.KEYWORD ppbookmonth1200
.FLYINGHEAD PALMPOWER BOOK OF THE MONTH
.TITLE Murder mysteries make great holiday reading
.DEPT
.SUMMARY Here’s a unique and inexpensive gift idea this holiday season: ebooks. Ben Brickman is on the case once again with reviews of several excellent short mystery stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
.AUTHOR Ben Brickman
Imagine a short fiction author who’s able to write top-rated stories in mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. Imagine that three different major magazines, in different genres, poll their readers, and all three declare that this author wrote the top story published in each respective magazine in the same calendar year. Further, assume that three different stories were so voted, one per magazine.
Sound impossible? Not if that author is Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Rusch made a name for herself as the co-founder of Pulphouse Publishing, a publisher of science fiction and mystery stories. Thus, her love of both those genres began early in her career. Later she became the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, recognized as one of the top genre magazines. During her tenure there she won the coveted Hugo Award for Best Editor.
In 1999, Rusch pulled off the genre equivalent of winning the Triple Crown, when three different stories she wrote were independently judged as Reader’s Choice Winners in three different major fiction magazines. Her mystery story "Details" won the Reader’s Choice Award for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine that year. Her story "Echea" was nominated for practically every major award (Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Locus) and won the Homer award as well as being voted the Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine Reader’s Choice award winner. And, in the same year, she won the Science Fiction Age Magazine Reader’s Choice Award. No other writer has ever achieved three major magazine Reader’s Choice awards for different stories in different publications in the same year.
.H1 It’s all in the Details
Of these great stories, I’d like to recommend "Details." It starts out as a classically constructed mystery tale but ends up being far more. In it, a GI returning from the battlefields of WWII Europe comes home to find himself embroiled in a murder investigation. The story is told as a flashback in which the now 77 year-old former GI finds his health failing and decides to write down some of the "details" from his life before it’s too late.
We soon find ourselves going back in time forty-five years or so. We find the main character driving into his dusty town, not feeling much like a war hero. He stops at a gas station and buys a Coke from a machine. "The small old fashioned bottles," we’re told. Suddenly, a beautiful woman walks over to him and asks him for a drink, and he obliges. That seems innocent enough, and indeed we find that this story is a textbook example of the "innocent bystander" form of mystery story. Well, as you probably have already guessed, this lady turns up quite dead the next day, and our GI is the prime suspect.
At first you might think this sounds too contrived. Why would he be suspect just because he offered the lady a sip of Coke? Rusch handles this particular detail marvelously. You see, the lady was a light-skinned black woman. In the glare of the midday sun, the GI didn’t notice this. He admits (forty years later) that at the time he was a typical white bigot and would never have offered a "colored" person a drink from his bottle. He doesn’t overtly apologize for this; he simply says that’s the way things were, and he knows better now. Note how expert this device is. It provides an immediate reason why he is the suspect forty years ago, and at the same time Rusch builds empathy for the character. People who admit their mistakes and try to improve are easy to empathize with.
But the race issue goes far deeper than a clever plot device here, and I’ll stop right now lest I give away too much of this marvelously conceived story. What the reader finds is that mystery as a genre has grown up since the days of flatfoots on the beat, amateur detectives, and rascally private investigators saving the pretty dame in the big hat from trouble. We find that mystery can be a genre that explores human relationships, human failings, and sometimes triumphs, and it can do it as well as any mainstream literary story. Meanwhile, we get the added bonus of watching as the main character unravels an ingenious riddle. This ebook is available at Fictionwise for 99 cents. You can find it at http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwserve?a=v&t=book.htm&bookid=240.
.H1 Other Rusch mysteries
Here are some quickie reviews of other Rusch mystery stories:
.H2 Models
“Models” shows us the world of high fashion through the eyes of a photographer whose friend is murdered during a fashion show. The story was the runner-up for the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Reader’s Choice Award. It’s full of fascinating details and harsh criticism of the modeling world, without becoming overly polemic. You can find it at http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwserve?a=v&t=book.htm&bookid=242.
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.H2 Scars
“Scars” is the story of a woman who is disfigured in an auto accident and tries to overcome her fear of showing her body in public by joining a local gym and swimming for exercise. The only problem is the lifeguard is murdered while she’s alone in the pool. This is another fine example of exploring the human condition through mystery. You can find this story at http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwserve?a=v&t=book.htm&bookid=246.
.H2 Updates
“Updates” takes place in a newsroom on election night. Suddenly, the station starts receiving threatening phone calls. This one has high tension and a good pace, but it doesn’t come together quite as well as “Details” or “Models.” It’s at http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwserve?a=v&t=book.htm&bookid=241.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
“Details” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is available at http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwserve?a=v&t=book.htm&bookid=240. It has 8752 words and is priced at 99 cents.
“Models” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is available at http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwserve?a=v&t=book.htm&bookid=242. It has 11,627 words and is priced at $1.29.
“Scars” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is available at http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwserve?a=v&t=book.htm&bookid=246. It has 10,726 and is priced at $1.29.
“Updates” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is available at http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwserve?a=v&t=book.htm&bookid=241. It has 11,627 words and is priced at $1.29.
For an interview with Kristine Kathryn Rusch, visit http://www.folk-tales.com/rusch.html.
For more information on Palm devices, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
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