“Why mysteries?” Someone asked me.

I didn’t have a ready answer. I never planned to write them. I’ve mostly written poetry, commentaries, a few short works of fiction, and there’s an unpublished novel languishing on my shelf. 

The idea of writing mysteries started some years ago while I was hiking in the forests of the upper Maremma of Tuscany. Walking past three Etruscan burial caves, a mystery popped into my head.

So, I began.

I wrote the story, and in the way a reader or a listener lives through stories, so does the writer. My characters are not me; they can do and say what they want in ways very different from me, but I still get to act through them in a range of ways:  I can fight off attackers, I can get angry when I shouldn’t, I can be any age I want; I can have long braids, or shave my head and wear tattoos. I can be cruel, tender, harsh or sweet, beautiful, with long legs; I can go anywhere I want. And because mystery is a natural setting for shadowy characters, I can explore the dark sides of myself with impunity. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve never murdered anyone and I don’t intend too, but writing a mystery I do search my own dark corners for understanding. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut: “Writing, I experience becoming, find out what’s inside me, make my soul grow.”

Another reason I like writing mysteries is for the fun of the puzzle. Can I play the game well enough to make several characters suspicious? Can I leave a clue so subtly no one notices it’s a clue? Can I set the game so well, it’s the end before anyone guesses who the murderer is?

A third reason:  I get to weave setting with plot. Ok, this is true in any genre, but it’s still a great delight to be able to talk about places I’ve lived and loved, to make those places themselves, characters.

Fourth:I get to deal with the subject of death. Death is the country at the center of the map in everyone’s life, and in writing mysteries I can confront it, and in some ways be relieved of it.

 Fifth:  E.M Forster once said, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” This applies to writing in general. I don’t write mysteries because I understand why humans kill each other; I write mysteries because in writing them I work to understand why they kill each other. 

Sixth: Finally, it’s rewarding to “take a close and uncomfortable look at the world.” (Walter Mosley). In mysteries I see, up-close, the worst side of human beings and the best side. I have the possibility to watch people make choices in difficult circumstances, to learn and clarify the differences between good and evil. In this sense, mysteries are like traditional folktales, and I have always loved traditional tales.

Most of the reasons I’ve given for writing mysteries, are also reasons for writing in any genre. At base, I simply love to write, and I think that as I work to understand my characters – which means understanding myself as well – I become more human.