Even from before the time of the Greek tragic playwrights, humans have been fascinated with the workings of eternal justice. How does morality balance the cosmos? When and how are the just rewards delivered to those of an evil ilk?
The works of Aeschylus (Prometheus Bound, The Oresteia), Sophocles (Seven Against Thebes, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra), Euripides (Medea, Electra, Andromache, Herakles, The Trojan Women, Hecuba) and many subsequent playwrights show the intense desire humans hold for eternal justice, probably, because at times, it seems lacking on earth.
The quest to provide justice on earth may have given birth to ancient religions or may be the religions gave birth to this quest, either way, humanity has been on it for ages.
After all, is not the crux of religion, the balancing of earthly wrongs in the hereafter? The rewards of the just, postponed to eternity. In every religion in which heaven is hypothesized, the rewards are for the just, not the corrupt or evil souls.
Human nature and mystery readers in particular are not that patient. In the same manner as the Greek audiences, they cannot delay their gratification that long. Wait an eternity for justice? Are you insane?
Mystery readers are looking for the "bad guys/antagonists" to be found out, and justice to be brought by the protagonist on earth and especially by the last pages of the book. We want that sheet balanced before the epilogue.
When Snidely Whiplash gets what he deserves, the hero has put the world in order. We will even accept a Deus Ex Machina so our hero can serve justice to the evil villain. Whether he serves it with his fists, guns, dynamite or just an arrest, we are happy with the ending.
We feel as if evil is under control. No bad deed goes unpunished. Since we are all good people, the story confirms the existence of immediate earthly Karma, at least on the page of a book.
How simple? How logical? How utopian? How truly unrealistic?
Further along this line of logic, I propose, a writer needs a subject that is morally important to the reader to hold his or her interest throughout his story. Finding Michelle's lost sock may fascinate first graders, but to an adult audience it holds little interest. The loss of life, or money (a robbery) or a change of fortune carries much more weight to a mature reader.
A subject of universal concern, bigger than life is needed for adults to stay reading, and people must be able to relate to that subject personally. Stir that reader's emotions and the interest brews deeply like a Starbuck's pour over.
Write it in first person or third person, but keep that reader close to the action. They want the answer to the question, is there justice in this world? Tell it through Watson or let Holmes speak directly to the reader, your choice, either works.
How will the detective/protagonist (In the well written book, the reader subconsciously substitutes "how will I") bring justice to balance the cosmos? They hope with the protagonist, and they plot against the antagonist. They read on. They fear for the good and wish against the bad. They turn another page.
When justice is received, they put down the book with a satisfied feeling as if they themselves brought about this occurrence, enforcing the eternal balance of the literary cosmos.
This theory elevates the intellectual raison d'etra of mysteries to that of the great Greek Tragedies. Mystery writers are the modern representatives of the ancient tradition.
In a mash-up of the above theories, we may easily assume that the greatest source of ideas for today's creative mystery writer is The Holy Bible, The Ten Commandments, and the seven deadly sins.
For in Western culture what greater repository of morality exists than those precepts. Mystery writers such as Hammett, Chandler and Cain carry on the tradition of the Greek playwrights and bring justice and morality to the masses with antagonists that violate The Ten Commandments on a regular basis.
Today we thank: James Patterson, Robert B. Parker, Mary Higgins Clark, Michael Connelly, Lee Child and their compatriots for sustaining the great legacy.
-- L. Preschel author of the Sam-Cath mystery series.
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