When most people think of crime novels, they think of mysteries, thrillers, or suspense. And some crime novels are very dark. You might not think of crime fiction as an effective tool for poking fun or satire, but there are plenty of authors who use their crime novels to poke fun at a person, an institution, or even the genre itself. Here are just a few examples; I know you’ll think of others.

Agatha Christie is said to have created her detective novelist character Ariadne Oliver, as a way to poke fun at herself. Mrs. Oliver is smart, more observant than she seems, and a good judge of character. At the same time, she can be a little scatterbrained, and she doesn’t always get it right when it comes to finding out who the murderer is. Fans of Ariadne Olver know that she can be just a bit much at times, but she’s a welcome addition to the stories in which she appears, and she has more insight than people sometimes think.

Simon Brett has been a playwright and television/radio producer and writer, among other things. So, he has some valuable insights into the world of the theatre. He uses them to great advantage in his Charles Paris series. Paris is an actor who spends his share of time ‘resting between roles.’ He’s got an on again/off again wife and a fondness for the bottle, but he’s not really a self-pitying damaged detective. He takes roles whenever his agent finds them, so sometimes he is cast in some undesirable roles in backwater productions. Throughout the series, Brett uses Paris to poke fun at theatre types, at actors’ foibles, and at what goes on as theatre troupes prepare their roles.

Robert Barnard pokes fun at the academic life in Death of an Old Goat. In the novel, distinguished Oxford Professor Belville-Smith is planning to do a speaking tour of Australia. One of his stops will be the small town of Drummondale, where Bobby Wickham and the English faculty will welcome him to the university there. As it is, there’s a lot of stress involved in preparing for such a luminary, and it doesn’t help that Belville-Smith is snobbish, pedantic, and, quite frankly, boring. He’s given his lectures so many times that he even starts one lecture and switches to another during one of his talks. All in all, it’s not working out to be a successful visit. Matters get worse when Belville-Smith is found murdered after a ‘meet the faculty’ event. As the police investigate. Barnard pokes fun at several academic types, including arrogant distinguished professors.

There are also crime novels that poke fun at, well, crime novels. For example, there’s Anthony Horowitz’ Magpie Murders. In this novel, we are introduced to Susan Ryland, an editor with Cloverleaf Books. Her latest project is Alan Conway’s Magpie Murders, the last in his series. As she goes through the book, we read the story, too. It has to do with the 1955 murder of Mary Blackistone. The story abruptly stops as Susan discovers that the last chapter of the novel is missing. She goes in search of the material and ends up getting involved in investigating Conway’s own death. On the surface, it looks like a suicide, but there are hints that it wasn’t. Now, Susan’s not just trying to find out who killed the author; she’s also trying to find out how his last novel ends. It’s a story-within-a story that takes pokes at crime fiction, at some crime fiction tropes, and at the editing/publishing business, too.

And then there’s Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, which also pokes fun at crime fiction. Ernie ‘Ern’ Cunningham is an Australian teacher and crime fiction fan, who happens to come from a crime family. Years earlier, he witnessed his brother Michael committing a murder, and turned him in to the police. Now, Michael’s been released from prison, and the family is planning a gathering to welcome him back. Ern isn’t exactly welcomed by everyone, but he is part of the family. Then, a major snowstorm hits the lodge where the family is staying, trapping everyone there. When the body of a stranger is discovered in the snow, the local police investigate. Michael is soon arrested, and his mother insists that the least Ern could do is clear his brother’s name. The novel includes several sendups of crime families and other crime-fictional tropes.

When they’re done well, satire and poking fun can lighten a story, and can add a dimension to a crime novel. Some novels even poke fun at the genre itself. After all, who can’t benefit from a laugh?

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from the Beatles’ Good Day Sunshine.