Thu 17 Mar 2011
HOME OF MYSTERY: The Modern Romance Comedy Mystery, by Michael Shonk.
Posted by Steve under General[17] Comments
The Modern Romance Comedy Mystery
by Michael Shonk
In the world of fiction, there is a black door. The door stands alone. To its left is a beautiful garden lit in soft focus sunshine. To its right, ugly weeds force themselves up through broken concrete in the blackest of night. Open the door and you will find yourself in the Home of Mystery.
Designed from plans stolen from the Doctor in the Home of Science Fiction, it is larger inside than outside. The Home of Mystery is endless and defies all laws of science. Sub-genres merge and separate. Writers, characters, and books can exist in more than one place at the same time.
I head for the comedy mystery wing, a multi-floor structure. The classic era is on the bottom floor, but I take the stairs to the modern era one floor above.
I am in a hallway, cozies to my left, hardboiled to my right. I look to my left and pass doors for other sub-genres, “little old ladies,” “pets,”, and “special interests.” Finally, I see a lavender door covered by a cartoonist drawing of a thin perky young female in a short dress. I have found what I was looking for, the Modern Romance Comedy Mystery. I knock.
A pretty Heroine greets me. She stares at me suspiciously and tells me that Men’s Adventure Pulp is across the hall. I explain how much I enjoyed Hailey Lind’s (Julie Goodson-Lawes and Carolyn Lawes) “Art Lovers” series featuring former art forger Annie Kincaid, and I wanted to learn more about MRCM. Reluctantly, she let me in.
The room is full of more light and color than I am used to in the mysteries I normally read. The place is comedically disorganized and messy, yet clean.
My guide talks about her idol, Stephanie Plum. It is hard not to notice the influence Janet Evanovich’s series has had on MRCM. Plum is a feisty, funny, horny woman with a slow sex life and active sexual fantasy world. As many MRCM books that followed, the books feature a supporting cast of comic relief characters, and a popular romance subplot: the triangle. Stephanie loves good cop Joe Morelli but lusts for bad boy Ranger.
The Heroine mentions New York Times bestselling “Bibliophile” series by Kate Carlisle, but suddenly stops talking, distracted by some bad boy beefcake in skintight leather. After a few uncomfortable moments I walk on. She does not move, unaware I have left.
A man and a woman’s screams make me think about Maddie and Jack from the “High Heels” series by Gemma Halliday. The man is a cop and the woman is an amateur detective. Both scream at each other at the same moment, “Mind your own business!”
They are the screwball couple of MRCM, two strong willed people who “hate” each other to the point of falling in love. Predictably, the screaming couple are now in each other’s arms as they fade out of the room. In MRCM, most sex and violence happens off page.
My former guide has not moved. Bad boy beefcake notices her and smiles. Embarrassed, she runs off, bumping into another popular romantic subplot.
Happy Couple is trying to hide in the shadows, content just to be alone together. They remind me of award-winning Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow and Michael. Happy Couple tell me they had met in her first book and their relationship has grown more serious as the series continued. Spotted, their supporting cast attacks them, odd parents, strange siblings, attention demanding pets, wacky friends, all separating the comically frustrated lovers.
There are endless variations of the romance subplot, from unlucky in love (Jaine Austen by Count Chocula’s creator Laura Levine) to the strange (Kasey Michaels’ Maggie Kelly, mystery writer, who finds the man of her dreams when her fictional hero Saint Just comes to life).
I spot the MRCM femme fatale, the gorgeous blonde bitch who usually annoys the Heroine, but sometimes is the murder victim. Typical of MRCM, she just flirts, teases and then is gone.
I understand why the Heroine thinks more about sex than the mystery. Who cares who the killer is after all this “talk”? Even fictional characters can take only so much. To drive such thoughts from my mind, I think about what makes a Modern Romance Comedy Mystery.
The books are short quick reads, told in first person, the fourth wall is often ignored, the heroine’s life is threatened, and the victim often deserves to die. The characters’ lives are more important to the story than the mystery. The characters change and grow as the series progresses. It is wise to read an MRCM series in order.
The female amateur detective gets involved because of one of the following: she is the main suspect, she knows the main suspect, she feels responsible for the accused problems, the cops are idiots and/or order her to go away, the killer is after her, or she keeps falling over dead bodies.
Sales have moved many MRCM series from original paperbacks to hardcover releases, such as Nancy Martin‘s “Blackbird Sisters.”
Of course there is my reason for reading them: they are funny. From pun titles, such as Slay It with Flowers by Kate Collins, to some of the funniest comedy in fiction today, the MRCM are fun to read.
Still suffering from my encounter with the MRCM femme fatale, I think I’ll pick up one of the bimbos across the hall in Men’s Adventure Pulps.
March 17th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
I read and enjoy these once in a while in much the same mood as some of the men’s pulp adventure genre. The best of them fall somewhere between a pretty good old movie mystery or a really good episode of a television mystery series with bright characters, a touch of screwball humor, and many of them are playfully dirty (or at least dirty minded) compared to the virtually sexless men’s equivalent (some of them about as sexless as the Hardy Boys).
A steady diet of them is a bit much for me, but like sorbet they are ideal for cleansing the mental pallette after reading a more challenging book.
They are the closest thing today to the kind of books Craig Rice, the Lockridges, Stuart Palmer, and Phoebe Atwood Taylor used to write, but with less interesting mysteries.
And I’ll give them this, many of these women are better writers than some of their male equivalents.
There is a tendency by some writers in this field to deal too often with the child in danger school I’m not fond of, and the men in these only remind me that women’s fantasies are no more realistic than men’s, but I knew that going in. But many of these are smart and fun — I do wish they made a little more effort toward the mystery side sometimes and relied less on television level plotting (I recently read one that turned on a thirteen volume collection of Poe — about eleven volumes more than he actually wrote even if you included his essays from primary school).
I’m not a big fan, but I sort of like Stephanie Plum, and enjoyed a couple of the shorter books she appeared in designed to be quicker reads.
You don’t want caviar all the time. Sometimes you want salted peanuts. These are generally fresh and even have a few cashews in the mix.
And I’m not being dismissive of them. I consider entertaining to be a major gift for any writer, and the best of these are just that.
March 17th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
Michael
I visited the House of Mystery once, but I got mugged in the original paperback section by a couple of characters out of Ovid Demaris and Peter Rabe.
March 17th, 2011 at 7:20 pm
In my past critic’s lives, I’d occasionally play with the first person essay.
I hope if any fans of this sub-sub-sub-genre are out there might pop in and add to my limited experience. Like David, I have read some (I had my sister, a fan of the books, double-check my points), so little help would be welcomed.
David, you just can’t trust some characters. When I came up with this way to take a look at this tiny part of the large modern cozy genre, I thought about all the classic tiny sub-genres I would like to learn about: “the gentleman thief”, “pre-Cold War spy, the role of the police in classic cozy, comedy classic mystery, etc. With limited space I had to ignore most of the modern cozies (note the doors I passed), but a small sub-genre with a basic format can be examined.
David, in one of your recent comments you mentioned there were four “different” Ellery Queens in the long book series. Maybe we can meet them in your own “Home of Mystery” style.
March 17th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Michael
Francis Nevins covers the four Ellery’s in his ROYAL BLOODLINES, far be it from me to try and cover what he has already done brilliantly.
For the gentleman thief genre try W. Vivian Butler’s THE DURABLE DESPERADOS, a fine study of the genre focusing on the between the wars lot. Robert Sampson’s YESTERDAY’S FACES has some nice chapters on the Lone Wolf, Anthony Trent, Riley Dillon, and some of the others among the six volumes on the pulps.
Pre Cold War spies the best book is THE CLUBLAND HEROES by Richard Usborne focusing on Buchan, Sapper, and Dornford Yates. Donald McCormack’s WHO’S WHO IN SPY FICTION and John Atkins THE BRITISH SPY NOVEL also cover the subject well. Leroy Panek’s THE SPECIAL BRANCH British Spy Fiction is worth reading if you know that Panek is an unreliable source and everything he writes needs to be double checked. Despite his obvious political bias he covers some valuable material. Eric Ambler’s introduction to his anthology TO CATCH A SPY is good to, as well as the individual intros to the stories.
As you say there are countless sub genres — darn near comes down to private eyes with or without secretaries or freelance reporters vs those who work for papers or magazines. Private eyes who wear fedoras vs private eyes in porkpies and those who go bareheaded …
And occaisionally you have to inject a little of the first person essay/biography into these. I’ve written one on Frances Parkinson Keyes mystery and suspense novels just explaining how I came to read Frances Parkinson Keyes in the first place — it involved a concussion. You have to explain that sort of thing.
March 17th, 2011 at 8:16 pm
David, a mugging and concussion, the mystery genre seems dangerous for you. Spade and his fellow hardboiled PIs admire your refusal to back down from your determination to read mysteries and solve the crime.
March 17th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
These books are addictive. Every month I promise myself I will stop buying the current batch, but when I see them out on the shelf at Barnes & Noble, I just can’t resist.
So thank you, Michael, for pointing out what I’ve not been able to — that the mysteries in this particular category are the equivalent of screwball mysteries on the screen.
According to IMDB, filming has been completed on the first of the Stephanie Plum movies. Katherine Heigl has the leading role, with John Leguizamo as Jimmy Alpha, Jason O’Mara as Joe Morelli, and Daniel Sunjata as Ranger.
What I did not know and I have just discovered, is that UPN did what must have been a failed pilot of the same book in 2002, with Lynn Collins as Plum.
(Most of these names are only names to me.)
Here’s a link to a Fan Forum discussing the casting of these movies:
http://www.fansofrealitytv.com/forums/books/85521-stephanie-plum-novels-movie-8.html
March 17th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Oh, here is a tiny sub-genre to cover, modern puzzle or locked room mysteries. Is there anyone in the 21st Century that writes in the Van Dine school?
Steve, the strangeness is one of the appeals. There is a very funny series by Leslie Langtry about a family of assassins that date back centuries. The first book is about a single Mom who needs to tell her 14 year-old daughter that at the next family reunion the fourteen year old will be trained to be a hired killer. Family is important in cozies. The title ‘SCUSE ME WHILE I KILL THIS GUY.
And how can any of us resist a woman who likes to blow things up and has book titles like WHEN A MAN LOVES A WEAPON (by Toni McGee Causey). Let’s see Christie or Doyle top that title!
I did notice as I visited websites, some do not call these mysteries. There are the cozy mysteries but others are called Romance Suspense.
Did you know cozy writer Barbara Allan’s series won an award for Mystery from Romance Times? Did you know Barbara Allan is Barbara Collins and her husband Max Allan Collins?
March 17th, 2011 at 10:58 pm
You sometimes have to look for these outside of the mystery section since they are often branded Romantic Suspense — which is probably closer to the truth than cozy — some of them are pretty violent and quite openly sexual — not exactly a cozy trait. I’ve read one or two where the writer confessed to being a Spillane fan.
I tend to think of these as an extention of the kind of screwball series written by writers like Rice, Richard Sale, Dwight Babcock, and Norbert Davis, but with an emphasis on the female point of view. Some of them aren’t all that far from Honey West or Mavis Seidlitz though the heroines tend to be more feisty and less sex bombs.
I was particularly fond of Sparkle Hayter’s Robin Hudson books (is it just me or does the author there sound more like the character?) and currently Suzanna Arruda’s Jade del Cameron. Those two usually are found in the mystery section and as good as anything being done today.
March 18th, 2011 at 6:42 am
Read one Evanovich, you’ve read them all. I finally gave up a couple of books ago. I do think Daniel Sunjata (‘Franco’ on RESCUE ME) is perfect casting as Ranger; Heigl, not so much.
Of course the key elements of the series are Lula and Grandma Mazur, not Stephanie.
Or that’s how I see it, at least.
😉
March 18th, 2011 at 11:29 am
Jeff, you hit on the most valid criticism of the genre and one of the most popular reasons for its success.
The formula can get old, as well as comfortable.
Donna Andrews has won the Agatha (several times), Lefty, Anthony, and more. Unlike Evanovich, Andrews lets her characters grow a little. I had read the first ten and enjoyed each less and less until SWAN FOR THE MONEY and have not been able to go beyond the first sentence without losing interest.
Over at ladykillers blog, Hannah Jayne (paranormal romance) wrote, “…what makes reading it so pleasurable – your comfort with the characters, a warm return to the comfortable town…You know these people, you love these people and when they decide to fire up the demon brigade, you’re the first one in line for the ride.”
http://theladykillers.typepad.com/the_lady_killers/2011/03/dont-i-know-you-writing-a-series.html
I compare these to the TV series where each episode starts at A goes to B, maybe C, but before it is over the regular characters are back at A.
There are series that have a beginning and end, but most settle in like a next door neighbor and her daily visit over coffee.
If you enjoy reading comedy, or love character driven fiction, these books are for you. But if you are looking for a good who-done-it or great mystery, you will be disappointed.
March 18th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
I’ve enjoyed the Hailey Lind series (I’m a patsy for mysteries with an art setting/subject) and was happy that a new title was published a few months back, after a lapse of a couple of years (and, I think, a change of publishers).
In recent years, I’ve probably read more mystery books by women than by men, but that could change overnight. For me, once I stopped being a bibliographer of secondary sources, I continued to read the primary sources, but for the pleasure of the read. Of course, there are many female writers who are superior to their male counterparts, but excellence in writing doesn’t, I hope, depend on gender.
March 18th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Walter, I am a sucker for mysteries with an art backdrop as well. I enjoy Lind’s series as much as I enjoy Gash’s Lovejoy and Iain Pears’ Jonathan Argyll.
Check out this guest blog post by “Hailey Lind”:
http://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2010/05/partners-in-crime-hailey-lind-guest.html
They give some interesting answers in the comments as well.
Julie Goodson-Lawes also writes under the name Juliet Blackwell and has two series out, “Witchcraft Mystery” and “Haunted Home Renovation”. Both are good, but the subjects don’t interest me as much as “Art Lovers”.
The genre of the writer means nothing to me, but many in publishing believe it means something to readers. Much of fiction (all genres) today leans towards women because there are more women readers than men, according to the “experts”. There are more and more women writing graphically violent thrillers once thought the home of mainly male readers, yet there remains very few men writing romance novels.
There are a few differences in style between men and female. In descriptions, women writers often mention smells while a male writer probably will not. Men and women tend to write and read erotica differently. Think Barbara Cartland vs Lawrence Block.
March 18th, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Michael
True men and women write erotica differently — but in many cases while the women writers tend to more euphemistic, many in the Romantic Suspense genre are surprizingly more sexual than their nearest male counterparts.
Not all, but some Romantic Suspense series and writers will have multiple sex scenes in their books where many male writers today have none, or one you might miss if a you speed read.
I’m surprised how tame the male side of the equation is today compared to the seventies and even eighties. Even when there is a bit of romance and even sexual tease the act itself is either glossed over or they never get around to it.
Many of the male writers today remind me of a twelve year old who talks a good deal about sex but has never actually done it and isn’t sure what ‘it’ is. They manage to get to the nudity, but don’t seem to know what comes next.
At least many of these Romantic Suspense writer seem to know what happens beyond the first kiss. I’m not arguing for dirtier books, but the Hardy Boys get more action than some protagonists these days. For someone who grew up on Ian Fleming and John D. MacDonald these asexual heroes are a bit hard to take.
March 18th, 2011 at 6:01 pm
David, you are right.
J.D. Robb would make Mickey Spillane blush.
March 18th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Michael
To be fair, many writers of what I call Techno Porn do write ecstatically — about technology. Some are enough to make you blush when you start the car on a cold morning.
They seem less secure with the hard or software regarding women.
Actually there’s not a lot of sex in the early Spillane. There’s a lot of nudity, and a good deal of leering, but actual sex doesn’t really appear much until THE ERECTION SET and LAST COP OUT when he seems to have decided to live up to his reputation.
This isn’t entirely new in what is primarily women’s fiction. Books like FOREVER AMBER and THE SUN IS MY UNDOING were a good deal more explicit than many so called racy male writers and bodice rippers tended to more than a little heavy breathing when they were the hottest item in the book world.
But it does seem today that most male writers have ceded the subject to women. Even Steig Larsson, for all the sexual subtext (and text) of his trilogy deals with the sex scenes so flatly and matter of factly you could easily miss one has happened.
Somewhere there ought to be a middle ground between purple prose and a McGuffy’s Reader approach to the subject.
December 17th, 2012 at 9:53 pm
I love the Flower Shop Mystery by Kate Collins. I’ve always liked mysteries with tinge of romance as well as humour and The Flower Shop Mystery is perfect. There are a few other books like The Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Lisa Marklund;and Private Games by James Patterson. Just that these books do not have humour/comedy in it.
I have a problem though; books like The Flower Shop Mystery; what genre do they come under actually?
December 18th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
#16. poohbear98, Kate Collins has a website and says her Flower Shop Mysteries are “cozy mysteries.”
http://www.katecollinsbooks.com