If there’s one lesson that British television teaches us, it is that any group of people, no matter how charming or seemingly innocent, is likely to contain one or more murderers1. Speculative fiction pros and fans must be no exception. Authors have not been slow to realize the creative potential of this plot seed…
Don’t believe me? Consider these five works.
Rocket to the Morgue by Anthony Boucher2 (1942)
Hilary Foulkes has devoted his life to maximizing income from his deceased father’s still-popular Dr. Derringer stories. An excessively vigilant guardian of Dr. Derringer IP, Hilary has acquired a long list of people who would like to see him dead. Now it seems that at least one person is determined to follow through with an actual murder.
It falls to Detective Inspector Terry Marshall, assisted by Sister Ursula of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany, to determine which of Foulkes’ many enemies are targeting the vexatious heir. High on the list of suspects, the members of the Mañana Literary Society. The Mañana Literary Society is composed of not only authors, but science fiction authors. Who knows what atrocities they might commit?
Boucher didn’t just populate his cast with SF authors. He used thinly veiled versions of his SF friends and colleagues3. Readers may amuse themselves working who corresponds with whom… or they can cheat and consult the list over on Wikipedia.
Murder at the ABA by Isaac Asimov (1976)
Giles Devore’s first novel became a bestseller thanks to the efforts of editor Darius Just. As far as Devore is concerned, his success is not merely a reflection of his own inherent greatness, it is a get-out-of-jail-free card that confers license to act abominably. The discovery of Devore’s corpse by his former editor Just is no doubt welcome news to fellow members of the American Booksellers Association.
Devore’s death appears accidental to most. To Just, the scene seems staged. This suggests murder. Just has no problem imagining that someone might want Devore dead. The trick will be narrowing the list of suspects down to just one.
Like Boucher, Asimov tuckerized colleagues in this mystery: Darius Just is a thinly disguised Harlan Ellison. Asimov also sprinkled the cast with well-known figures of the sort one might plausibly meet at an American Booksellers Association conference, such as astronomer Carl Sagan, science writer Walter Sullivan, and local eccentric Isaac Asimov.
Now You See It/Him/Them… by Robert Coulson and Gene DeWeese (1975)
Reporter Joe Karns’ life is one long sequence of unlikely events. Most recently, Karns arrived at the door of the hotel room of Silas Tucker, SF author turned professional debunker, just in time to hear Tucker being murdered. Inexplicably, the killer eludes Karns despite there being no other exit from the room.
Filksinger Kay Clark sheds light on the murder. Having spent years exposing frauds, Tucker had discovered that ESP is actually real. People with very special gifts, such as being a living weirdness magnet, walk among us. Too bad for Tucker that one person with a very special ability was willing to kill to keep that ability a secret. Too bad for Karns and Clark that both of them now know too much.
Not only is Tucker a former SF author, his murder takes place at an SF con. Coulson and DeWeese do not hesitate to exploit the potential for amusing local color, particularly in the matter of wandering cosplayers with an interest in murder.
Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb (1987)
Appin Dungannon is very nearly a tragic figure. Dungannon has come to loathe the Tralyn Runewind series for which he is famous. Unable to give up the lucrative income from the series, Dungannon copes by doing his best to make everyone he meets as miserable as he is. With a single exception, Dungannon’s relentlessly unpleasant demeanor has failed to alienate his audience. The exception? Whichever Rubicon attendee it was who murdered Dungannon.
A local detective, Lt. Thomas Ayhan, is convinced that solving the murder should be easy. The collection of eccentrics attending the con probably know little about how to get away with murder (at least less likely than the average Bouchercon4 member). But it’s not the cop but novice SF author Dr. James “Jay Omega” Mega who spots the killer. Now, if only Jay can figure out how to survive exposing the murderer…
Bimbos has three noteworthy aspects. First, it’s not much of a mystery; it is clear who dunit. Second, author McCrumb seems utterly confounded by and disapproving of many of the fen5. Third, it’s pretty clear that Jay’s girlfriend Dr. Marion Farley is the uncredited co-author of Jay’s book and arguably the one who deserves first credit.
We’ll Always Have Parrots by Donna Andrews (2004)
Fans of the cult-favorite TV show Porfiria, Queen of the Jungle launch their first East Coast convention. Thanks to contracts whose clauses merited closer examination than they got, Porfiria actors like Meg Langslow’s boyfriend Michael are not merely allowed to attend the con; they are required to attend.
Obnoxious star Tamerlaine “QB” Wynncliffe-Jones barely has time to establish her comprehensively unpleasant character before Meg finds QB’s battered corpse. Complicating homicide Detective Foley’s task is the fact that almost everyone at the con had means, motive, and opportunity to kill QB. This includes Michael. It’s up to Meg to solve yet another murder6 before Foley decides that Michael is the killer.
Parrots stands out from Bimbos in a number of respects. First, the con is a profit-oriented media con, not the more traditional, less monetized variety. Second, Andrews gives every indication of liking colorful fannish eccentrics, rather than sharing McCrumb’s fascinated disdain.
Are there more recent examples of this subgenre? I’d love to read them. Please mention candidates in comments below.
- Why would anyone move to Midsomer or Murder She Wrote’s Cabot Cove, given that one’s chance of being murdered is so high? Perhaps other communities must somehow have even higher murder rates (as unlikely as that sounds). ↩︎
- Rocket to the Morgue was written under the pseudonym H.H. Holmes, a name that Boucher borrowed from a noted hotelier and alleged amateur architect. ↩︎
- Did Boucher base his character Hilary Foulkes on a specific extremely litigious literary heir? Have fun speculating who that heir might have been… but please do so in a manner that won’t get me roped into the subsequent libel lawsuit. ↩︎
- Bouchercon is the nickname for the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention. Yes, the same Boucher who wrote Rocket to the Morgue. Writing about murders doesn’t seem to confer any particular ability to get away with murder. At least, it didn’t help Nancy Crampton Brophy, author of How to Murder Your Husband, avoid conviction for murdering her husband. ↩︎
- Bimbo’s character Brenda Lindenfeld is a gold-digger searching the con for boring nerds who might be potential husbands/meal tickets. McCrumb’s objection to Brenda’s quest doesn’t seem to be that Brenda is a gold-digger; it’s that she’s fat. McCrumb doesn’t like many of her characters, and it shows. ↩︎
- Parrots is the fifth Meg Langslow mystery. I think at a certain stage in amateur detectives’ careers, people should stop inviting them to social gatherings. Mystery author Simon Brett’s protagonist, actor Charles Paris, however, seems to keep getting hired even though the chances are that at least one person will be murdered during the course of the show. Paris will then solve the murder. But… if you hire Paris he will show up on time, he will know his lines, and depending on how drunk he is, he might not bump into set furniture. There are twenty books in the Charles Paris series, which means that nineteen directors decided that reliability matters more than the disruption of recasting slain actors, not to mention the small chance of being the person for whom proximity to Paris proves lethal. As someone who works in live theatre, I find those directorial choices entirely believable. ↩︎
