Marilyn's Mystery Reads

May 20, 2017

Is it nature or nurture?  A combination of both?  Simply the luck of the draw?

I’ve just bought a copy of Anne Hillerman’s latest mystery, Song of the Lion, from Mainely Murders in Kennebunk, Maine.  I will be blogging about the novel in a few weeks, and it occurred to me to wonder how many mystery authors come from a family where another member also writes detective stories or thrillers.

When the latest issue of the Mystery Writers of America magazine arrived with a profile of Alafair Burke, daughter of James Lee Burke, I started counting the familial relationships in mystery writing.  I came up with several other daughter/father writers:  Anne and the late Tony Hillerman, Sue and the late C. W. Grafton, and Liz Dombrosky and Tony Perona.  Then there are Caroline and Charles Todd, mother and son; Mary and Carol Higgins Clark, mother and daughter; Felix and his late father Dick Francis; Daniel and his late father Michael Palmer; and Faye, Jonathan, and Jesse Kellerman, mother, father, and son.

Does the nature/nurture question apply to couples as well?  Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, Frances and Richard North, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Nicci Gerard and Sean French (Nicci French), Aimée and David Thurlo, and Alexandra Coehlo Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril (Lars Kepler) are a few who come to mind.   And here are the Kellermans again–Faye and Jonathan.  Did their writing natures draw these twosomes together, or are the careers nurtured by their partner/spouse?

One of the fun things about making these lists is that it reminded me of authors whom I hadn’t read, either at all or in a long time.  So I’ve been able to add a few more names to my to-be-read-soon list.

I’m a strong believer in talent, especially musical talent, running in families.  Loving as my parents were, they unfortunately had no musical genes to pass along to me.  But I did get my love of reading from them, especially from my father.  Add to that is the fact that my dad was a New York City policeman–patrolman, sergeant, lieutenant, and eventually captain–and you can probably see how I came naturally to my love of crime–fictional, that is.

So hurrah for whatever abilities we’ve gathered from whatever source–nature or nurture–it really doesn’t matter.  We may not be able to write as well as the members of the families listed above, but we certainly have one ability–we can recognize outstanding writing talent when we read it!

Marilyn