Alix Ohlin, “Why Mysteries Matter: Detectives, Literature, and Life”
Why are readers and writers perpetually drawn to the mystery, reinventing its plot twists and stock characters—the detective, the criminal, ingénue, the femme fatale—in endless ways? Brilliant young fiction writer Alix Ohlin (The Missing Person and Babylon and Other Stories) says it’s because detective stories reflect the way we judge our own society: who’s an insider and who’s an outsider, who’s corrupt and who’s innocent, who’s capable of changing the world and who can find the clues to make sense of it. No crime, even a fictional one, takes place …
