The Detective as Shaman

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Paul Whybrow

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Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
Crime writer P.D. James reckoned that:

'What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.'

Her observation is something that I've kept in the back of my mind, when writing my own Cornish Detective series. My protagonist detective is as much a healer as he is an avenger. But, he's considerably more vengeful than his boss, the Chief Constable, who worries about the image of the force. He's willing to cover up investigative failures, if it prevents holidaymakers from being scared off from visiting Cornwall, which depends on tourism for much of its income.

I've been confident about the stance of my protagonist, who is an unusual character, while still fretting a bit that he's too freaky and also that he's a bit boring. I rationalised this, by remembering that villains, the antagonists, are always easier and more fun to write. Also, even if I've written a truly frightening fight scene, it's not going to scare me as I know exactly what happens!

It hadn't occurred to me that I'd created a protagonist who's in good fictional company:

Unholy modernity and the shamanic powers of the detective | Aeon Essays

The article is written by crime novelist Jason Webster, whose Spanish detective Max Cámara is an unorthodox character. Webster is a maverick author, at least so far as Fatal Sunset, the most recently published in his series goes, for he seemingly kills his hero on the last page—leaving a mystifying cliffhanger, which made me eager to read the next novel to see how he gets out of it. It's a useful technique, for I've remembered the author's name more than if all of the loose ends had been neatly tied.

In the article, Webster makes some wise observations about what function a detective serves:

'If nothing else, he (and, later, she) is a problem-solver; someone who can restore order where there is chaos. Faced with the worst crime (what could be more existentially troubling than a murder?), the detective gives us answers to the most pressing and urgent questions: not only whodunit, but how and why and what it means. He does all this by taking us on a journey, discovering pieces of evidence, seeking out hints and clues. In the best examples of this game, we see everything that the detective sees, yet we are unable to solve the crime ourselves. Only the detective, in a final display of mastery, can reach the correct conclusion. We need him, with his special knowledge and abilities, to make sense of it all.

In other words, a detective is a kind of priest. Throughout history, priestly castes have boasted a unique capacity to answer the great riddles of existence....'

My detective hero is a very wealthy man, owing to inheritance, and he's also a son of a farmer locked into the moods of nature. His love of art, music, books and the countryside keeps him sane, but he's definitely weird, when compared to the typical drug and booze abusing detective or private investigator, who also gambles and womanises. My protagonist is left wing or liberal, believes in a Green approach to living and is Bohemian in nature from his love of art. He doesn't smoke, do drugs and rarely drinks alcohol. He's also been celibate for eight years, following the death of his wife, though I'm about to give him a sex life in my WIP.

I deliberately wanted to create a different type of detective, not that I dislike the hard-boiled tough guy coppers, but they're better suited to city locations. My stories are set in Cornwall, featuring dark and dirty deeds—poisoning, cannibalism, human trafficking, BDSM, illegal abattoirs and murder as a role-playing game—but my hero solves the crimes using his cunning and intelligence.

Inadvertently, I've also written stories that fit into a sub-genre of crime writing known as Country Noir or Rural Noir, which is alright with me, for I'd rather create tales that scare the reader, than pen comfortable cosies they can enjoy on the beach; there's nothing cosy about murder! :mad:

If you write crime stories, what kind of detective do they feature?

If you read crime novels, who are your favourite detectives?

death-crime-criminal-author-novel-crime_novel-bron368_low.jpg
 
I have tried my hand at a crime novel before a couple of times but I couldn't quite get the right character for my "detective." I kept falling into a pastiche of others.

The problem for me was one of originality, all the types seemed to have been done before: Shambolic but brilliant - Columbo, Brilliant mind but tediously OCD and annoying - Poirot, Curmudgeonly, plodding but nice bloke who always gets there in the end - Wexford. I found it difficult to develop a new angle that was both different and realistic. Maybe I didn't try hard enough.
 
I might not forgive your hero murdering writer. It would have to make sense within the whole or I'd spit on his mythical grave.

Can I pretend I write crime novels?

If you write crime stories, what kind of detective do they feature?

It would be a woman. There aren't enough female detectives I think. Although, I could be wrong. Anyway, I'm always happy to see one and that's what matters. I think I'd make her a trouble maker but I'd have to resist the temptation to let her accidentally figure things out or stumble upon the correct answer. There are too many southern cozy mysteries like that. What the world needs is a female Sherlock Holmes. So, that's what I would write. She'd be awesome.

If you read crime novels, who are your favourite detectives?

Columbo is my favorite detective. He isn't in books though.

I really love Sherlock Holmes. I read him when I was a kid and it was an intense experience I've never forgotten.

I used to like Patricia Cornwell's detective. The medical examiner.

I liked the English Victorian Egyptologists. I don't remember who wrote those.

I liked the Carolyn Hart books.

I also liked the English antique dealer novels.

I often don't remember the names of the authors or the detectives. So I'm not a lot of good. After a while, cozy mysteries start to blend together. There are quite a bit of Southern cozy mysteries written. They are often cute and funny. Some of them have a bit of romance.

I don't read mysteries for the detective or even to find out who did it. I read them because mysteries tend to take normal people and reveal their true nature. I can't actually remember the last time I didn't know who did it or when I cared.
 
I just read a crime novel where the only detectives were the murderer (who was in denial) and a succession of psychics. The murderer blogged about them, how they were all fraudsters but they all picked up on this or that, and the last one absolutely knew. In that sense, the detective was literally, a kind of a shaman.

The Winter's Child

Grim but it told a very unfashionable truth. Much as you might love your child, doesn't mean you make them happy.
 
I just read a crime novel where the only detectives were the murderer (who was in denial) and a succession of psychics. The murderer blogged about them, how they were all fraudsters but they all picked up on this or that, and the last one absolutely knew. In that sense, the detective was literally, a kind of a shaman.

The Winter's Child

Grim but it told a very unfashionable truth. Much as you might love your child, doesn't mean you make them happy.

It sounds very sad.
 
Thinking about famous fictional detectives, characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Lord Peter Wimsey and private investigators like Philip Marlowe and Dick Tracy, they share the trait of being recognisable by their appearance, in the same way that founts of wisdom such as Gandhi, the Buddah, Confucius, Mother Teresa, Einstein, Steve Jobs and Stephen Hawking all have a visual image that lends itself to being instantly identifiable, even in silhouette.

It's certainly something to consider when describing the looks of your own detective protagonist.

Even rough diamonds can take on the role of priest, healer and shaman. I've read a dozen Walter Mosley detective novels this year, and the heroes of his two main series of books, Easy Rawlins and Leonid McGill are both street tough brawlers, but they're also well-educated and have a social conscience, going out of their way to help the downtrodden victims of the crimes they're investigating. That's not to say that they won't take any casual sex that's offered to them, or put a bullet in the head of a baddy, as that's more justice than handing him over to the law.

They both remind me of the proverb quoted by Theodore Roosevelt, when referring to American foreign policy: Speak softly and carry a big stick.
 
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