IS THE DETECTIVE STORY DYING?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 434, 17 October 1947, Page 8

IS THE DETECTIVE STORY DYING?

"J DON’T think that murder, as a subject ‘matter for fiction, is ever likely to fade out of the picture altogether, although its treatment by popular authors may undergo fundamental modification," said Ngaio Marsh in a radio interview recorded by 3ZB recently. With such expert opinion to offset any feeling that we were flogging a dying horse, "The Listener" made a few inquiries to discover how far this view was confirmed by those who read detective stories, or handle them. What we found appears below with, on one hand,‘a precis of Miss Marsh's. remarks and on the other the critical comments of a police detective. Miss Marsh's talk will be heard from 4ZB this Sunday (October 19), from 2ZB on October 26, 2ZA on November 2, and 1ZB on November 9.

NGAIO MARSH » By getnprecron about the life and death of the detective novel have cropped up, to the best of my knowledge, during the last 10 or 15 years or even longer, and it’s at least arguable that violent death has as enduring an interest for the common reader as adventure, sentimentality and romance. But it is a difficult question for an interested party to answer. I think that the character of, the detective novel is changing, and changing very markedly. Many readers who, ten years ego, devoured the purely two-dimen-sional piece, depending entirely upon its interest as a puzzle, now demand from their detective novels a very much more solid affair. They want threedimensional characters, and psychological as well as intellectual problems. They demand a certain standard of writing, and a certain depth of perception, I suppose, from the author, I’d hazard a guess, I think, that as long as people are eager readers of murder trials in the papers, there will still be an audience for this queer, circumscribed, and isolated form of fiction. On the other hand, it does seem possible that the entirely mechanical detective novel is yielding to the longer, more elaborate and less conventional plot. Looking at

it cold-bloodedly from the sales point of view, there seems to be no falling off in popularity, while the type of reader appears to grow, if anything, rather more than less highbrow. I am inclined to the view, prompted no doubt by wishful thinking, that the decline of the detective novel will be graduai and comparatively painless, and that the thing itself may. merge almost imperceptibly into a changed form, LIBRARIAN | SHOULD say that the highwater mark in popularity was reached shortly before the war with such authors as Dorothy Sayers, Ethel Enid White, and Agatha Christie. Now many of those who were writing detective novels before the war are no longer doing so. For one thing there is a paper shortage which tends to limit the publication of new books: of an inferior type, and the old idea of these books being churned out as if from a factory is no longer true. It seernms to me that people like university professors and members of the clergy read detective novels probably more than any other section of the reading public. This is because for them the reading of the book-the sglving of the tight and well-rounded plot-be-comes quite an academic problem, demanding an intellectual approach, and

they read these books much in the same way as they play a game of bridge. Of ‘course it was Dorothy Sayers who was responsible for taking the detective novel out of its individual context and making more of an ofdinary novel out of it so that you really have two things in one book-crime and social analysis. The form of the novel is changing, but it is by no means dying out or losing its popular esteem. If anything its prestige is growing to-day. Writers are aware of the "highbrow" element in their audience, and they have given themselves more respectability by writing with it in mind. I think the real appeal of the detective novel is not so much the violence or murder, but its story or plot interest. There must be enough plot to hold the book tightly together so that it doesn’t meander along like the ordinary novel which imitates the so-called stream of life, but is directed towards a particular end. This is the secret of its success in My opinion, and any type of novel which poses a factual question, a purely academic problem, is never likely to

dechne:

C. S.

Perry

PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARIAN LTHOUGH our current fiction section’ is fairly small, we do include a good proportion of detective novels of the better sort-I mean books by writers of some repute in their class, and*those in which the characters are not merely puppets-if possible with something of a psychological slant in the story. It has been my’ experience among the rather specialised group who patronise our libtary that, apart from the "best-seller" type, a detective novel circulates much more rapidly than an ordinafy novel. Of course I can’t mention any names, but many quite prominent men enjoy their detective novel over the week-end, and I could say that certainly the Heads of Government Departments and even Members of Parliament seem to find these books good reading for their leisure time. As far as I can tell the reason for this is that a detective novel is a form of escape for the reader; it takes

his mind away from his everyday worries, and the anticipation of solving the mystery is really a form of relaxation for his tired. brain. I. think the reason why Members . of Parliament read them is that they forrn a kind of antidote for the more solid books they normally have to read. There is just sufficient interest in

the plot of the detective novel to hold their attention and keep it away for the time being from more serious mat-

ters.

W. S.

Wauchop

BOOKSELLER THINK that first of all we ought to define what we mean by a detective novel, and it seems to me that a good detective story should revolve about a mystery in which the reader is taken along step by step through the evidence so that he can see the detection taking place as he reads. Thus the book becomes a thesis on a particular piece of crime in which the reader has an equal, chance with the fictional detective of solving the mystery. The thread of the plot should follow along naturally with nothing impossible or impracticable about it, so that in effect the reader himself becomes the detective. From the point of view of sales I can’t say that there is any evidence of a decline in the popularity of detective novels to-day, in fact we find in practice that we can’t get enough of them just now to satisfy the demand. However, the type of person who reads these books is certainly demanding a high standard of craftsmanship, considerably higher than was the case several years ago, for instance. He tends to become disgruntled if he feels the author is not playing fair with him, or is withholding any of the evidence, because he treats the book as an intellectual exercise in which he can match his wits against the criminal’s.. A good number of these readers (though I wouldn’t say the bulk of them) are people of a high educational standard — professional men and. women, such as teachers, solicitors, and ministers of religion. And because they expect a higher standard than those who read, say, romances, there has been in recent years a decline in the selingpower of the poorer type of crime and mystery story. To satisfy public demand the more prominent writers seem to be making their books more subtle, though

with all the clues clearly defined for the benefit of the reader-detective, At present there is an exceptionally great demand for what can be called the ordinary type of novel-the novel of manners-and there does seem to be a tendency for the detective novel to align itcalf more closely with ordinary fiction. Although the

crime is still the central pivot of the book the character portrayal is becoming more solid and the description of manners a more vivid background.

H. C.

South

CLERGYMAN FIND detective novels a great relaxation when tired, and I am sure this form of literature is as popular as ever. I would say that the literary style is improving. It is a great treat for me to be able to read a story about a "wholesome" crime, showing the exercise of ingenuity, with a logical presentation of the different factors working up to an equally logical conclusion. It is better, I think, than some of the sentimental literature that was so popular a short time ago.

Archdeacon E. J.

Rich

MAGISTRATE . READ detective fiction, . including Miss Marsh’s novels which I find quite up to standard, and I would say that there is still a big future for this type of writing. After all it is certainly entertaining and amusing for the public

at large.

J. L.

Stout

LAWYER N my view, the detective novel is not as popular now as it was some years ago when Dorothy Sayers, a distinguished writer in this genre, reviewed the whole field in an attractive preface to her collected stories of crime and detection. More so even than books on travel and adventure, detective and mystery novels seem to provide, especially during wars and other national crises, a literature of escape from the pressure of painful realities. But after the recent war the reading public has found both excitement and food for thought in the psychological novel in which the writer has "taken the ‘bones of the conventional thriller, clothed them with life and character, and elevated them to a symbolic purpose." However, so long as we have such exponents of the art of detective-fiction as Freeman Wills Croft, Agatha Christie, and J. J. Connington-to name a few only-the detective novel will continue to attract those who look to fiction, as to films. vrimarilv for entertainment.

W. E.

Leicester

EXPERT OPINION PROMINENT member of the New Zealand detective staff was very definite in his views. Apart from an (continued on next page)

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occasional dip into Conan Doyle he had had no truck with detective fiction. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, he said, made the nearest approach to really scientific detection of crime he had encountered in fiction, but even Holmes went too far when he pretended to identify cigar ash and so on. "Our idea, as professional detectives, is to read anything:that is likely to help us in our work.. Personally, I don’t bother about detéctive fiction; and, I don’t know what other members of the staff read. But my advice to them is to get hold of reports of the famous trials of the world and read them carefully for their own benefit." "Would you say detective fiction is on the wane in popularity?" we asked.

"T don’t know. But I can tell you that if we did some of the things the fiction heroes of detection do, the Supreme Court judges would. crucify us. Everything we do in the course of our duty is carefully scrutinised by them and we must stick to the old procedures of British justice. The professional detective, to succeed, must concern himself with hard work and commonsense, and if a little luck comes his way, it’s all to the good. But real criminals never confess, as I believe they do in novels. They go .to the scaffold protesting their innocence." We asked him what books he read. He mentioned such works as The Trial of Bruno Hauptmann by Sidney B. Whipple, the medico-legal aspects of crime as exemplified in the famous Ruxton case, and The Life of Detective Inspector Wensley of Scotland «Yard. These, he said, were books dealing with cold hard facts, and written in simple language. They took the actual crime from the arrival of the investigators on the scene to the court hearing. We let our third degree go at that.