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[Re-release] Mysteries Without Murder
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This is a re-release of an episode originally published September 27, 2022. New episodes of Clued in Mystery will return after a summer break.
What do you turn to when you’re looking for a mystery without murder? In this week’s episode, Brook and Sarah discuss some less violent, but very satisfying, mysteries.
Books, films, and TV shows discussed
Super Structure: The Key to Unleashing the Power of Story (2015) James Scott Bell
Gaudy Night (1935) Dorothy L Sayers
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts (2019) Kate Racculia
“L” is for Lawless (2009) Sue Grafton
“The Purloined Letter” (1844) Edgar Allan Poe
Gone Girl (2012) Gillian Flynn
Girl With a Dragon Tattoo (2005) Stieg Larsson
The Other Black Girl (2021) Zakia Delila Harris
National Treasure (2004)
The Mummy (1999)
Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
Ace of Spades (2021) Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
One of Us is Next (2020) Karen M. McManus
Agent Running in the Field (2019) John le Carré
The Last Thing He Told Me (2021) Laura Dave
The Circle (2013) Dave Eggers
Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
Scooby Doo
“The Theft of the Royal Ruby” (1961) Agatha Christie
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Last Séance (2019) Agatha Christie
Jane Eyre (1847) Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights (1847) Emily Brontë
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series Alexander McCall Smith
References
https://cozy-mystery.com/blog/cozy-mystery-book-without-a-murder/
For more information
Instagram: @cluedinmystery
Contact us: [email protected]
Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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Transcript
Announcement and Theme Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, it's Sarah. Brooke and I are taking a short break from recording new episodes to catch up on our reading lists and plan for the next season of Clued in Mystery. While we're off, we are re-releasing a few of our favorite episodes. We hope you enjoy.
Exploring Non-Murder Mystery Elements
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah.
00:00:27
Speaker
I'm Brooke and we both love mystery. Brooke, today we are talking about something a little different, mysteries that aren't murder. Yeah, we're taking a little departure from the traditional murder mystery. So to get us started, I will read just a little summary of this
00:00:48
Speaker
maybe a sub-sub genre. And you know, here on the podcast, the stories we discuss usually include a baffling murder. But today we're taking a look at the plots with nary a corpse to be found. Mysteries can be built around any crime, really, such as sabotage, arson, robbery, kidnapping, or blackmail. Sometimes there's a puzzle to be solved or an item to recover, referred to as a MacGuffin in the world of mystery.
00:01:17
Speaker
Maybe there's a hunt for a buried treasure or a hunt for a person selling confidential information. Any and all of these scenarios offer secrets, lies, twists, and turns for a sleuth to unravel.
Why is Murder Central to Mysteries?
00:01:30
Speaker
In other words, the making of an intriguing mystery.
00:01:34
Speaker
So if any crime is good fodder for an investigation, why did the genre get so solidly planted in murder? This is likely because physical death is the worst case scenario and creates the highest stakes for the sleuth. What could possibly be worse than a dead body with apparently no explanation?
00:01:56
Speaker
James Scott Bell explains in his book Superstructure that all story is about the risk of death, either literally or figuratively.
Non-Violent Mystery Examples
00:02:06
Speaker
It may be the death of one's reputation that is at stake, the death of innocence, the death of career and livelihood, or of an important relationship. It's this risk of loss that keeps us turning the page.
00:02:22
Speaker
Some fans of the genre are traditionalists and believe that to be a satisfying mystery, there must be a murder. But I bet we can all think of some favorite titles that aren't strewn with corpses. Cozies and mysteries meant for younger audiences are a great place to find less violent stories. Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers is one cozy without murder. In this novel, a mysterious person sets off a series of incidents in a women's college in Oxford
00:02:52
Speaker
in order to create a scandal. Kate Rakulia's Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts is a middle grade novel that takes readers on an Edgar Allan Poe inspired scavenger hunt through Boston. But PI novels and mystery thrillers can also be based around non-violent crimes. Think Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stag Larson,
00:03:19
Speaker
or El is for Lawless by Sue Grafton. And remember, Inpo's early detective story, amateur sleuth, Monsieur DuPage, was only searching for a missing letter. So Sarah, to begin our conversation, I'm wondering about your opinion. Are nonviolent crimes enough to keep you invested in a mystery?
Personal Insights on Non-Violent Mysteries
00:03:40
Speaker
Absolutely. But before I answer your question, let me say, Brooke, that was a really great summary. And I've learned a new word, MacGuffin. I don't think I'd come across that before.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, so I knew that we were going to be doing this episode and initially thought, I can't think of very many books that I've read that don't have a murder in them. But after a little bit of reflection, I realized that
00:04:08
Speaker
you know, actually there's a fair number that I've read. I would say most of the books that I read do have a murder, but there's certainly some that don't. So I'm currently reading Gody Night, which you just referred to, and I've read Gone Girl and Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.
00:04:27
Speaker
But in the last year, I've read three or four, I think, that don't center around a murder. One of those is The Other Black Girl by Zakia Delilah Harris. And that is really more of a workplace thriller, more of a why done it, as well as a who done it. But it's not a murder that she's trying to solve.
00:04:57
Speaker
What about you, Brooke? Same. I actually, when I got to thinking about it, some of my favorite books have been based more around some puzzle or I love treasure hunt stories. So, you know, the found letter that means something and then you have to discover what in the world is this referring to and it sends them off on this mysterious adventure.
00:05:24
Speaker
I love those stories, especially in film. Some of my favorite mystery movies have been treasure hunt movies like National Treasure. I love that show, even though it's kind of hokey. I love it. I like the mummy, same thing.
The Role of Risk in Mysteries
00:05:42
Speaker
And the mummy, to me, hearkens back to some of the Agatha Christie Egypt mysteries, because the curse and those kind of things. So I really love that.
00:05:54
Speaker
And then I am a huge Albert Hitchcock film fan. And I go back and forth. So rear window, but of course that includes a murder. Rear window is one of my faves, but right up there is vertigo. And yeah, so I think that there definitely can be enough to keep us just as intrigued
00:06:20
Speaker
and have the stakes be just as high when the story is told in that way to keep us turning the page or on the edge of our seat as it were.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah, and I really like what you quoted about all story being at the risk of death and that death not necessarily being a literal death, right? Death of reputation or death of relationship. And I think those drive a lot of these stories that don't have murder as the central theme.
YA Mysteries and Themes of Reputation
00:06:51
Speaker
you know, there's, you know, when we talked about domestic thrillers, we talked about secrets, right? And it's, it's preserving, preserving that secret. So, you know, some of the other books that I was thinking about, particularly around reputation, there's Ace of Spades by Farida Abique Emide, which
00:07:15
Speaker
is a YA mystery set in a high school where there are poison pen notes being circulated by text message and trying to figure out who is behind really trying to destroy the reputation of the main characters.
00:07:33
Speaker
And there are some other examples in YA, you know, I think of Karen McManus' One of Us is Next, which there is a death, but, you know, that's not the core of the story. It's not a murder investigation as much as trying to figure out who is it that, again, is trying to harm the reputations of the characters.
00:07:59
Speaker
And that's a really good point because sometimes, a lot of times, I should say, in these stories, the initial crime that's being investigated is not murder, but there's the threat of death, physical death, if you don't figure out what's going on. There's that fear that, for instance, in kidnapping, that's an obvious fear. If we don't find this person, they could die.
00:08:27
Speaker
searching for the person selling state secrets, the world might end. So the end point could be physical death. And so that's sort of what's trying to be prevented in the investigation. And I think that that makes it really fun because you're worrying along with the sleuth if they're going to get it in time.
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah. And another example, again, just thinking about secrets and like you mentioned, state secrets, John Le Carre's agent running in the field, which highly recommend listening to the audio book because he actually narrates it, which was really, really nice to listen to. You know, there's no murder in that, but it's a question of who's telling secrets and do they realize they're telling secrets and who are they telling them to?
00:09:18
Speaker
The who can you trust is a really big feeling that I get when I read these types of mysteries because the the sleuth or protagonist is always on shaky ground not really knowing who they can trust when they're trying to unravel the the case and I think that that's true in a murder investigation as well but these sometimes feel a little less black and white to me you know the the steps of the investigation aren't quite as spelled out
00:09:49
Speaker
And so I feel like we have a little bit more of that, the gray area and who can I trust and how am I gonna get the information that I need.
Social Media and Privacy in Mysteries
00:09:58
Speaker
A great example of that is Laura Dave's The Last Thing He Told Me, which is a domestic thriller that there's no, you know, I don't think that there's any murder in that. It's a disappearance and they're trying to figure out, you know, why did the character disappear? And again, who can they trust as they try to figure that out? That sounds fantastic.
00:10:22
Speaker
Another one that I thought of, and I don't know if I would characterize this as a mystery, although I did see it on a couple of lists of underrated mysteries, and it was The Circle by Dave Eggers, which
00:10:37
Speaker
is I think it would fall into the category of workplace suspense. And it's as much a commentary on social media and privacy as it is on that, you know, the tension that that comes out of that book around just things happening in the workplace that are that are unexpected. That sounds like a bit of a crossover, a crossover title that would be worth checking out.
Classic and Formulaic Mystery Series
00:11:06
Speaker
Yeah, I read it. I read it a while ago, but I think it might be worth rereading as our focus on social media has kind of, um, has changed since it came out. I think it came out in 2014, I think. And you just think about how much has changed in the last almost 10 years since then. Oh, man. Yeah.
00:11:27
Speaker
You mentioned, you know, young, you know, mysteries for young readers. So, you know, I think most of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys stories would be, you know, they don't have murders. They've got a lot of the kidnappings and the secrets, missing objects, that kind of thing.
00:11:46
Speaker
And they were certainly very satisfying to read as when I was much younger. And I do have a box set of the first 10 Hardy Boys books that I'm planning to start reading at some point soon. And I'm hoping that they'll be just as satisfying as they were then. And actually, I've listened to a couple of the more modern versions of
00:12:13
Speaker
both Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. And they were, yeah, I really enjoyed those. So I think to answer your first question, definitely these books can be satisfying. In mentioning the mysteries for younger people, it brought back, we discussed this earlier when we were in YA Mystery. But you think about Scooby Doo, and those episodes are essentially the exact same story.
00:12:43
Speaker
every episode, right? It's basically the same story with the details changed. But I will sit down and watch one every time. So yes, we can still find satisfaction in a very nonviolent caper sort of mystery. And the stakes, I would say, in that one are they're scared to death. And maybe it is the fear of death when that monster catches me, what's going to happen.
00:13:11
Speaker
but it just hooks you right in and you wanna find out who the disguised monster is. So they pull it off and I will watch one to this day. That's a great example.
00:13:23
Speaker
I was thinking about some of the authors that we think of as writing murder mysteries. So Agatha Christie comes to mind. And I know she wrote some of her short stories where we're not murder mysteries, but solving theft. The example that I can think of is The Christmas Pudding, or I think it's The Theft of the Royal Ruby, where a jewel goes missing.
00:13:51
Speaker
and boy row comes to the rescue and figures out what's happened to it. And yeah, it was, you know, a great read. And I'm sure there are some Sherlock stories that are not murders. Don't know if I can think of any offhand, but I'm sure that there are some where he's investigating a theft. Yes. Our friend Sherry Mitchell suggested Agatha's The Last Séance, which is a short story collection
00:14:21
Speaker
that are essentially paranormal mysteries. And I shouldn't say that none of them contain murder, because it's been a while since I've read the collection, but they're fantastic. And they're much more of that kind of eerie paranormal what's going on mystery. And they're fantastic. So you're right. Some of the greats also dabbled in this, even though I think
00:14:50
Speaker
the core, the Golden Age audience really did love the body drop. That's a great example. I don't think I've read any of the stories from that collection, but it's coming up on spooky season, so maybe I will be reading one or two of those in a dark October night coming up.
Domestic Thrillers and Detective Series
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah, they're great. And they're really short. So they would be a great before, you know, before bedtime read for the spooky season.
00:15:23
Speaker
So Brooke, would you consider Jane Eyre to be a mystery? That is a really great question. And I lean towards yes. And I feel the same way about Wuthering Heights. I feel like that's a bit of a mystery too. And maybe we're back into that sort of domestic thriller subcategory that we
00:15:45
Speaker
that we covered before, but a really early beginning version of those stories where they have a lot of the mystery elements, even though it's not a pure mystery investigation.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, I think I would agree with you. I think I would categorize it as falling under the mystery space, an early example of domestic thriller, because what is it that keeps you reading that story? It's trying to figure out what's going on, right? Yeah, and they're dark. They've got a dark undercurrent.
00:16:24
Speaker
Yeah, I love those stories for that reason, much more than the romance that's involved.
00:16:32
Speaker
So one other series, and it's been a very long time since I've read any of the books in it, but I think certainly in the first book, There is No Murder, is the number one lady's detective agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I don't know if you've read any of those books, but I think they are more around being a detective rather than a
00:16:59
Speaker
sleuth solving murders. I haven't read those, but that series did come up on a list of recommendations if you were looking for a mystery without murder. And we'll post that in our show notes because I came. I found a great list because that's the other thing. I think there is a group of people who love to read mystery that really don't want to read about murder.
00:17:25
Speaker
And so it's good to have some options if you would rather enjoy the ride of solving the puzzle but don't really want it to get violent or gruesome. So we'll include that list.
Book Recommendations and Final Thoughts
00:17:39
Speaker
And I also would recommend for people who feel that way that they lean towards the middle grade or YA mysteries because
00:17:50
Speaker
Those stories are fantastic. And even though the sleuths might be a little younger, I think you still get the same experience of mystery and you're going to get a lot less violence and less deep or dark topics. So I would point people in that direction.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree. I think we talked about that when we were talking about YA, that it can be kind of a lighter take on some of the heavier crimes.
00:18:26
Speaker
So Brooke, thanks for this conversation. I think it was really good to explore some of these non-murder mysteries. It was really fun. And I'm going to pay closer attention and kind of start tracking the stories I read that fall into this category. So everyone, thank you for joining us once again on Clued In Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery.
00:18:50
Speaker
Clued in Mystery is produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers at Silvermansound.com. Visit us online at cluedinmystery.com or social media at Clued in Mystery. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or telling your friends.