Bloody Words VI:
Looking for a right and proper murder...

To paraphrase Elwood Blues, I'm on a mission from Crimespree. My mission? To track down "Murder Right & Proper" in Toronto. The Marriott Hotel is the scene of Bloody Words VI: Murder Right & Proper - a weekend of panels, performances and potables. With so many prominent mystery authors in attendance, finding the essential ingredients for a right and proper murder should be a cinch.

I first put the question to guest-of-honor Maureen Jennings, the Anthony-winning author of the Detective Murdoch series.

"Fictional murder is a sublimation of our antisocial

urges," says Jennings, "so I ask - what kind of murder would I personally understand? I look for a strong emotional motivation - jealousy or explosive anger, that kind of thing. I know people kill for money and such…but even then I feel that there is usually something deeper going on. I look for that deeper layer. Also, for a right and proper murder, justice definitely befalls the murderer." This ethos is well-evidenced by her latest book, the celebrated NIGHT'S CHILD.

Jennings raises a topic which is the subject of frequent debates within mysterydom: Do we take our murder straight-up, or do we require a justice chaser to smooth the rough edges and restore order and balance to the universe? And, for that matter, do we even want an ordered and balanced universe in the first place?

Rick Mofina has written a series of five thrillers set in San Francisco. His latest novel, THE DYING HOUR, is the first in a new series about Jason Wade, a rookie

crime reporter in Seattle. As a reader, he sometimes appreciates a heavy dose of noir. But as a writer, Mofina - like Jennings - prefers to see justice served. "I like to follow the classical structure of detective fiction: There's a wrong, or a threat, the community is thrown into chaos and someone is tasked to right that wrong. That represents the knight errant - the person, with their problems, who is tasked with solving this and bringing resolution, bringing order to the chaos."

Also like Jennings, Mofina's approach to murder is far from simplistic; he wants the reader to identify with the murderer's motive. "I like the murder driven by vengeance. Vengance is not a good thing, but I understand it because it is so pure in the moment. You understand the reasoning behind it…the motives and the methods, all the pure forces that drive it, if your antagonist is drawn well-enough. You might even have a degree of empathy for the antagonist. In the eyes of the villain, this is a righteous murder, but it is proper that they be stopped."

In the lobby outside the book dealer room, a guy named Patrick is selling truly awful charcoal portraits for twenty bucks a pop. There are no customers lining up for his brand of artistic abuse, so I stop and ask him what he finds satisfying in a murder. He looks alarmed.

"A fictional murder," I say.

"Oh. I don't read mysteries," he says.

"What do you read?"

"Nothing, really."

"You watch television? Movies?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Okay, what makes a good murder on TV or in a movie?" Patrick thinks about this for a while. I wait.

"Um, a dead guy?"

You can't win 'em all. I give up on Patrick and head for the Crime Writers of Canada table in the dealer room.

"I usually like to see disequilibrium being brought back to equilibrium," says Cheryl Freedman, Executive Director of the CWC. Freedman takes the occasional expedition into noir but, for her, a little goes a long way. "In a book where the establishment is thoroughly corrupt to begin with, I can enjoy a dark ending…but I only read them occasionally, because I want to pump my fist and shout, Yes! when justice is served at the end."

I catch Cathy Pickens, author of SOUTHERN FRIED, at the end of her panel. She gives me a Moonpie, which brings back memories of my days in South Carolina. She warns that Moonpies don't have a lot to recommend them, aside from nostalgia. Undaunted, I bite into the sugary treat. She's right, but there's nowhere to spit, so I chew and swallow and ask what she looks for in a right and proper murder.

"As a lawyer I've learned that, in the mildest-mannered people, there lurks real evil," says Pickens, "while others, who look quite scary on the surface, are truly wonderful, compassionate beings. So I explore the idea that each and every one of us, given the right circumstances, has the capacity for murder…and that even the worst among us has the capacity for compassion. Real life is complicated."

Because real life is complicated, real-life endings are often inadequate, and this drives Pickens to mete out fictional justice. "We have to feel a sense of closure. And I think that's what mystery fiction does for us, that real-life mystery doesn't - it gives us resolution. We've got to know that the good guys win…we've got to know."

"I write murder mysteries so I can kill people I don't like," says Lambda-nominated Greg Herren, author of two series featuring gay New Orleans PIs Scotty Bradley and Chanse MacLeod. "It's a good way to get aggression out of my system without ending up in jail." Herren is less moved by concerns for justice. "In my books, justice is usually served but I write about New Orleans and New Orleans is kind of crazy, so upsetting the balance…there's no balance to upset. I'm not hung-up on seeing justice served. For me, the murder is a way to get into the minds of the characters and the motivations behind the murder."

Charles Benoit, author of the Edgar-nominated RELATIVE DANGER, says the need to identify with the murderer trumps the need for justice. "I like situations where the murderer might say, Look, it sorta just happened, man…and it could have been you, if you were in my shoes. I don't have any special evil quality; I'm not this twisted man with some horrible past. Things just got out of control… You read about killers with chainsaws and stuff, but I know that ain't gonna be me. But when I hear about the guy who just lost it in traffic, I think, Oh, there but for the grace of God… I have empathy for the killer in those situations, because I feel that anybody could be pushed just a little too far…and anybody here in this room is capable of things they would never want to admit they're capable of."

International guest-of-honor Anne Perry has earned critical and popular success writing mysteries set in the Victorian era, when concern for the Rightness and Properness of things was perhaps higher than it is today. Still, Perry sees empathy for the murderer as essential. "What satisfies me is when the murderer is not wicked, but it is something that is totally understandable, and there's some compassion from the writer for everybody involved, including the murderer. When the thing's not black and white. It involves human behavior and you think, yes, perhaps even I could have done that."

"There's certainly nothing right and proper about murder," deadpans Peter Robinson at the pre-banquet cocktail party. The author of the acclaimed Inspector Banks series looks at murder as a springboard to motive, where character-issues can be explored. "The forensics, blood spatters and that sort of thing don't matter much to me. And I don't insist upon justice. The murder is simply a way into looking at a group of characters and what it is that pushed someone over the edge. I don't work from an outline so I'm working my way though the story as I go, and I can horrify myself when I discover why the person did this."

Robinson's latest, STRANGE AFFAIR, is a kick-in-the-head example of how disturbing the motives for murder can be, and he acknowledges that he was taken aback when he discovered the motive during the writing process. "I think that was the most horrific motive I can imagine," he says with a grim smile.

In the dealer room, I catch up with J.D. Singh, proprietor of Toronto's Sleuth of Baker Street, one of the finest mystery bookstores anywhere. Singh has read a lot of mysteries over the years and says, "I've come to the point where I'm looking for good writing, rather than a specific approach to murder. I like books where justice triumphs and I also like books where there is no justice. Frankly, I'm sick of books that treat characters as props…and murder without emotional consequence. I'm really just looking for a flair with language, a certain elegance in the prose and some depth. Good writing."

Amen to that.

The banquet is about to begin, but there's time to collect one more opinion. On a small, velvet-covered table in the corner of the dealer room sits a crystal ball and a pack of tarot cards. "Ariana" is selling readings for ten bucks. She's also selling her latest vampire-sex horror novel. I tell her that I'm not in the market for either, and ask her what makes a right and proper murder.

"Seduction and surprise," she says with a surprisingly seductive smile.

"Would you like to expand on that?" I ask.

Ariana squints and hits her head repeatedly with her tiny fists and says, "Oh, you're gonna actually make me think?"

"It's not mandatory."

She takes a deep breath and pushes her elbows together. I look away.

"Well," she says, "the prey should be lured-in seductively, enticed and seduced. The murder should be a surprise but the victim should be aware that it's happening, ahead of time."

"If the victim is aware that it's happening ahead of time, then how is it a surprise?"

"It's kinda like when you know something's gonna happen but you can't believe it, so you go into the situation because you're seduced, but then you realize that you were right and it really is gonna happen, but it's too late. Kinda like that." Ariana giggles. "Am I scaring you?"

"More than you could possibly imagine." I ask her if it's important for justice to prevail at the end.

"In my books, the murderer always gets away with it," she says. Then she winks at me. "But the prey usually has a good time before they die."

Happy to escape with my virtue intact, I retreat to the bar for a much-needed beer, and reflect on the myriad approaches to fictional murder. The need (or lack thereof) for justice will be debated as long as there are mysteries to read. But most agree - murder is a powerful key that opens the door to characters in crisis. And examining the motives for murder gives us insight into our best and worst traits.

In the best crime fiction, this unflinching emotional exploration may be the essential ingredient for Murder Right & Proper.

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NOTE: This article originally appeared in Crimespree Magazine. If you're not a subscriber to Crimespree, you should be.