Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Many crime-fictional characters have developed at least some cynicism. It’s hard not to when one sees the things humans are capable of doing. But there are also plenty of characters who are idealists. They see the good in life and believe in possibilities. They aren’t always ‘Pollyanna’ types, but they do have faith in life. Those characters can lift a book up and add valuable layers to what could otherwise be a very sad story.

For instance, much of Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons takes place in an exclusive girls school called Meadowbank. Not long after the summer term begins, the school’s new games mistress, Grace Springer, is found murdered in the new Sports Pavilion. The police are investigating that matter when there’s a kidnapping. Then, there’s another murder. One of the pupils, Julia Upjohn, goes to visit Hercule Poirot, whom her mother knows. He agrees to go back to the school with her and find out who is behind everything that’s going on. It turns out that the tragedies at the school are linked to missing jewels and a revolution in a faraway country. Julia is young, smart, and idealistic. While she’s not dreamy, she does have faith that the school will survive and that Hercule Poirot can solve the case.

Ian Sansom’s The Case of the Missing Books introduces Israel Armstrong. As the story begins, he’s working part time in a North London bookshop, but what he wants more than anything is to be a librarian. He’s even dreaming that someday, he could curate in the British Library or some other equally respected institution. He’s idealistic about his possible career, but he’s wise enough to know he’ll have to start at a smaller place, at least for a short time. So, when he is invited for a position at Ireland’s Tumdrum and District Library, he accepts eagerly. When he arrives in Tumdrum, he finds that the library has been closed. Still believing in the position, he goes to see the person who hired him. That’s when he’s told he’ll actually be driving the district’s mobile library – a broken-down bus of books. Armstrong begins to be disillusioned, but he’s persuaded to stay and at least give the job a try. Then, he discovers that all of the library books are missing. He’ll have to solve that mystery if he’s to get on with his job. His initial idealism soon runs into reality as he begins his work, but he slowly becomes part of the community.

Deborah Johnson’s The Secret of Magic takes place just after WW II. In it, we meet young and idealistic lawyer Regina Robichard. She’s taken a job with the New York NAACP and is hoping to use her skills to right the wrongs of racial injustice. One day, the office gets a letter from reclusive children’s author M.P. Calhoun. The letter alleges that a Black man named Joe Howard Wilson was murdered, and hints strongly that the case should be investigated. As it happens, Calhoun wrote one of Robichard’s most beloved childhood books, so she is intrigued. She travels to Mississippi, where the murder is supposed to have taken place, and starts asking questions. She soon finds that this is a much more complicated situation than she’d imagined, and that things are not necessarily what they seem.

Caroline Overington’s Sisters of Mercy is in great part the story of Sally Narelle ‘Snow’ Delaney. She is in prison for a crime which is revealed as the story goes on. She finds out that a journalist named Jack ‘Tap’ Fawcett is doing a series of stories about the disappearance of a woman named Agnes Moore, an English visitor to Australia who went missing in a dust storm. As it happens, Snow and Agnes are sisters. Snow writes a letter to Fawcett to set him right on some details she believes he’s got wrong in his story. The two begin an odd sort of correspondence during which Snow tells him about her life. It seems that after a not-particularly-happy childhood, she decided to train as a nurse. She was idealistic about the difference she could make and the help she could give. That idealism didn’t last, as she ran up against the vast gap between what might have been accomplished, and (as she sees it) the bureaucratic and other limits to what she could do. As the story (and the letters) go on, we see how Snow’s idealism changes and learn why she’s in prison.

And then there’s Alexander McCall Smith’s Mma Precious Ramotswe, who owns the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana. She is smart, practical, and realistic. At the same time, she believes in people and is convinced that problems can have solutions. Her optimism and idealism spur her on to come up with creative ways to find answers, solve cases, and more. For instance, in The Kalahari Typing School For Men, a new client, Mr. Molefelo hires Mma Ramotswe to find his former landlord’s family so that he can make amends to them for stealing a radio. It won’t be an easy case, as there’s no telling where the family is. And in any case, the landlord’s family may not accept an apology or amends. But Mma Ramotswe is idealistic and believes that wounds can be healed and relationships repaired. So, she does the work she needs to do to help her client.

And that’s the thing about idealists. They can be well aware of the misery in the world, but they believe that things can be better. And they believe in doing the work to make those goals a reality.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Billy Joel’s All About Soul.