Tag Archives: Mysteries

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things I Like and Dislike About the Mystery Genre

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A pale-skinned person holding a book in front of their head. The book has a question mark photoshopped onto its cover. This photo is in black and white. Just like I did for the romance genre version of this topic last year, I will share three things I like and three things I dislike about mysteries.

What I Dislike About the Mystery Genre 

1. Graphic descriptions of death and corpses.

I rarely like to read this stuff in the horror genre these days, much less in genres that have much more realistic explanations of how someone could die. Please give me a fluffy overview instead and then let’s move on to solving the case.

2. Red herrings

This doesn’t seem to be as popular these days, but I dislike mysteries that try to purposefully mislead their audiences early on. Why not share fewer clues overall instead? I don’t mind being confused or not figuring everything out before the main character does.

3. Inspired by true events

Unless the crime in question is a really silly one where no one was physically harmed, I don’t like mixing fiction with fact in this genre. I’d rather see how creative a mystery author can be instead. Fiction is escapism for me the vast majority of the time, so there’s no need to be reminded of real-life tragedies when I’m reading a mystery.

 

 

What I Like About the Mystery Genre

1. Puns

The cozy mystery sub-genre excels at titles that are filled with puns, and I love every single one of them I’ve seen so far. If the titles reference food as well, I basically have to pick them up and at least read their blurbs if nothing else.

2. Justice 

Criminals are almost always brought to justice in this genre even if they’ve managed to fool everyone in their lives up until the point that the protagonist figures out what’s really going on.  I find that so emotionally satisfying. If only real life could be like this, too.

3. Mixing Genres

Mysteries are often mixed with other genres like romance, historical fiction, paranormal, or fantasy. When they’re done well, these tends to be the sorts of books that I cannot put down because I simply must know if the sad attic ghost will finally find peace after their untimely death or if the main character is ever going to realize that his or her neighbour is totally flirting with them and would make a great boyfriend/girlfriend for them.

There’s something about the mystery genre that really lends itself to being combined in these ways in my opinion! Pure mysteries are fun, too, but that blending can really bring out the best of two or more genres.

 

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Interview with Portia Kitcher

Portia Kitcher was the first person to respond to my speculative fiction interview post. I’m excited to kick this series off with her responses! 

Image credit: Arthur Rackham.What was the first speculative story you ever remember reading?

Grimms Fairy tales – being read to at first and then reading them myself – over and over!

Who is your favourite author? Why?

Justin Gustainis. I like him because he writes characters I like and care about. His Occult Crime series combines my two favourite genres of fantasy and crime solving.

What do you like most about the genre(s) you read?

Good guys vs. bad guys with the good guys generally winning.

More and more authors seem to be writing cross-genre stories these days. How do you feel about this trend?

That depends – I don’t like a lot of romance in my books – always keen to get back to the action, but I do like it when magic/occult combines with crime.

If you could name a pet after one character, which character would you choose? Why?

Yoda – because he is wise and small.  I am small and aspire to be wise.

What fictional world would you never want to visit?

Wonderland.

What fictional world would you want to visit?

Middle Earth.

Sharing spoilers with people who haven’t read the book or seen the film/show is a hot topic on Twitter and across many fandoms. How do you feel about sharing or overhearing spoilers?

I personally wouldn’t read the end of a book first so I don’t want to read spoilers, and don’t really understand why people do.

Which series do you think should be made into a TV show or film next?

Justin Gustainis Occult crimes series.

Which TV show or film do you think should be turned into a book?

Interesting question – I would watch a film/TV show of a book I had read but not the other way around.

About Portia: My plans to become a doctor were change due to family circumstances at the age of 17 when I left college and started work as a laboratory technician.  I got married at 18 had my two children, then went back to work 15 years later as a science technician in a school.  I then worked in Social Services as an administration officer for a supported employment agency.

I am now at home with my retired (second) husband.   I am an amateur musician and classical singer and also make celebration cakes.  I am currently doing a project where I am donating 60 of my hours to good causes.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Releases I’m On the Fence About

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m going to be very honest with all of you today about my mixed feelings on the mystery genre. What I’m about to say is not a judgement on anyone else’s reading habits in any way. Theoretically, I do like the idea of reading or watching something that requires the audience to pay close attention to the clues in order to figure out who the murderer was before the main character does.

What I don’t like about the mystery genre is its fixation on what can often be pretty gruesome crimes, especially since  they seem to happen to young women in so many tales. I don’t have much interest in gory stuff in general, and I really don’t like reading about all of the horrible ways innocent people can be killed.

So I really don’t know what to think about these titles. I’ve added links to their interesting blurbs for anyone who would like to check them out, but I don’t know if I actually should read any of them. What do you all think? Are you planning to read any of these books? If you read mysteries in general, can you recommend any stories that break this pattern?

1. The Ghost Manuscript by Kris Frieswick

2. The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

3. If You’re Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser

4. Fake Plastic Girl by Zara Lisbon

5. Call Me Evie by JP Pomare

6. Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

7. The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes

8. American Heroin by Melissa Scrivner Love

9. The Promise by Teresa Driscoll

10. House on Fire by Bonnie Kistler

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Echoes of the Past: A Review of The Little Stranger

Earlier this year, I blogged about my to-watch list of science fiction and fantasy films. Since then, I’ve been periodically reviewing certain films that I enjoyed and thought you all might like, too. Previous instalments in this series include Into the Forest, Annihilation, Coco, and Winchester

This is a spoiler-free review. 

The Little Stranger is the 2018 film adaptation of a book by the same name written by Sarah Waters, one of my favourite authors. This story was set in 1948, and it followed about a year in the life of Dr. Faraday, a middle-aged man who was one of only two doctors in his rural community. He grew up in a low-income family at a time when the vast majority of children did not move into higher social classes as adults than the ones they were born into, so he was still adjusting to the changes that higher education had brought to his life when this mystery began.

In one of the earliest scenes in the plot, Faraday revisited Hundreds Hall, a mansion that his mother once worked in, after one of the servants who worked at that estate came down with a mysterious illness. The last time he’d visited it had been nearly 30 years ago when he was a young boy and his mother brought him to a public celebration there after the end of World War I.

Hundreds Hall was crumbling by 1948, and the family who lived in it had isolated themselves from the surrounding community to an alarming degree. It was nothing at all like the glamorous, well-kept home that Faraday recalled from his childhood, and the Ayers themselves didn’t seem to be doing well either. After a brief encounter with Roderick, Faraday asked to come back again to see if he can treat some of the pain and muscle stiffness that Roderick had been dealing with since he was wounded in the war. (I’ll give you more details about these characters in a moment).

While he knew that the Ayers have lost much of their wealth over the past few decades, Faraday was still shocked by how much the property has deteriorated since he last saw it. Could their inability to pay for necessary repairs explain what is going on, or was there something else afoot in this once-stunning mansion?

 

The Characters

Domhnall Gleeson as Dr. Faraday

Dr. Faraday, the protagonist, was a middle-aged bachelor whose days are generally spent holding office hours at his clinic and doing home visits for patients who were too contagious, sick, or frail to come see him. Most of his patients were poor, so he didn’t make a great deal of money for someone in his position despite his prestigious title and the long hours he worked.

Charlotte Rampling as Mrs. Ayres

Mrs. Ayers was the matriarch of the Ayers family. Her life had changed dramatically since Dr. Faraday first met her in 1919, from the births of Caroline and Roderick to the steep decline in her fortunes and social standing. She had once hosted grand parties in her home, but she now hid away from the community she’d once embraced. Even her own children didn’t seem to spend a great deal of time with her despite the fact that they all lived in the same home.

Ruth Wilson as Caroline Ayres (right)

Caroline Ayers was Mrs. Ayers daughter. She was by far the most intelligent and resourceful member of the Ayers family, and there were several intriguing references to the things she’d accomplished before her brother’s terrible injuries happened in the war.

Will Poulter as Roderick Ayres

Roderick was Mrs. Ayers son. He was badly injured during World War II. When the events of this book began, he was still dealing with both the physical and psychological effects of his wartime experiences in a time when mental health issues were not well understood and when doctors had far fewer treatments for the serious burns and other injuries he’d survived.

My Review

One of the things I’ve always loved about Sarah Waters’ writing style is how adept she is at giving evidence that can support multiple interpretations of a scene or plot. Most of her books don’t have the strong mystery elements in them that this one does, so the fact that she was able to pull this off while writing in a genre I haven’t seen her spend much time in before was impressive.

Dr. Faraday was a character I had mixed feelings about from the beginning. In one of the earliest scenes, the audience saw him visiting Hundreds Hall in its heyday and purposefully breaking off an ornamental acorns from one of the walls in this home. The reasons why he did that were explored later in the storyline, but they didn’t give me a good first impression of this character.

Getting to know him as the adult he was a few decades later softened my opinion of him. As I mentioned earlier, he’d grown up in a time and place where it was nearly impossible to escape the social class one was born into. The fact that his family had scrounged up enough money to get him through medical school was amazing, and I did admire the determination and grit he must have needed to get through such an experience when his family had so little money to spare.

As intrigued as I was about the Ayers, I didn’t feel like I got to know them quite as well as I could have. I appreciated the fact that Faraday was given so much time to shine, but I would have liked to know a few more details about who Roderick, Caroline, and Mrs. Ayers were as individuals before they began experiencing so much misfortune. The little pieces of their pasts that were shared were well done. I simply needed a few extra scenes describing how and when things had gone so terribly wrong for them.

With that being said, this was something I also noticed in the novel. Explaining why these characters weren’t quite as open with Faraday or the audience as I would have preferred them to be would be wandering dangerously close to spoiler territory, and I do understand why they were written that way even though I wish they could have been a little more forthcoming in the film.

What I did love about the storyline was the way it encouraged the audience to ask questions. It wasn’t immediately clear what was really going on at Hundreds Hall. The servant that Faraday was called to treat was quite spooked by living in there, but she refused to tell him who or what had frightened her. This pattern of dancing around the question of whether what was happening in this mansion was supernatural in origin or had a purely rational explanation occurred over and over again.

Just like when I read the book, I formed my opinion about what was going on pretty early on. I won’t tell you what it was, but I will say that I really enjoyed the process of weighing the evidence and coming up with the most likely explanation for all of the strange, and sometimes violent, occurrences at Hundreds Hall before the final scene was revealed.

This is something I’d strongly recommend checking out to anyone who likes any of the themes or genres I mentioned in this review. I liked this adaptation and thought it complemented the original story nicely.

Speaking of Violence, Is It Gory?

I definitely wouldn’t call this a gory film, but there were a few scenes in it that involved a little blood. If anyone would like more information about this, know that I’ll have to share some mild spoilers in order to go into detail about it. For what it’s worth, I wasn’t bothered by these scenes even though I strongly dislike gore in general. They were brief and fit the tone of the storyline well.

The Little Stranger is available on iTunes.

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