Why write mystery novels?
Of the 123 novels I’ve written, nine of them have been science fiction, and the rest have been various kinds of fantasy.
A few people have asked why I wrote COVERING FIRE, a mystery novel? Four reasons!
1.) I enjoy the genre.
I’ve read a lot of mystery novels over the years, and I enjoy the genre. If you’re a writer and you enjoy reading something, eventually you’re going to try writing it yourself.
2.) Bigger potential audience.
More people read mysteries and thrillers than do fantasy. I’ve noticed that the mailing lists for Mystery on promotional sites like Bookbub and BargainBooksy are 30 to 40 percent higher than those for fantasy. In Real Life, I’ve known people for years who know that I’m a writer but never read anything I wrote until AVENGING FIRE came out. There are people who will never read a fantasy or a science fiction novel but who will read a mystery novel. Eventually I would like to have at least three Cormac Rogan novels because then I’m pretty sure I can advertise them and turn a consistent profit.
I should note that I wouldn’t write a mystery novel if I didn’t enjoy the genre, and I don’t think you should try writing in a genre that you do not yourself enjoy. (Or writing a kind of nonfiction you do not find interesting.) Like, I know some writers who decided to write romance novels because that’s the biggest genre, but the writers in question don’t enjoy romance, so all they did was make themselves miserable and not sell a lot of books in the process.
3.) Not like I’ll stop writing fantasy.
And it’s not like I’m going to stop writing fantasy novels. After SILENT ORDER: ROYAL HAND, the next two books I’ll write will be DRAGONSKULL: SWORD OF THE SQUIRE and GHOST IN THE SUN.
4.) A kind of fantasy on its own.
In a way, mystery novels are a kind of fantasy.
If you look at Real Life, the bad guys very often win. I’m sure we can all think of examples. Or, for that matter, the truth is very hard to discern in many situations. Like, if you look at current events, there are multiple potential explanations for various things that have happened over the last few years. What is the truth? What really happened?
The problem is the human mind is not always the most reliable tool for uncovering the truth. Like, you can discern the truth with your mind, but very often it’s like using a screwdriver as a hammer – doable, but it’s difficult, it takes a while, and you might hurt yourself if you do it wrong. That is why the detective, the truth-seeker, makes for a compelling protagonist. All of us know that in Real Life uncovering the truth is often so difficult, so we can emphasize with the detective’s mission.
So in a way, a mystery novel is a kind of fantasy where the truth is discovered.
But! The best kind of fantasy is always hopeful. And even in Real Life, the bad guys’ misdeeds sometimes catch up to them, and the truth comes out. A good mystery novel is a reminder of that.
Raymond Chandler had an excellent quote on this topic:
“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it…The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure.”
-JM