Mystery Muses (mini-review)

 Mystery Muses: 100 Classics That Inspire Today's Mystery Writers (2006) by Jim Huang & Austin Lugar (eds)

It is interesting to me what constitutes a "classic" for these authors. From my 55-year-old perspective, Dennis Lehane (the last author mentioned in this volume) whose referenced work was a mere 8 years old at the time Mystery Muses was published, was nothing like a classic. I still don't think I'd put him in the classic mystery section now that 26 years has passed. It seems to me that it would have been more fitting to say "100 Influential Works" or just "100 Detective Novels." The word classic, to my mind, implies a certain weight and history that many of the mentioned works just don't have. From Poe to Chandler and Christie to Sayers to Marsh and Tey--even including Dick Francis and P. D. James--we have authors who heavily influenced the mystery genre and whose influence is still felt fifty, a hundred years later. Will Lehane have that kind of staying power? Who knows. But certainly eight years out from publication it was impossible to say so. Looking at Goodreads right now, it still has a smattering of recent reviews but nothing like what you'd expect if it were a classic influencer. 

That said, I did enjoy reading about what mystery authors and works influenced some of the mystery writers whose novels I have enjoyed. In addition to talking about the books, they also told stories of how those books came into their lives--through relatives or librarians or teachers who set them on the path of life-long readers and writers. ★★★ and 1/2.

First line (1st essay): When I was just eight, my grandfather lent me a collection of Poe stories.

I think that's just what mystery writers must do, espy human motivations and tell themselves the truth about those observations, and then convert those truths into the most deliciously entertaining "little lies" ever told: mystery stories. (Sharon Short, p. 141)

Last line (last essay): In a similar gesture, Gone, Baby, Gone and its companion books will remain on that eye-level shelf in my office, hopefully joined by new Lehane volumes soon enough, to remind me why I'm writing, and to remind me of the standard I'm chasing.