I Love a Mystery

I LOVE MYSTERIES!!!!!  I've never really liked doing jigsaw puzzles, but I love a good literary puzzle.  I've read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, everything by Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Erle Stanley Gardner, and a variety of miscellaneous unknown authors.






I'm sure it began with my favorite childhood series of books about the protagonist, Trixie Belden.  I remember staying up late into the night with a flashlight under the blankets and reading until I couldn't keep my eyes open.  I did not read Nancy Drew books or the Hardy Boys series.  They seemed too corny.  But tomboy Trixie and her rich friend Honey held my attention for book after book.  I even developed a little bit of a crush for Trixie's brother Brian and the orphan, Jim.  Growing up in small town Iowa, their adventures at Crabapple Farm in New England seemed somewhat exotic.


As a high schooler, I took brief breaks from my mysteries and forayed into American literary classics.  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Upton Sinclair, John Updike, and Mark Twain were better at holding my attention in those days.  In college, I developed a new literary love, Victorian novels, which displaced mysteries for a long season.  However, once children came into my life, I rekindled my love for detectives and crimes. I could pick up these shorter works of fiction (remember, Victorian novels are loooong!) and read them between diapers, laundry, and meals.  Rocking a baby to sleep took long enough to read 1 or 2 chapters.  While the plots might be complicated, I could usually turn off my "literary analysis" switch that I had carefully developed as an English major.  Who cares about themes, symbols, motifs, or characterization?  What you really want to know is "whodunit."



With the introduction of Neflix to our family, I now have a number of mysteries to watch with just a few clicks of my mouse.  I'm especially fond of solving British crimes. I've probably seen every mystery that Miss Marple, that "goddess in sensible shoes," has solved onscreen.  I have definite opinions about the various women who have played her; as far as I'm concerned, only Joan Hickson "nailed it."  I also have a soft spot for David Suchet as Poirot.  How can you not love that egg-shaped man?

I've found a way to further indulge myself -- I teach mysteries as a part of my high school language arts classes.  This semester we're reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which is not a bona fide crime-solving detective novel, but has puzzle to be solved and a secret that needs exposing.  In another class we're reading six Sherlock Holmes stories, a lesser-know Russian short story, and Poe's "Cask of Amontillado."  Finally, in my third class we're reading 39 Steps, a novel of mysterious intrigue rather than a classic detective story, at the end of the semester.  My hopes are that I can pass along this obsession to the next generation.