Hey Mystery Readers! Help Me Gather Some Data
Like many of you, I’ve been reading more during the pandemic. While reading a mystery novel the other evening, I started wondering whether mysteries written by men tend to have a higher or lower body count than those written by women. Does the weapon of choice tend to differ by author, or by detective, gender?
But I can’t answer these questions by looking just at the mystery novels I tend to read. These reflect my taste, and are not representative of mystery novels as a whole. So I’m asking for your help to collect information on a sample of mystery novels that have been considered to be among the “best” written.
I selected a stratified random sample from the list of 655 books that have been nominated for an Edgar® award in the Best Novel or Best First Novel category between 1946 (the year the award started) and 2020. The Mystery Writers of America present these awards, named after Edgar Allan Poe, each spring.
For each novel in the list below, I’d like to know
Nationality and gender for each author of the book. You can’t always tell gender from the author’s pen name. For example, Robert Galbraith, listed as the author of the 2013 crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling, is actually a pseudonym of J. K. Rowling (who used her initials instead of her first name for the Harry Potter books because her publisher wanted to disguise her gender).
Gender of each detective (or protagonist, if no detective) in the book. Does the detective have an alcohol or substance abuse problem? Also, does the detective do something stupid near the end of the book, such as confronting the suspected murderer in an abandoned warehouse without backup?
Gender of each murderer in the book.
Gender of, and weapon (firearm, knife or sharp object, poison, beating or strangulation, or something else) used on each murder victim in the book. Do not count deaths that were accidental or in self-defense.
What is the mystery’s genre? Choices are 1. private eye (includes “hard-boiled,” such as the Sam Spade novels by Dashiell Hammett or “soft-boiled,” such as the Kinsey Millhone novels by Sue Grafton); 2. cozy (an amateur sleuth, usually in a small town, solves the murder, for example the Miss Marple mysteries by Agatha Christie); 3. procedural (a detailed, step-by-step analysis of how the crime is solved, using the skills of the detective, for example the Kay Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwell); 4. suspense or thriller (the protagonist is at the center of action or is involved in espionage, as in, for example, Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects or Alan Folsom's The Day After Tomorrow); 5. other, please specify (for example, true crime or courtroom drama).
Location: Where is the majority of the action set? For example, New York City, Los Angeles, London, rural Missouri, small town in Maine, numerous cities in eastern Europe. Is the action primarily in a large city, small town, or rural location?
Time: In what year(s) does the majority of the action take place?
If you have already read, or would like to read, one or more of the books on the list (and you are willing to tell me about the items listed above), please send me a note. I’ll remove the novels you select from the list so no one duplicates your effort. Results will be posted at a later date, and the data will also be used in a future edition of my textbook Sampling: Design and Analysis.
Postscript added October 29, 2020: Thank you to everyone who offered to read books on the list! The books in my sample are now spoken for, and I’ll post results in November.
Copyright (c) 2020 Sharon L. Lohr