Two Mystery Novels for a Reader Who Doesn't like Mysteries

I don't generally prefer the mystery genre. I don't really care for serial mysteries, as I usually find myself getting bored with the characters, and find that they become predictable. Therefore finding two mystery novels that piqued my interest was unusual, and this might be because they are both so different from the typical mystery novel.

The first novel I read was Death of a Writer by Michael Collins. Set in a northern college, it focuses on E. Robert Peddleton, a once promising visionary writer who, after a string of literary failures, exiles himself at the college as an unpopular professor. Meanwhile, his rival Allen Horowitz, has become quite successful in the literary world, and is visiting the campus while in the midst of a campaign for his most recent work. Once the two men were comrades who both showed promise, but at some point Peddleton has fallen short, and it has been disturbing him ever since. He is understandably gloomy when he goes to pick up Horowitz at the airport with Adi Wiltshire, a graduate student who seems enamored with the literary life. While there, Adi shows him that she is reading one of his earlier works, and in one of the most powerfully descriptive parts of the novel, he stares at it "as an amputee might stare at a severed limb". Shortly after, Horowitz arrives, and is as arrogant and brash as Peddleton fears. His vulnerability is exposed for a brief moment when Peddleton challenges his artistic value, but soon he and Wiltshire leave to attend Horowitz's lecture, leaving Peddleton alone. Instead of parking the car and joining them, Peddleton goes home and attempts suicide. Wiltshire finds him and rescues him, and soon finds himself as his caretaker as he becomes incapacitated. She discovers an unpublished novel hidden among his personal items, and with Horowitz's help, gets it published and therefore helps launch Peddleton to the fame he always craved, though now he can't enjoy it. It isn't until the book's popularity starts to rapidly climb as Wiltshire discovers that the brutal murder described by the protagonist is eerily reminiscent of an unsolved local murder that happened years ago. Did Peddleton commit the murder, and then write a fiction novel based on it? Was he an accomplice, or a witness? The similarities also catch the attention of John Ryder, a detective who has his own past to deal with as he unravels the story in and around Peddleton's book.

Death of a Writer was a harrowing look into the aftermath of failure and the politics of fame, as well as a journey into philosophy and sociology as the intelligent characters justify their actions by citing literary works such as Crime and Punishment and the writings of Nietzsche. The characters are deeply flawed but sympathetic; even as Horowitz reveals himself to be selfish and condescending he displays affection to Wiltshire and admits his feelings of unworthiness to Ryder. While this book was certainly interesting and fascinating, the tone was generally bleak.

Since it came out in 2002, The Eyre Affair looked particularly interesting to me, since Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. In it, science fiction and mystery come together in an alternate reality in which the Crimean War still wages on between England and Russia, and fantastical leaps in science and technology have made time travel and cloning commonplace. At the centerpiece of the novel is Thursday Next, who is quite different from what one might assume as the typical female detective. She fought in the Crimean War, is single after having broken off an engagement with a fellow veteran, has a pet cloned dodo, is well versed in literature and often engages in debates with Baconians (those who believe Sir Francis Bacon actually penned Shakespeare's works), and confides in her father, who travels through time and alters history. Because of this intriguing setting and colorful, humorous characters, the story never drags for a moment. The plot at the center of this novel is that criminal mastermind Acheron Hades has found a way to kidnap characters from works of literature - he has stolen the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit also manages to kidnap Jane Eyre herself. Though it is helpful to know the story of Jane Eyre (in Thursday's world, the ending to the novel is quite different to the one we all know and love), it isn't necessary, and that is another bonus to this fun, intelligent novel; it will undoubtedly inspire readers not familiar with the works of Bronte and Shakespeare to peruse through their works with interest and even enthusiasm. I found the characters enjoyable and fascinating. Hades is rightfully despicable but fun, and Thursday's Uncle Mycroft is a sort of a Q to her James Bond, in one scene showing off his recent inventions that include bookworms, who devour literary works and emit synonyms and apostrophes. Although the alternate history and sci-fi inventions sound confusing, The Eyre Affair is an easy read and is also a fun one, and I'm definitely going to follow the further adventures of Thursday Next.