Week Six: Sub-Genres, Ahoy!



Culinary Capers

Culinary capers = cozy mysteries for foodies. Fans of this genre are looking for lighthearted mysteries with a plucky main character who uses his/her sleuthing skills to solve the crime (which is generally not a particularly gory one). The hallmark of this genre is that major plot points are usually related to food (the main character is a chef, a food critic, a candy-shop owner, etc. and is deeply involved in the world of food) or the story may be set in a restaurant/bakery/cafe. They may also include real recipes that tie-in to the plot for readers to experience the story in a real-life setting (without all the dead bodies, of course). They are largely written in series, which means that each book is a fast-paced read with a series-long character arc for the main characters.


Check out all twelve titles in the Coffeehouse
Mysteries series by Cleo Coyle.



It was a bit difficult to find a fansite, per se, of only this particular niche. Google searches turned up many lists of popular culinary mysteries (including the more general Cozy Mystery Blog which had a "where to start"-type entry on these so-called culinary capers). 

Eventually, through trolling some author websites whose nom de plume's I found on the more general reading list sites listed above, I did come up with a multi-author recipe and book blog that may fit the bill: Mystery Lovers Kitchen. Big name culinary mystery writers contribute to the blog, including Cleo Coyle (of The Coffeehouse Mysteries series), Krista Davis (of the Domestic Diva series), and Lucy Berdette (of the Key West Food Critic series). And their recipes are... to die for! (Please pardon the pun - must be all these cozy mystery titles!)

It seems that fans of this genre are buzzing about food, food, food! It's not much of a surprise, but culinary caper fans love to read about new recipes, almost as much (it seems) as the love to pick up the latest title in a favorite on-going series. Right now, seasonal foods are on fans' minds (picnic-ready chicken salad, and summery peach cobbler are some of the newest recipe entries on the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog) as well as the newest Key West Food Critic title, Topped Chef. The author, Lucy Berdette, just wrapped up her book tour during which she met the real chef who inspired one of her characters and ate some of his fabulous cooking. Yum!

Steampunk

Steampunk seems to be trending lately, so it's no wonder that there are many, many, many, many fansites to choose from. Coming at the tail-end of the Industrial Revolution, with the sentiments of the Victorian Era, proto-steampunk writers Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were crafting visions of the future based on the technologies of their present. Later writers tend to look backward to an alternate past: what would the world have looked like if steam-power had remained the dominant power source? William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's 1990's novel The Difference Engine, is a major work in the genre, paving the way for modern writers such as Phil and Kaja Foglio (authors of the Agatha Heterodyne books and the ongoing webcomic series Girl Genius) and Cherie Priest (author of the Clockwork Century Novels).

Steampunks - models Liza James and Jared Axelrod
on board Baldwin 60000 by Kyle Cassidy

Stories that fall into the steampunk genre tend to feature mad scientists, steam-powered machines, and dystopian worlds. They are high on the 'what if?' end of the sci-fi spectrum, yet they mostly are set in the re-imagined past, generally in the Victorian Era. The plots - and world-building - can get highly detailed, but they are also by-and-large adventure stories with high stakes, dashing heroes, and dastardly villains. There tends to be some crossover with mystery, especially of the Sherlock Holmsian, "art of detection" variety. Typical characters include the aforementioned mad scientists as well as hosts of mechanics, detectives, airship pilots, thieves and ruffians, lady adventurers, and steam-powered automatons. Steampunk can be a rollicking jaunt through a clockwork world, but it can also take a a more philosophical tone, proposing what-ifs of a sinister variety. Either way, expect the writing to be clever, the plots to be full of twists and turns... and the engines to be steamy.
More than a literary genre: steampunk has also become a lifestyle. Do you want to go to a convention to mingle with like-minded steampunk fans? Try SteamCon, or the Steampunk World's Fair. Do you want to investigate steampunk art, steampunk music, or steampunk fashion? Well you're in luck: The Steampunk Empire is a great place to explore all aspects of the subculture at once. There are oodles of internet rabbit holes to fall down. In fact, I found it to be a bit of a challenge just to narrow down my choices.

Starting at the "Know Your Meme" page for Steampunk, I was able to find lots of different angles on the genre, including the literary-bent blog Steampunk.com which I'll use as my main example of a fansite. Steampunk.com covers television shows, events, news and more but what drew me in was its monthly feature article on what's new in books. The coolest article has to be the loosely-termed "steampunk" Legos: yes, please! Fans of steampunk are definitely into inventive building techniques with a high empasis on personalized craftsmanship and intricate design. May releases of steampunk novels included The Havoc Machine by Stephen Harper (the latest in his Clockwork Empire series).

Hard Boiled

The third sub-genre that I investigated were hard-boiled mysteries (also referred to as "pulp fiction," or "film noir" in tv and movies), in which the men will be wise guys, and the dames will be femme fatales. According to TVTropes, the trope of the hard-boiled detective character is a "tough, cynical guy with a gun and a lot of Street Smarts, who solves mysteries with dogged persistence rather than astounding insight." [source] The mise-en-scene of this type of story is gritty and atmospheric, while the narration tends to be first-person monologue. These read at a fairly fast clip, no matter how quickly or leisurely the mystery unfolds, due to the prominent use of short sentences and pithy metaphors.

Chandler's detective Philip Marlowe is a classic example
of the hard-boiled detective. [source]

Finding a fansite for hard-boiled mysteries was a breeze. I went on good-old Goodreads and looked under groups, narrowing it down to "Books & Literature," then further into "Mystery & Thrillers." Unfortunately, that was the deepest level of detail, so from there I scanned the list of groups that came up and found the Pulp Fiction Group. Bingo.

The group is mainly a reading group, choosing a new (or classic) hard-boiled mystery to read each month. June 2013's read is Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block. Discussion on the group's boards brought up "The Magic of Pulp Fiction," a recent article on the genre by big-name author Walter Mosley, best known for his Easy Rawlins stories.

Raymond Chandler is a is a classic author in the genre, while Sue Grafton's "alphabet mysteries" series, nearing the end of its 26-book run - with W is for Wasted to be released later this year - features a female hard-boiled detective, Kinsey Milhone. Other authors include Mickey Spillane and his Mike Hammer books. Stephen King also has a new book coming out in the noir genre, Joyland, which is generating some decent buzz.