Exploring Detective Fiction ~ CBC

 

Our Meet-up #87 that would focus on Detective Fiction, happened on 28th September, from 11 am to 1 pm, at Green Garden Cafe, near the Water Metro station, Marine Drive. It's a small waterfront cafe situated inside the Cochin Boat Club jetty, on the Marine Drive walkway. The menu is affordable  and the place also has a quintessential Cochin vibe.

You need to walk like Sherlock Holmes , not sit  like Hercule Porot !Since parking is quite a walk away to reach the venue.

But no matter, the hunt is on 🥰

Interesting to know the first specimen of the genre in England is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Writers popularizing the genre—Sherlock Holmes and Father Brow, American detective stories of the same period, especially those written by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and explains the radical ways in which they deviated from the British novels, four formidable women writers of English detective novels: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh. 

Through its structure, a detective story also takes its readers on a path of discovery and engages them in the storytelling.

We covered more than 50 books, by various authors, region and time. Interesting to know the first specimen of the genre in England is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Writers popularizing the genre—Sherlock Holmes and Father Brow, American detective stories of the same period, especially those written by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and explains the radical ways in which they deviated from the British novels, four formidable women writers of English detective novels: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh. 

Arthur Hailey, Agata Christy, Enid Blyton, Edgar Wallace Joseph Wambaugh, Anita Nair,  Ravi Subrmaniam, 3 Peters, 3 Helens and many more authors were discussed while few among the many books were Decagon House Murder Series, Blood Hount, The Honjin Murders by Kosuki Kindaichi, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo Series, The Guest List..on and on..

Favorite of many included TinTin, Batman, historians and ofcourse no detective is complete without secretary and support characters like Della Strret, Dr. Watson, Miss Marple, Enola Holmes and many Inspector series.

Georgette Heyer's " Death in the Stocks"

The book Philip Sir mentioned.  And then he writes:

[28/09, 19:29] +91 88930 10130: Reminds the movie Anand Sribala.The film opens with the quote, “It is through intellect that we prove, but through intuition that we discover,” ( by Kerala police🙂) setting the thematic tone for what follows. The story begins with distraught parents reporting their missing daughter, Merin, at north police station in Kochi, only to be met with indifference.

The parents are sent from one station to another before the case is finally taken up. Their ordeal worsens when Merin’s body is discovered in the backwaters near Kochi Wharf, and the police conclude the death was a suicide following a lovers’ quarrel.The fact that suicide was" seen" on Gosree bridge ( visible to us today) but body found near Wellington issland waa the twist🙂 and murder finally proved!!... We were at the scene of action!!

[28/09, 19:32] PHILIP ABRAHAM CBC: I spoke about how impressed I was on reading Fifty Famous Detectives of Fiction, an anthology edited by Freeman Wills Crofts, at a tender age. I made a passing reference to Cortez and his men seeing the Pacific for the first time.

The reference was to a line from John Keats' sonnet On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer.

The poet compares his awe on reading the translation of Homer to   Hernán Cortés and his men gazing upon the Pacific Ocean from a mountaintop for the very first time. The phrase highlights the awe and profound surprise felt by the men upon seeing this new, vast expanse of water, which was a significant discovery by explorers in the early 16th century.  

"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

    When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

    He stared at the Pacific—and all his men

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—

    Silent, upon a peak in Darien."

[28/09, 19:35] PHILIP ABRAHAM CBC: I realize i am being pretentious when I compare my feelings to theirs, but what the hell !

We too can use literary and poetic licence to embellish  😁

Interesting quote was mentioned presumably in one of Edger Wallace book "I am a detective, you look more like a mental defective". Most of the detectives have weird nature, dressing sense or character. Some stories we end up sympathizing the villain and pray that he should not be caught. 

Though Detective was the favorite genre of many, what was the real highlight was the ambience and location. 

Learnt a new word:

I also discovered another compelling reason why printed books may be better than ebooks 🙃 - If unsatisfied you can just throw away/bang a book but not an electronic device. 

I am always wonder struck that there are still so many people who read so much. In one's immediate circle.