Holiday gift guide: Mystery and horror, which are not always the same
Anyone who was paying attention during our Bouchercon Week probably noticed that many of our favorite mystery authors are more than a little enthralled with the horror subgenre right now.
Charlaine Harris, Mario Acevedo, even our beloved Poe, all enjoy infusing their novels with a scare or two, and readers seem to be eating it up lately. Just when I thought I didn't really like mystery novels, they add a little bit of of horror, and I'm picking that book up.
Take my favorite mystery novel this year, Lauren Groff's The Monsters of Templeton. The story opens with a young woman returning home pregnant and scandalized -- apparently trying to run over your lover's wife with an airplane is bad form -- who discovers that her unknown father is most likely a man she's known all her life. Oh, and a gigantic monster that was living in the town's lake just washed ashore, very much dead.
Mix in some ghosts and a whole town of characters that make me yearn for the Gilmore Girls, and I don't understand how anyone can resist this book.
I already shared with you my love of The Graveyard Book, the plot of which revolves around the mysterious killer Jack. And even in Clive Barker's Mister B. Gone, which is unabashedly horror, the demon narrator leaves the reader guessing until the last minute; how exactly did he get stuck inside the pages of a book? And will he really tear me limb from limb if I keep reading these words?
Another big mystery for me has been the popularity of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. The final book, Breaking Dawn, was published this year to millions of frenzied fans. I must admit, I didn't get past the first book, with no desire to continue reading, but this commentary on why the finale should never be made into a movie makes me ask: Why was it ever made into a book?
To each his own. I'm just thrilled there were so many great mysteries, horror novels and combinations of the two to go around.
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, 
Comments
I absolutely loved The Monsters of Templeton when I read it last year. It was the first book chosen by Barnes and Noble for their First Look bookclub. I would highly recommend it myself.
Posted by: Jennifer | December 10, 2008 4:54 PM
I just picked this up, and although I'm only in a few chapters I'm enthralled. I really love how the author came to grips with fictionalizing her hometown by taking a cue from Coopertown's founder James Fennimore Cooper. If you are a historical fiction nut, this has good elements too.
Posted by: S.J. Chambers | December 12, 2008 8:36 PM