The Technique of the Mystery Story | Page 5

analysis and a wonderful fecundity of
imagination." These two qualities are present to a greater or less degree
in every lover of mystery fiction; and it is the degree that determines
the intensity of the call of the author and the response of the reader.
CHAPTER II
THE LITERATURE OF MYSTERY
The Rightful Place of the Mystery Story in Fiction
The Mystery Story Considered as Art
The Claims of Antagonists and Protagonists
What makes for worthwhileness in mystery fiction of any kind is the
puzzle and its answer -- not the gruesomeness of a setting or the
personality of a hero or the delineation of a character.
A liking for mystery fiction is not a mark of poor taste or an indication
of inferior intellect. Its readers form an audience greatly misunderstood
by other literary people whose mentality lacks this bent. But what
especial audience is not misunderstood? Do not many people say to
music lovers, "I don't see how you can sit through Parsifal"? Do not

some scoff at people who trail through art galleries, catalogue in hand?
Let us concede that a taste for mystery fiction is not universal. We will
even admit that in its nicer points the riddle story may be "caviare to
the general," but we will not agree that it is unworthy a place in
literature or that it is outside the pale of art.

1. The Rightful Place of the Mystery Story in Fiction
Dr. Harry Thurston Peck says in "Studies In Several Literatures":
"Supercilious persons who profess to have a high regard for the
dignity of 'literature' are loath to admit that detective stories belong to
the category of serious writing. They will make an exception in the case
of certain tales by Edgar Allan Poe, but in general they would cast
narratives of this sort down from the upper ranges of fine fiction. They
do this because, in the first place, they think that the detective story
makes a vulgar appeal through its exploitation of crime. In the second
place, and with some reason, they despise detective stories because
most of them are poor, cheap things. Just at present there is a great
popular demand for them; and in response to this demand a flood of
crude, ill-written, sensational tales comes pouring from the presses of
the day. But a detective story composed by a man of talent, not to say
of genius, is quite as worthy of admiration as any other form of novel.
In truth, its interest does not really lie in the crime which gives the
writer a sort of starting point. In many of these stories the crime has
occurred before the tale begins; and frequently it happens, as it were,
off the stage, in accordance with the traditional precept of Horace.
"The real interest of a fine detective story is very largely an
intellectual interest. Here we see the conflict of one acutely analytical
mind with some other mind which is scarcely less acute and analytical.
It is a battle of wits, a mental duel, involving close logic, a certain
amount of applied psychology, and also a high degree of daring on the
part both of the criminal and of the man who hunts him down. Here is
nothing in itself 'sensational' in the popular acceptance of that word.

"Therefore, when we speak of the detective story, and regard it
seriously, we do not mean the penny-dreadfuls, the dime-novels, and
the books which are hastily thrown together by some hack-writer of the
'Nick Carter' school, but the skillfully planned work of one who can
construct and work out a complicated problem, definitely and
convincingly. It must not be too complex; for here, as in all art,
simplicity is the soul of genius. The story must appeal to our love of the
mysterious, and it must be characterized by ingenuity, without
transcending in the least the limits of the probable."
This is a clear and rational definition of the Detective Story as we
propose to consider it, and it seems to justify the acceptance of such
stories as literature.
But even in the complete absence of necessity for apology, we must
consider the rightful place of the Mystery Story in fiction.
It is neither below nor above other types of story, but side by side
with character studies, problem novels, society sketches or symbolic
romances; and in so far as it fulfills the requirements of the best
literature, just so far it is the best literature.
There are bigoted and thoughtless critics who deny the Mystery Story
any right to be considered as literature at all. But better judges are