Last night I watched an episode of Murder, She Wrote. It was a re-run. This series aired from 1984 to 1996. Murder, She Wrote was one of those few TV shows that I waited eagerly from week to week to see. Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher carried the show, a protagonist who, without fail, solved a mystery and brought a bad guy or gal to justice. Sometimes, as in last night’s episode, the villain was a friend and Jessica was sad when his foul deed was exposed but that never stopped her from doing what was right. And wouldn’t you know, Jessica was a writer of mysteries whose books were best sellers!
So I wonder, What made the show appealing and kept it in the top ranked slot for many years? The protagonist, certainly. She was vivacious, smart, and attractive. She was trustworthy. I knew Jessica’s values. She would never throw me, her viewer, a curve. Each show had an attention-getting beginning, a middle where things got tough and dangerous, and an ending where problems were solved satisfactorily. As a mystery writer, those are elements in the stories I write.
Now if I had actually been there with Jessica, involved in the intrigue, I probably would not have been so enthusiastic about the mystery, murder, and mayhem. But, viewed from the safety of my living room and followed vicariously at a safe distance, it was entertaining. That’s what keeps mystery writers writing and mystery readers reading, being caught up in a fascinating, dangerous, even threatening tale but only at a safe distance. It’s the same concept of enjoying a rattling good thunderstorm from under the stout roof and within the protecting walls of my home. I believe it is called ‘contrast’, as in the light and dark hues of a picture. A case of the shivers is good when the cause is fictitious. In my third Darcy/Flora book, Darcy remembers spending the night at her grandmother’s home and looking out her bedroom window at the ancient graveyard beyond the orchard:
“When I was a young child and spent the night at Granny’s, I would look out my bedroom window at the moonlight dancing across these grave markers and shiver. Did ghosts flit about the resting places of people who died many years ago? I stared at the cemetery until my childish imagination overpowered me then ducked under the covers and felt deliciously safe from whatever evil lurked on the other side of the orchard.”
There must be a bit of Jessica Fletcher, heroine extraordinaire, in each mystery story; the appeal that invites the reader into the pages of a book to share the adventure. The mark of a good book is when the reader reaches the last page, sighs with satisfaction and reaches for the next one, eager to be a part of the mystery and solution enjoyed from the comfort of an easy chair.
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