The Game’s the Thing

 The Wordle craze has highlighted the fact that we all love games. Be they word games, boardgames, or computer games — we love a good challenge.

From Scrabble, Clue, and Monopoly to Bananagrams, Hang Man, Battleship, and Catan to Warhammer 40,000 and Dungeons and Dragons to Minecraft, Super Mario, and Civilization — the game’s the thing.

If this is the case, and it is, then why isn’t the classic murder mystery more popular?

If genres such as LitRPG and Gamebooks have strong niche followings, what happened to the original literary puzzle game — the murder mystery?

It’s clear that the murder mystery’s star began to wane in the 1950s, being supplanted by the thriller. The question I ask is, why? We love games. And the murder mystery is at heart a game.

The murder mystery is a contest between the writer and the reader. The writer lays down the challenge: whodunit? Who killed Mr. Body? The reader must then find the clues and solve the murder before the detective’s big reveal at the end.

In addition, though, to being a puzzle, the best murder mysteries are also stupendously good stories. And who doesn’t like a good story? Where would campfires or the office party be without them?

Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels are challenging mysteries, but even more they are entertaining reads. It’s like getting 2 of the price of 1!

Or take Caleb Pirtle’s Boom Town Saga. The books are magnificently crafted historical novels with atmosphere you can feel and characters you can touch. When you close the book, there’s a sadness within you that you’re leaving Eudora’s and Doc’s world. They are also doggone challenging murder mysteries. In other words, a good game.

Or what about Richard Schwindt’s Death in Sioux Lookout trilogy? Superbly introspective tales with a magnificent sense of place. And a doggone good puzzle to solve in each book.

Joe Congel, with the Razzman, gives you a good detective yarn filled with characters you can touch and feel. A satisfyingly entertaining story and a brain-challenging puzzle. In one enjoyable package. What’s not to like?

Yet the mystery story gets passed over. For some reason, readers prefer violence to order, chaos to reason. They’d rather run virtual races to escape death, then try to restore order to a world violated and torn apart by murder.

When I was a working stiff, my job was stressful enough as it was. I certainly didn’t want my reading to be stressful as well. Perhaps that’s why I liked the closed world of the murder mystery and the chance to restore order to chaos and to quash those feelings of fear, instead of promoting them.

If you like games, and who doesn’t, then give the classic murder mystery a try. It’s the original literary game. If you like Wordle, you’ll love a good mystery.

The classic murder mystery: a game disguised as a book.

You can try my own brain teasers, the Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries and Death Wears a Crimson Hat, because the game is afoot!

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

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