{"id":11091,"date":"2024-07-31T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11091"},"modified":"2024-07-31T07:25:45","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T11:25:45","slug":"crime-fiction-partners-sidekicks-and-foils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11091","title":{"rendered":"Crime Fiction: Partners, Sidekicks, and Foils"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Paging through the notes I\u2019ve taken on innumerable Zoom calls\u2014book discussions, writing tips, publishing conundrums\u2014one from a few months ago caught my eye. The Zoom was sponsored by the New York area chapter of Mystery Writers of America, organized and moderated by expert author Gary Earl Ross<\/a> of Buffalo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a discussion about \u201cpartners in crime\u201d detection\u2014the reasons why in crime fiction the principal detective so often has a sidekick. It\u2019s quite a useful device, because a slightly dim or new-on-the-job partner gives the detective a reason for explaining (to the reader) what they\u2019re doing and why they\u2019re doing it in a natural-feeling way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019m rereading all of Sherlock Holmes currently, Conan Doyle uses Watson in this way. He is not dull-witted (the Nigel Bruce portrayal notwithstanding), but he finds Holmes\u2019s methods baffling. You can empathize with his confusion, especially when Holmes is attempting some high-wire mental acrobatics, and you can feel a tiny bit superior to Watson, confident that Holmes will have it all figured out, even if you can\u2019t see how he gets from A to Z, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One characteristic of our fictional detectives that readers (and viewers and hearers) like is their perseverance. Tim Sullivan\u2019s Detective George Cross<\/a> is like that. He doesn\u2019t give up on an investigation, even when his superiors insist the case is solved. He keeps at it and\u2026he\u2019s right. As Ross said, readers appreciate an investigator who works hard. Of course, it\u2019s the #2 who\u2019ll have to kick in the doors (I\u2019m looking at you, Ben Jones).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In cozy mysteries the bake shop owner (etc.) and her confederates (shop assistant, sister, best friend) frequently encounter a kind of person they don\u2019t generally have to deal with. These meetings inspire readers\u2019 thoughts of how they would handle that kind of person or situation. And, in cozies, having these confederates around provides some safety in numbers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partners can not only provide flashes of insight, they also earn their keep by inserting a bit of humor. The lead detective\u2019s colleagues in the New Zealand cozy-adjacent television series Brokenwood<\/a><\/em> (quite fun) are not only good investigators themselves, they contribute big-time to squadroom humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conveying a sense of justice is good rationale for the genre. But that\u2019s not always simple. I\u2019m thinking about S.A. Cosby\u2019s Razorblade Tears<\/a><\/em>\u2014one of his very best\u2014and the uneasy partnership between two very different fathers. It\u2019s that collaboration that lets Cosby explore highly fraught social territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice, of course, doesn\u2019t always mean following the letter of the law, or even enforcing the laws. Having a partner lets a character thrash out those options. Here I\u2019m thinking of The Plinko Bounce<\/a><\/em> by Martin Clark\u2014a wonderful tale about a public defender and his colleagues trying not to be outplayed by the man they\u2019re defending. In crime stories, characters with a strong sense of right and wrong may find it in the law and, sometimes, outside it. In tricky situations, it\u2019s great to have a partner you trust to hash things out with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paging through the notes I\u2019ve taken on innumerable Zoom calls\u2014book discussions, writing tips, publishing conundrums\u2014one from a few months ago caught my eye. The Zoom was sponsored by the New York area chapter of Mystery Writers of America, organized and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A good #2 in a crime story does more than fill out the paperwork for the main detective. How and why they're so popular.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,52,40,174,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character","category-crime","category-fiction","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2ST","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11093,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11091\/revisions\/11093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}