Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

In Agatha Christie’s The Murder on the Links, Captain Hastings is on his way from Paris to London by train when he meets a young woman who calls herself ‘Cinderella.’ They get to chatting until they part ways. A short time later, Hastings and Hercule Poirot return to France and end up investigating the murder of Canadian ex-pat Paul Renauld. At one point, Hastings is very surprised when ‘Cinderella’ appears at the Renauld home. It seems she’s in the area and read about the murder in the paper. She wants to be taken all around the crime scene, and when Hastings demurs, she says, ‘Me for the horrors!’ She’s not alone. Even in the days when ‘proper young ladies’ weren’t expected to be interested in crime, many were. And with today’s instant access to news, the public’s appetite for details about murder and other crimes is even greater. I’m not a psychologist, so I don’t know exactly why this is, but people do like to read and hear about crimes, especially lurid ones, and weigh in on them.

We see that in Helen Fitzgerald’s The Cry. Joanna Lindsay and her partner Alistair Robertson make the long journey from Joanna’s native Scotland to Victoria, where Alistair was born and raised. With them is their nine-week-old son Noah. It’s a terrible flight, and both are eager to get off the plane and into their rental car. During the drive from Melbourne to Alistair’s family home, the unimaginable happens: baby Noah goes missing. The police are called, and a massive search begins. The media get wind of what’s going on and the case is followed by many thousands of people, all giving their opinions on what’s happened. Joanna and Alistair speak publicly, and the news channels follow the case closely. The intense public interest in the case makes it that much harder for the couple and for the police. It’s even harder when there are suggestions that Joanna and/or Alistair might have been responsible for Noah’s disappearance. The public turns against them, speculating on every move they make. That public obsession with the case has a real impact on the people involved.

We see something similar in Paul Cleave’s The Quiet People. Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are best-selling New Zealand crime writers. They are also the parents of seven-year-old Zach. Everything seems to be going well for the Murdochs until the horrible day when Zach goes missing. The Murdochs search everywhere and call everyone, but no-one knows where the boy is. Then, the police are called in, and before much time goes by, the case is in the media. One the one hand this means more people know about the case and may have information (or may have seen Zach). On the other hand, it means the public is now obsessed with the case, and following every move the Murdochs and the police make. Everyone’s got an opinion, and almost inevitably, people start to believe that one or both of the Murdochs are responsible for Zach’s disappearance. The public scrutiny gets so bad that Cameron lashes out more than once, even though he knows that’s not doing anyone any good. The public investment in the case ends up having serious consequences, and the novel shows what happens when people take an interest in the lurid details of a case.

Kazuhiro Kiuchi’s Shield of Straw begins as wealthy Takaoki Ninagawa learns that his granddaughter Chia went missing and was later found raped and murdered. The killer is Kunihide Kiyumaru, who’s fled from Tokyo to Fukuoka. Ninagawa wants justice for Chia’s memory, so he makes a bold offer. He sends out an advertisement promising a billion yen to the person who is proven to have killed Kiyumaru. Hundreds of thousands of people hear about the story and the bounty and decide to take Ninagawa up on his offer. When Kiyumaru finds out about the bounty, he comes out of hiding and turns himself in to the police at Fukuoka for his own safety. He’s going to have to be returned to Tokyo for trial, so Tokyo Municipal Police officer Kazuki Mekari and his team are sent to Fukuoka to bring Kiyumaru back to Tokyo. By this time, people everywhere are following the story and trying to get the money, so the police team has to contend with people at every station stop who want to kill their prisoner. It doesn’t help matters at all when it  turns out that someone is leaking the train’s stops and destination to the public. It all makes for a perilous trip for the police and for Kiyumaru.

Paddy Richardson’s Traces of Red is the story of Connor Bligh. As the story opens, he’s been in prison for years for the murder of his sister Angela Dickson, her husband Rowan, and their son Sam. Their daughter Katy survived only because she wasn’t home at the time of the murders. The case captured the public interest, and stories about it were everywhere. Recently, though, there are hints that Bligh might not be guilty. If so, this would make a sensational story. At least that’s what Wellington journalist Rebecca Thorne is hoping. She decides to look into the story again, even after she’s warned that that may be a mistake. As she asks questions, she learns that feelings are still high about the case, and some people are still sure they know what happened.

And that’s the thing about the public’s appetite for murders and other crimes. People read about them, get opinions, and share them. There are podcasts, online fora, and other places where people discuss crimes. I’m not sure why people get so caught up in criminal doings, but it seems to be a fact of life.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Billy Joel’s No Man’s Land.