Surprising Mystery Authors

Transcript

Speaker: Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. hi Brooke. Hi, Sarah. How are you doing today? I'm doing great and super excited to talk about mystery with you.

Speaker: As always, Brooke, I feel the same. And today we are going to be talking about ah surprising mystery authors. So, Brooke, when you hear the name Milne, what do you think of?

Speaker: automatic Winnie the Pooh. Yeah. and And I think that's the same for almost everybody, right? They think of much loved Winnie the Pooh and his friends Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, and their adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Speaker: And those stories were incredibly popular. But did you know that Milne also wrote Mystery, which may come as a surprise to many people? I think it is very surprising. And he was in good company, wasn't he?

Speaker: He was. And today we are going to talk about authors who surprise you when you learn that they have written a mystery. So someone who is known for other work, who has either written whole series of mysteries or just as a one-off, thought they would give it a try.

Speaker: So I will start by talking a little bit about Milne. His Red House Mystery was published in 1922. It was initially serialized in a publication the previous year.

Speaker: And eat this book, The Red House Mystery, came out

Speaker: four years earlier than the Winnie the Pooh stories, the first collection of Winnie the Pooh stories. He also wrote some mystery plays. So he had one called The Fourth Wall and it was on the Broadway stage and ran for nine months and later became a film called The Perfect Alibi and was ah treated a couple of times by BBC in some of their productions.

Speaker: And what I think is really interesting about Milne is that he was one of the first members of the Detection Club. ah That was just going to be my next question. Was he a member? Because that is like at the very beginning of the detection club. um So that's super interesting to know. He was one of the beginning members. Yeah, and and I didn't uncover whether, i mean, he only wrote a few mysteries. He wrote, obviously, um a couple of collections of of Winnie the Pooh stories. I did see that certainly Christopher Robin, or that character is based on his son, who did not ultimately like being the center of all of that attention. But I got the impression that Milne himself was actually

Speaker: a reluctant children's author, let's say. and that reminded me of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was, you know, of course, wrote all the Sherlock Holmes stories, but that wasn't his passion, writing writing mystery stories or writing stories featuring Sherlock and and Watson.

Speaker: Because he wrote something called The Lost World, which is what inspired Michael Crichton to write his own version of The Lost World, right, about the dinosaurs. But he also wrote some other kind of action-adventory type books. I think that is where Doyle's heart really was, was in those. But the Sherlock stories are the ones that paid the bills.

Speaker: Right. And so maybe Milne was in sort of the same boat, but it happened with Children's Lit for him. But I'm interested because in my head, you know, I hadn't really looked at the publishing dates. I was thinking he was this successful children's author who then decided to try his hand at mystery. i had that reversed. So that's fun to learn.

Speaker: Mm hmm. with Doyle, I think it is the opposite. He was a mystery author and then ah tried his hand at some other things. And then I think he returned to Sherlock, right? He took that little break after after killing Sherlock off. um ah And Yeah, anyway, we can talk. there's There are some other examples. I think both of mystery authors taking on other genres and then authors who are known for writing in other areas taking it taking a crack at writing mystery. So we can talk about about both of those kinds of authors today.

Speaker: Yeah, and maybe why we think this is a genre that people like to dabble in. Because like you said, some people go on and write an entire series, um but then sometimes it's a one-off like bucket list project. So we can maybe talk about why this is an interesting genre for them to try out.

Speaker: Yeah, I think that would be great. um One person who i think, and I'm just speculating here, but I think was, you know, one of those bucket list um opportunities was Gertrude Stein.

Speaker: She wrote a mystery. i had no idea. That's so fun. um So Gertrude Stein, who is, i think, considered kind of one of those one of those authors of classic American literature, but she also wrote some some poetry.

Speaker: She did try her hand at a mystery and it was called Blood on the Dining Room Floor, a murder mystery. It was published in 1948, although she wrote it in the nineteen thirty s And I'm not sure that it did particularly well. I haven't read it. But if I just look at like her Goodreads for that particular book, it's it's three. So, you know, a middle of the road kind of book.

Speaker: I had no idea. But I'm telling you, i wish we would have read her murder mystery when I was in my college lit classes instead of some of the other more literary stuff, because you guys know i would much prefer to read mystery. So that's so fascinating. Yeah, I thought that was I thought that was really interesting as well.

Speaker: Well, while we're on the topic of these classic authors, Isaac Asimov also wrote ah a mystery. He's, of course, mostly known for science fiction. But in 1974, he released Tales of the Black Widowers, and it was a collection of these puzzle mystery stories. And I think they would be really fun to look into because number one, short stories, that's kind of one of those sections of mystery fiction that I don't think it's enough attention. ah And, you know, puzzle mysteries from a science fiction author. I have a feeling that these would be really fascinating and another great title.

Speaker: Yeah, that is a fantastic title. And Brooke, I think that that would be um definitely worth something to look into.

Speaker: You know, I think... i can I don't know. I guess I can see the appeal if you are if you've been writing in a particular genre for a while to just try your hand at something different, right? Even if it's just to see what it's like to write something that...

Speaker: follows a different formula, let's say, than what you traditionally write. And, you know, Agatha Christie, we know that she wrote a couple of romance novels. She wrote them under Mary Wassmacott or published them under Mary Wassmacott as her pen name. um So it it, you know, it's not uncommon for people to do that.

Speaker: Yeah, so the idea of kind of a palate cleanser. um But I also think that mystery is unusually technical, um especially if maybe you're maybe not compared to science fiction, but compared to some other um genres. And I think that it's a good challenge, right? It's a creative challenge to try this other ah genre. um you know And can I pull this off? Can I stand up with the well-known ah mystery authors out there?

Speaker: Well, and you often hear that, right? when When you hear an author talking about why they've written a particular book, it's because, well, I didn't see any mysteries that I wanted to read. And so I i gave it a try.

Speaker: Yeah. yeah um And so maybe it's maybe it's a bit of that as well. For sure. And there's the satisfaction of the resolution and mystery, isn't there? Like if you might be writing horror, which we can talk about somebody who writes horror, um or you might be writing more this speculative fiction, the endings of those books are often very um vague or arbitrary. You wonder, I wonder what happened to the character. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: But to have a story where you get, you know, justice is served, good wins over evil. I don't know. I think that it would feel really good, especially if you had been, as you say, needed a palate cleanser from something that you've been writing that's more ambiguous. Yeah, that's a great point.

Speaker: You mentioned horror. So let's talk a little bit about Stephen King, because I think that's who you were thinking of, who, ah you know, is a very prolific writer of pretty disturbing stories, right? And not not horror in the slasher vein, but really quite a lot of them a lot of them are quite psychological in their in their horror. um But yeah, he's written he's written quite a few mystery books and i I'm not sure that many people think of him as a mystery author. But I really enjoyed the book Holly, which I think was released in 2022, or maybe it was 2023, which is part of, ah which is a recurring character and in several of his is his mystery books. And there is an element of like...

Speaker: i remember i remember listening to it ah and there was kind of one bit where it was a bit gruesome. and And I did kind of think, well, what was I expecting? This is Stephen King.

Speaker: Yeah, there's still Stephen King, right? Yeah. um But ah even Misery, I think I would probably classify that as more of a mystery, right? A domestic thriller, let's say then um than some of his other works. But Holly is a private investigator. And so there's like what you would expect in in that kind of a book.

Speaker: that kind of a book Yes, that's right. And I've also um seen listed Mr. Mercedes from 2014 and Finders Keepers from 2015. So King definitely likes to write mysteries. And as you mentioned, even his horror ah stories have mystery elements. So it's he's one that's a little not very surprising that he would have that crossover to me. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: But someone that is surprising, maybe, perhaps, to someone is Margaret Atwood. And she's, of course, mostly known for her speculative fiction, such as The Handmaid Tale. and ah But she has written at least a couple of mysteries.

Speaker: Alias Grace, which I have not read, but I have watched the Netflix miniseries. it was really good. That was a 1996 book that she wrote. And then also The Blind Assassin from 2000.

Speaker: Yeah, I agree. I think Atwood is not someone that you immediately associate with mystery. Mm hmm.

Speaker: I think when you have somebody who is not writing commercial fiction and they delve into it, that that becomes more surprising than, say, King, who we just mentioned. And also ah j k Rowling, who writes as Robert Galbraith and has a long-running series, the Cormoran Strike series. um Definitely Harry Potter is not a mystery,

Speaker: although it has a lot of mystery elements, I would say. Yeah, I think I would push back, Brooke, and I would say at least the first couple of books are mysteries. Yeah, you're right. There are mysteries contained in the larger story, aren't there? Yeah.

Speaker: But it's not very hard of a stretch to think from where you go from um Harry Potter to a mystery series. Although the jump to a PI series is a little farther than, say, if she had chosen an amateur sleuth.

Speaker: i I agree with that. is So not not only is she writing a different a different genre, but she's writing for a different audience. Very true. Very true. Is she the first one we've spoken of so far? I think so. Who has chosen a pen name, which is something else that someone might do if their genre crossing is to keep those separate. And maybe she chose to do that because just like you say, Harry Potter is going to be that middle grade audience versus Robert Galbraith stories, which would be adult mysteries.

Speaker: and Yeah. And and ah another author that I can think of that uses a pen name is Nora Roberts, who is that name um is really associated with kind of romance ah novels, whereas J.D. Robb, she's writing ah police procedurals.

Speaker: Right. And another one who has done a very long running series. So definitely mystery and romance are both, you know, mainstays to her career.

Speaker: Mm hmm. One other author that I might add to this list is someone who was an academic philosopher, Umberto Eco, who um in 1980 published the Italian version of The Name of the Rose, and then it was translated and published in English in 1983. So this is a medieval historical mystery um that I think has, you know, some philosophical elements and and kind of exploration of some some pretty big themes. ah But it is consistently listed as one of like the top mysteries of all time.

Speaker: It is. Definitely. If you look up, you know, classic mysteries that I should read, you know, in my lifetime, it's going to be on the list. And was that a one-off, Sarah? No more mysteries?

Speaker: Yeah, Brooke, I think that um The Name of the Rose was the only mystery that that he wrote. It wasn't the only piece of fiction, I think, but ah certainly the the mystery that he is most well known for.

Speaker: Well, and to make that sort of best of list, too bad he didn't keep going. Yeah, it's it's interesting because i I think it was an overwhelming success at the time. It was released before I was before i was reading mysteries. So um i can't speak from from firsthand, but from what I've read, it looks like it was...

Speaker: incredibly popular and there was a film adaptation that um followed shortly after the English release. I think the film maybe it was 1986 or 1987 when it was released um and that stars Sean Connery and Christian Slater among others. And as you say on these top best of mystery lists and it's sold millions of copies. So maybe it was a case of him not being sure if he could reproduce that success. Because I think when you have that, you know, initial response like that, it's probably pretty overwhelming to try and think, you know, to think about trying to replicate that.

Speaker: It would be definitely. Well, Brooke, this has been really interesting to chat about surprising mystery authors and maybe something we can just keep track of because, you know, as you say, there's, you know, an appeal to writing mystery. And I'm sure that the people that we've just spoken about are not the last to give it a try.

Speaker: Absolutely. And maybe we mentioned some books that you'd like to put on your reading list, everyone. But until next time, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery. 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.

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