We are delighted to welcome novelist Mary Reed to Omnimystery News.
Mary co-authors with Eric Mayer the John, the Lord Chamberlain mysteries, the 11th of which, Murder in Megara (Poisoned Pen Press; October 2015 hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook formats) will be published next month, and is currently available to pre-order. For more information about the authors and their books, visit their website, or find them, respectively, on Twitter as @MaryMayWrite and @GroggyTales.
Mary's guest post for us today is titled, "How Closely Should the Violence Inherent in Many Mysteries Be Described?"
— ♦ —
Our Byzantine mysteries are set in a time when everyone and his brother carried a blade and murders and mayhem were often part of the daily menu. As far as is possible within the period in which we write, we remain in the less is more camp, with enough said to convey tragedy or horror without overly explicit details, leaving readers to take their imaginations for a walk to fill in the missing details to their own comfort level.
Let me cite a shining example of a favourite author who employs the reader's imagination to convey dreadful events by the use of understated horror.
M. R. James is the master of what a friend once called "strange noises in the cathedral close at midnight" fiction and The Mezzotint is the story in question.
The story hints at a solution to the mystery concerning what happened to a missing young heir. The mezzotint in question depicts Anningley Hall, Essex, but the view changes as time progresses and the last scene shows, under a waning moon, a dark figure originally going towards the house is now coming away.
And what does the spectator see?
"The moon was behind it, and the black drapery hung down over its face so that only hints of that could be seen, and what was visible made the spectators profoundly thankful that they could see no more than a white dome-like forehead and a few straggling hairs. The head was bent down, and the arms were tightly clasped over an object which could be dimly seen and identified as a child, whether dead or living it was not possible to say. The legs of the appearance alone could be plainly discerned, and they were horribly thin."
Does this not conjure up the most ghastly horrors with never a trace of gore? Many would surely ask themselves what happens after the figure and stolen child are no longer visible. Because it is a case of revenge terrible things are no doubt done, all of them out of sight and thus all the more powerful for being hidden from the reader.
Sometimes we hint what might be or has been done to some unfortunate rather than engaging in a more explicit physical description.
As an example, consider a scene occurring early in Six For Gold. Empress Theodora visits John, who is lodged in an underground dungeon on suspicion of murdering a senator. Theodora informs him she will be merciful and allow him to keep one eye, the better to see what's in store for him when the torturers begin work. She selects a pair of bloodstained pincers from a variety of instruments and clicks them as she informs John she likes to give her special male guests the choice of losing their eyes or … but unfortunately, due to John's condition, she cannot offer that opportunity. And then she talks of other grim possibilities, including forcing him to witness what will happen to his wife and daughter if he does not talk.
None of John's blood has been shed, but much is hinted and it's the stuff of nightmares.
I rest my case. Let the jury begin its deliberations.
— ♦ —
Murder in Megara by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer
A John, the Lord Chamberlain Mystery
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
John, former Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, has been exiled from Constantinople to a rustic estate John has long-owned in Greece, not far from where he grew up. But exile proves no escape from mystery and mayhem.
The residents of nearby Megara make it plain John and his family are unwelcome intruders. His overseer proves corrupt. What of the other staff―and his neighbors? Before long, John finds himself accused of blasphemy and murder.
Now a powerless outsider, he's on his own, investigating and annoyingly hampered by the ruthless and antagonistic City Defender who serves Megara as both law enforcer and judge. Plus there's that corrupt estate overseer, a shady pig farmer, a servant's unwelcome suitor, a wealthy merchant who spends part of his time as a cave-dwelling hermit, and the criminals and cutthroats populating such a seedy port as Megara. Complicating matters further are two childhood friends whose lives have taken very different paths, plus the stepfather John hated.
John realizes that in Megara, the solution to murder does not lie in the dark alleys where previous investigations have taken him, but in a far more dangerous place―his own past. Can he find his way out of the labyrinth of lies and danger into which he has been thrust before disaster strikes and exile turns into execution?
— Murder in Megara by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer
