too. So first of all, let's define quirky because I think that this is a term that is thrown around in you know book reviews all the time.

Speaker: But to me, I just feel like it's something that is memorable and unconventional about a character. So that is obviously a very broad spectrum. Yeah, and and you know you think about...

Speaker: You want your characters to be memorable, right? You don't want it to be just any old lady sitting in the corner knitting. So you want there to be something that is quirky about them. But I think about Agatha Christie and probably um one of her most quirky characters is, i think, Harley Quinn.

Speaker: Oh, yes. Good example. Yeah. And, you know, there's a bit of like mystery about who is this guy But you think about, you mentioned Ariadne Oliver and ah she loved apples, right? And that's kind of the the thing that you that you think about her. So I think often quirky characters have a thing.

Speaker: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Because the opposite of that would be, as you said, just any woman sitting in the corner, like that's ordinary and predictable. And when you're talking about fiction, normal is boring because we all live in the normal world. And so that's why these like kind of eccentric or unique people make mystery and make story more fun.

Speaker: But I do think that that an author can give a character need to do something. um You know, Poro's obsession with his mustache and, you know, being so organized and a perfectionist, it tells us something about him as a character and it reflects how he solves crime. um And then we have Miss Marple, for instance, and her cozy hobbies such as knitting and being kind of obsessed with village life. Again, it's like the it tells us how she's going to approach a crime. And that's really different from just saying, well, this person had –

Speaker: big purple sunglasses and had a pet llama just to be quirky. Yeah, I think that's um a really good distinction, Brooke. It's not just something they wear, but something they are.

Speaker: Yeah. ah And when I think about quirky characters, you know, i think about Alan Bradley's Flavia DeLuz, who is, you know, this 11 year old, brilliant, incredibly quirky ah sleuth who, as you say, but this impacts her approach to solving the mysteries. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Yeah. And she's a great example and Harley Quinn too, in a way, because I think sometimes as readers, we equate quirky with funny and it doesn't have to be humorous at all. um You know, Flavia is definitely not a like comedic character, but she's so unique and so engaging because of how different she is as, as a little girl. So quirky doesn't necessarily mean funny.

Speaker: No, that's ah that's a great point as well. I just picked up from the library a book and i've I've only just started to read it. But the sleuth is a woman who has just left being a nun.

Speaker: And she's been a nun for a couple of decades. i can't remember if it's 20 or 30 years. And so this obviously impacts the way that she's looking at looking at life, right?

Speaker: So the book is Murder at Gull's Nest by Jess Kidd. And I think for a quirky character to work for me, I have to really connect with them, even if I don't have any shared experiences with them. But as a reader, I have to connect with them from the very beginning.

Speaker: Yeah, that is true. And that speaks to how well the author does, I think, in portraying them as a character and, you know, really developing that and making it seem realistic ah rather than just, like we said, ah some characteristics that they plop on there.

Speaker: But these characteristics do really lend themselves well, I think, to memorability. So, you know, mysteries, we usually have a large cast of characters and or we can at least if you're reading a Christie, there's going to be a large cast of characters.

Speaker: And it does help to have some of these very unique personalities. to remember who is who. Like instead of it just being Mr. Jones, we know, oh, he's the guy who does the card tricks or something like that. Like there's this way to keep track of characters ah when they have these characters unique, unconventional characteristics.

Speaker: As you say, Brooke, like that's really important when you've got a lot of characters. And i think about books that I've struggled with, and it's often because the characters are too similar, right? Is this Mr. Jones or Mr. Smith? They both are, you know, tall, wealthy men,

Speaker: What is it that that makes them different? And so, i you know, I think we're talking not only about um quirkiness in characters, and I think that that definitely helps with memorability, but um as readers looking for each character to be unique, right? ah You talked about this in the introduction. Could you have too much? I think if if every character, like if if there was one character who was always juggling and one character who, um you know, talked in riddles and another character, who like it would be a bit like,

Speaker: Oh my gosh, this is this is too much. um But they're yeah, they're they're you need to have something memorable. So I'm not sure if we're talking about quirkiness or or or memorability. Yeah.

Speaker: And how much those two things overlap. um Yeah, I like what you said. They need to be unique from each other, but they don't necessarily need to each and every one be like super unique in the world.

Speaker: Right. So there's like a ah varying degree of of quirkiness that we're talking about.

Speaker: And kind of related to this, I think that um there's kind of a fun dichotomy that you can set up. If you have a very eccentric sleuth, they sometimes benefit from having the straight man, the Watson or the Hastings type. And then vice versa. If you have a very straight-laced sleuth, then they can have kind of a quirky sidekick. um But there's that balance again, isn't there, that you were talking about? Like everybody can't be completely off the wall.

Speaker: Yeah, I think that's ah a really good observation, Brooke, that um if you've got kind of a partnership as the investigation team, whether it's an amateur sleuth pair or you know traditional police procedural, even there you'll you'll get you know the detective inspector might be very straight-laced, Whereas the constable may be the character that is a little quirkier.

Speaker: Definitely. That brings to mind, um, department Q, which by the way, there's a new season coming up. I can't wait. Mork is very, this is kind of like the grumpy and the sunshine, ah combo. Cause he's very grumpy and, and understandably. So he's been through a lot, but much more, i guess, like kind of that straight laced person.

Speaker: And then we have DC Dixon who is, um She's very colorful, even visually colorful because she has this gorgeous red hair, but she's just bubbly and has a lot more animation. um And they can kind of get on each other's nerves because of that. And that's some some fun conflict. But yeah, that that ability to have a um ah partnership that is balanced is really great.

Speaker: Yeah. And, and as you say that, that tension that can emerge between the more, um, standard character, let's say, and then the quirkier one, whether they're more colorful or, or, um, more playful or whatever, whatever it is that they, ah that makes them different. Uh,

Speaker: That can be a really important part of character development as they both come to appreciate the other's qualities and then figure out how they can work together to to investigate.

Speaker: That's right. I'm just reading one of the books written by S.J. Bennett and her sleuth is Queen Elizabeth who we wouldn't necessarily, based on what we've seen, you know, what we saw of her in news coverage and, and, you know, books about her, nonfiction books about her, you know, a very proper woman.

Speaker: ah she's the head of the Royal family, the queen of England and, and, um, not someone who you think of as being a detective. And S.J. Bennett has written this delightful series.

Speaker: ah So I'm just reading one of the books from from that. And I love how she plays with the queen, having this

Speaker: public persona of being very proper and you know having to be very regal, But then with the behind closed doors, she is quite playful and very thoughtful and very inquisitive, right? And is is kind of managing these investigations to figure out um what has what has happened. So I don't know if I would call her a quirky character because certainly publicly she's not quirky, but she's definitely a memorable character. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. and so far we've kind of been talking about these ah characters' personalities or their manner of dress or something like that as the thing that makes them unique. But as in the case of the queen, sometimes, or or the nun that you mentioned earlier, sometimes the thing that makes them unique

Speaker: um quirky is their regular job or their lifestyle. So because the queen as a sleuth, that just does it, right? we're already We've already got that level of memorability. um And that brought to mind a book that I read earlier this year, and it was Homemaker by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mayer. It was 2025 release. And this...

Speaker: amateur sleuth is stay-at-home mom, right? Like that is something you don't necessarily put together with somebody who's out fighting crime. And on top of that, the authors have made her quite humorous and fun as well. But just a unique job can sometimes um be enough.

Speaker: Exactly, because the character then can bring some of the interesting features of their job into that investigation. So thinking about Queen Elizabeth, she needs to, um she's really investigating on the sly, right? ah Because she's meant to be this...

Speaker: head of the royal family. um And so she's trying to navigate how to, how does she get the answers that she's looking for without compromising any of that public persona that, that, that she has. um And so I think whatever that non-traditional job, let's say that the amateur sleuth has can be brought into the story and really add some, some really interesting color to it.

Speaker: Definitely. And there again, it is a function because it's going to change the way that they see the world, they interact with the world. It's going be very different from and quote unquote normal everyday person.

Speaker: Well, and I like that example of the stay at home mom, because that is something that um a lot of people can relate to, right? Certainly motherhood um and and trying to balance the needs of the family with this investigation. It sounds like it could be quite, um quite an interesting tension.

Speaker: Absolutely. And it it is, I highly recommend it. It was a great, it was a great book to read. Speaking of unique occupations, we both recently read the Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening and actually spoke with Naomi Kuttner, the author here on the show. um And that's ah another example of number one, an occupation that you wouldn't hear about very often. But she's done a great job of placing this um person in a situation that is incredibly uncomfortable for for him. and made a really great set of quirky characters, I think.

Speaker: Right. And a lot of those characters are ghosts, right? Which which is what we talked to her about, that kind of, um that that paranormal element, which I guess is another way of um introducing that memorability.

Speaker: Definitely. But speaking of a um whole cast of quirky characters, I think that... the probably the series that does it best without making it over the top is ah Richard Osman in the Thursday Murder Club. And I think when I say that, people might say, well, they're not quirky. They're just a group of ordinary pensioners living in a, you know, in a community together. But that's the kind of quirky that that Richard Osman does that, you

Speaker: I think works the best. They're all very unique from one another, which you spoke about earlier. um And they all have just something that you you have to remember them. And you you already know by about middle of the first book, how each of them are probably going to take on a situation. You think, oh, Ibrahim is not going to like this. Or, you know, you just kind of get a feel for them right away and their quirks are functional and I just think he does a great job with this ah device.

Speaker: Well and I like what you just said Brooke about that it doesn't take long for the reader to figure out okay how is this character going to react in this situation Because ah you would expect Elizabeth to react differently than Joyce or Abraham when in the same, you know, if if they're faced with the same kind of dilemma. And so,

Speaker: you know, building that expectation for readers, I think is, is also part of that quirkiness that, um, that he does with the characters.

Speaker: Right. And it goes back to something you mentioned earlier, which is you want to be able to hold on to this right off the bat. And he definitely accomplishes that. I think, um,

Speaker: maybe the quirkiest of them all is Ron, but even that is not done over the top. Um, it's just, it's just very tasteful and, you know, I'm sure i am not alone in being able to see each and every one of them in my head. and Yeah.

Speaker: Great example. Well, Sarah, there is a book that I think we should kind of have out on our horizons that's going to fit in great with this topic. and It's by Katie Collum. It's coming out later this fall. and It's called The Terrarium. And in this book, the protagonist is a professional cat sitter.

Speaker: for wealthy clients. So we have this very unique job that I think is a good representation of quirkiness. um But it it sounds great. And ah maybe we'll have to read that and then have a recap on how it fared in this category.

Speaker: i think that's a great idea. and you were talking earlier about kind of unique jobs. Professional cat sitter would definitely be one of them. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Sarah. Today has been so much fun and listeners, we hope you enjoyed it too. But until next time, I'm Brooke.

Speaker: And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app.

Speaker: Visit our website to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued-In Chronicle, and get mystery news, podcast updates, and bonus episodes. We're on social media at CluedInMystery.