Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Crime fiction shows us a lot about society, including the way different classes of people live. In many societies, there’s a ‘blueblood’ class of people who are also often social leaders. They’re not necessarily extremely wealthy (although that sometimes goes with the package, so to speak). But everyone knows those are the ‘good families.’ It’s not always easy to be a member of a ‘blueblood’ family, because there are, traditionally, societal expectations to be met. But there’s privilege, too, and crime fiction explores it all. Here are just a few examples; I know you‘ll think of more than I could.

Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey is a member of a very ‘blueblood,’ privileged family. He, himself, doesn’t necessarily think he’s better than other people because of his family name. But it does come with a great deal of privilege. In fact, when he meets and falls in love with mystery novelist Harriet Vane, that becomes one of her concerns. She isn’t from one of the ‘top’ families, and in fact, she’s been arrested and tried for murder (see Strong Poison for the details). So, she’s not sure just how welcome she’d be in the family. It’s an interesting story arc in the series.

Agatha Christie wrote several stories involving ‘the best’ families. In Dead Man’s Folly, for instance, Hercule Poirot travels to Nasse House, the property of Sir George Stubbs and his wife, Lady Hattie Stubbs. They’re planning to host a charity fête, and Poirot is to give out the prizes for one of the events, a Murder Hunt. The designer of that hunt is detective novelist Ariadne Oliver, and she has an ulterior motive in inviting Poirot. She suspects that something is very wrong in the Stubbs household, and she wants Poirot to investigate. When a murder actually takes place, he works with Inspector Bland to find the murderer. Throughout the novel, we also follow the character of Amy Folliat, whose family owned Nasse House until Sir George bought it. Mrs. Folliat is from one of those ‘very good families’ who’ve been in the area for generations. In fact, she is treated like a local dignitary, even though she no longer owns the property. Everyone looks to her as a social leader.

Ellery Queen’s Calamity Town begins with Queen’s traveling to the small New England town of Wrightsville. He wants some peace and quiet so he can write, and he’s planning to stay in a guest house  owned by John and Hermione ‘Hermy’ Wright, the undisputed social leaders of the town. They do have money, but more importantly, they have a social pedigree. The town was founded by their family (hence, its name), and they are still considered the ‘best’ family. That doesn’t mean all is well with them, though. Oldest daughter Lola has left town under a cloud of scandal. Middle daughter Pat tries to keep the peace. Youngest daughter Nora was jilted three years earlier by her fiancé, Jim Haight. It’s not long before Queen is drawn into the Wright family drama. And when there’s a murder, he ends up investigating it. It’s interesting to see how the Wright family status plays out as they interact with people in the town.

In Laura Jo Rowland’s Shinjū, we are introduced to Sano Ichirō, who is a yoriki, a senior police officer and investigator, living and working in 1680s Edo, today’s Tokyo. One day, two bodies are pulled from the Sumida River. One of them is identified as Niu Yukiko, a young woman from one of the ‘best’ families. The other is identified as Noriyoshi, a poet from an ‘inconsequential’ family. Yukiko’s family would never have allowed her to marry someone like Noriyoshi, so the first explanation for their deaths is that they are a double suicide – a shinjū.  It’s not uncommon for lovers who can’t be together to take this drastic step. That’s the explanation that the family wants, and that’s the explanation that Sano is instructed to lay out in his report. But he’s not so sure that’s what happened, so he starts asking questions. It won’t be easy, though, because the Niu family has a lot of influence. It’s soon clear that there’s much more to these deaths than a sad story of forbidden love.

Jill Edmondson’s Blood and Groom features Toronto-based PI Sasha Jackson. She’s approached by Christine Arvisais, who believes she’s being blamed for murder. She broke off her engagement to ‘blueblood’ Gordon Hayes a few months earlier. Then, on what would have been their wedding day, Hayes was murdered. Now his considerably influential family thinks she is guilty, and she wants her name cleared. She’s rude, dismissive, and thoroughly entitled. But a client is a client, and a fee is a fee, so Sasha agrees to look into the case. It’s not long before she learns that this murder is similar to other deaths that have occurred. As Sasha puts the pieces of the puzzle together, she finds out that someone is willing to do anything to keep her off the proverbial scent.

Tim Svart’s Sacrifice takes place in Essen, where Chief Inspector Kerrenberg and his team investigate the murder of Danielle Teschner. After a short time, they learn that the victim worked as an escort and occasional sex worker. This opens up the possibility that one of her clients had a good reason to want her dead. So, they interview each one, only to find that this case is more complicated than it seems. One of Kerrenberg’s teammates is Sergeant Viktoria von Fürstenfeld. She is from a ‘blueblood’ family and sometimes finds that burdensome. She doesn’t much like discussing her pedigree and certainly doesn’t use it to get special treatment from her bosses. And yet, it’s a fact of her life, and sometimes it comes in handy.

People with pedigrees can live very different lives from ‘the rest of us.’ Even if they’re not wealthy, there are places where dropping their names opens doors for them. There are, of course, downsides to having a pedigree, too, and it’s interesting to see how this all plays out in crime fiction.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl.