To me, mysteries and thrillers are the most dynamic and interesting books being published today. You get detectives filled with self-doubt, regrets, fear, and sometimes - but not always -- tremendous courage and honor. You get your snappy dialog. You get justice...in whatever form it may take. We turn the pages because we want to know who the killer is or what the conspiracy is, but along the way we learn a lot about place, character, and I'd go so far as to say who we are as human beings. Mysteries are serious literary fiction proudly - defiantly - masquerading as genre fiction.
I particularly love the kind of mysteries where you open the pages and are transported to another culture or time period. Gorky Park, by Martin Cruz Smith, opened a whole new world to me: Moscow in the fading days of the Soviet Union. I also love Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg, because until I read this book I knew absolutely nothing about either Denmark or Greenland. I'm also a huge fan of Carl Hiassen's early books. He's so fun and irreverent. And his sense of humor! Even now, just thinking about Tourist Season -- with the unfortunately nicknamed criminal group Los Nachos -- or Native Tongue -- with its painted blue-tongued voles -- I start to laugh.
Finally, I must have watched the first two seasons of the Showtime television series "Dexter" before I fully internalized the fact
that it was based on a series of mysteries by Jeff Lindsay. I took Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, and Dexter in the Dark with me on vacation earlier this year. When I got to the end of Dexter in the Dark, I was stunned. I desperately wanted to talk to someone about that ending and what it meant to the future of the series. (Don't worry. I'm not going to give it away here.) Anyway, I gave my dad the series. He also loves the show and he too fell in love with the books. We had some great conversations about the ending of Dexter in the Dark. Now we're both anxiously waiting for Dexter by Design.
What mysteries transport you to another culture or time period?
Editor's Note: Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and Flower Net (an Edgar Award nominee).
