A Divide in the Mystery Writing Community

In the first installment, I examined the culture wars taking place as the storytellers of history — and science fiction — have been changing from the predominately white male narrators. Compared to the puppy wars in science fiction, the mystery writing community, to its credit, undergone had a milder form of this fight. 

Alpha-male mysteries and thrillers have played a prominent role in the history of the genre. Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and a thousand of their progeny confronted femme fatales, many times with a sharp slap. Dashiell Hammett is a favorite writer of mine, but he could be fairly racist, especially towards Chinese-Americans. 

Beyond detective noir, mostly two-fisted male heroes have also dominated the mystery/thriller genre from the classics, The 39 Steps, by John Buchan (1915) and Rogue Male, by Geoffrey Household (1939) to Lee Child's Jack Reacher series (ongoing). 

Frankly, a lot of stories have been either updated Phillip Marlowe or Sherlock Holmes, a pair of detectives with an outsized influence on mysteries and literature. If those stories are good, they are good. But too often, they are too many. I have recently been included in an anthology of humorous short mysteries. Along with a dozen faux Marlowes, there was one Holmes pastiche.

Do classic mystery and thriller tales and authors of a narrow demographic continue to crowd out more diverse voices and newer directions of mystery?

Penzler's first Best American Mystery Stories anthology.

Cha Versus Penzler

Before describing their dispute, let me introduce the two key players. Otto Penzler, author, owner of the famous Mysterious Bookshop, and super-editor, has since 1997 put out annual collections of the best short mysteries. He is ensconced in New York City. Steph Cha, is a mystery novelist and through the Los Angeles Times, is the mystery specialist at the Los Angeles Review of Books. 

In November 2018, Linda Fairstein, who has been for years a New York Times bestseller of mysteries, was announced as the Grand Master of the upcoming annual meeting from the Mystery Writers of America. Fairstein is also an ex-prosecutor, and was notably the head of the sex crimes office at the time of the prosecution of the individuals who became known as The Central Park Five. Although the five have been released from prison for their crimes and legally exonerated, Fairstein maintains their guilt. 

The week of Fairstein's annoucement, mystery writer Attica Locke, who at the time was working on a Netflix series* about the Central Park Five, made this tweet about Fairstein. 

"#MWA As a member and 2018 Edgar winner, I am begging you to reconsider having Linda Fairstein serve as a Grand Master in next year's awards ceremony. She is almost singlehandedly responsible for the wrongful incarceration of the Central Park Five." 

Locke went on to term Fairstein's recognition as "a racist action."

*The series, When They See Us, which would go on to be a popular and award-winning success, would not debut until months after this controversy began.

The MWA quickly withdrew Fairstein from being the Grand Master.

Steph Cha of the Los Angeles Times weighed in on this controversy. Of Fairstein, "Her presence among us (those at mystery conferences) should be the scandal of every conference — it probably would've been earlier if there had been more crime writers of color when the Five were exonerated in 2002." 

Cha extended her criticisms toward the homogeny of MWA. "While the mystery writing community has changed somewhat over the last few years, it has long been embarrassingly white and, if not outright conservative, less than progressive in its collective values (hello hero cops and beautiful dead girls)."

Penzler fired back, in part defending Fairstein, in part attacking Cha. 

"Regrettably, I have only recently become aware of this disgusting turn of events. I was not in New York and had no cell phone service when you cowardly and reprehensibly snatched the Edgar Award from Ms. Fairstein, evidently cowed by racially charged and utterly misinformed letters from Attica Locke and Steph Cha."

"Cha boasted of her ignorance, admitting that she did not know that Ms. Fairstein had been a long-serving and honored assistant district attorney who headed the Sex Crimes Prosecution Office had never heard of the Central Park Five case and, furthermore, had no idea that Ms. Fairstein has written numerous books, most of which have been on national best-seller lists and whose work and reputation earned her a Grand Master Award-a situation that her employer, the Los Angeles Review of Books, should consider as she is, incredibly the editor of its crime section and patently unqualified for the position."

He railed against revoking Fairstein's recognition.

". . . [a] disgraceful decision, besmirching the reputation of one of the finest, most decent and honorable women I have ever known."

And concluded his letter with:

"I have been a proud member of MWA for more years than many of you [MWA Board] have been alive, but that pride no longer pertains. I am ashamed of you and of the organization for taking such a cowardly stance. For many years, I have welcomed the celebration of the incoming board with a party at the Mysterious Bookshop. The board does not deserve a celebration of any kind, and it would be hypocritical of me to host one. You are no longer welcome in my bookshop."

Cha responded:

"He calls me stupefyingly ignorant [Penzler used those words in a section I didn't quote] and unqualified to edit for LARB because I hadn't heard of Linda Fairstein. (He also says I hadn't heard of the Central Park Five, because his reading comprehension isn't very good.)"

Steph Cha's 2019 Suspense Thriller

The Aftermath

This battle continues to echo three years later. For the 2021 edition of the Best Mystery Story series, Otto Penzler was removed as chief editor. Steph Cha was given the reigns. 

Diversity of storytellers is a goal of hers. She said, "You might see more stories by women and writers of color (both categories I happen to belong to) in this series going forward, but not because of some secret agenda to sacrifice quality for diversity. I gravitate toward some stories over others because I have opinions, a worldview, and a pulse."

In another tweet Steph Cha went on to declare: "Here's what I have to say about Otto Penzler. On a personal level, I am of course pleased to take the reins away from a man who once called me stupid and racist and demanded I lose my editing job for criticizing Linda Fairstein. I'm only human."

Two Anthologies

Otto Penzler struck back by starting a separate anthology. While Steph Cha called her anthology The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021, Otto Penzler set up a competing anthology called The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2021.

So this year we have two anthologies which, if you happened to blink, seem to be carrying on the same legacy. Steph Cha selected as her guest editor, the mystery writer, Alafair Burke. Otto Penzler went all-in with one of highest testosterone thriller writers, Lee Child.

Steph Cha promised more diverse voices and a more modern look at what mystery is. Her compilation self-consciously represents the philosophy and practice of inclusion. Her chosen editor, Alafair Burke, is a New York Times bestseller with 18 novels to her credit. She is 52 years old. (I include ages here because part of the story is the old versus the new.)

Otto Penzler went with the thriller writer, Lee Child, known for shoot 'em up action, 26 novels in all. I was genuinely disappointed when I learned Child's explanation for naming his hero Jack Reacher. Child was at a grocery store and was asked to reach for an item. He thought, if I fail as a writer, at least I'll have a career as a reacher. I imagined Jack Reacher was a pun on Jack Creature, referencing the beastly side of the character. Child is 67 years old.

I've read both of these anthologies and performed a demographic breakdown of the authors of the stories. For Penzler/Child's anthology, all 20 authors (21 when including a bonus short story by 19th century author Ambrose Bierce) were white. Among the whites, none were Latino or Latina. Fourteen were men and six were women. I couldn't always find the ages of the authors and sometimes had to fill in with imperfect estimates (undergraduate degree minus 22). With that imprecision in mind, they averaged 67 years old. Child's age!

For the Cha/Burke anthology, 12 story authors were female, 8 were male. There were 8 white non-Latinx, 4 Latinx, 5 black, 1 Latinx black, 1 South Asian, and one for whom I could not find info. Among the ages I could find and making estimates for the rest, they averaged 48 years of age. 

The game was on. Or afoot. In my next installment I review the Penzler's best mystery anthology. Between the two, they speak volumes in the differences between the old and the new. 

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I have several short stories coming out soon, including ones in Mystery Magazine and Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. A science fiction story has been accepted in El Porvenir ¡Ya! Chicano Scifi Anthology. It has a Kickstarter page now, a new experience for me. My late mother, a Chicano activist, would be proud.

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I have made no judgment here regarding Fairstein or the Central Park Five. That is not to say I believe the Central Park Five or Fairstein should be considered guilty. On the contrary, I view them as innocent until I am better informed. For matters of such weight, I have a personal (arbitrary) 20 hour rule. If I haven't made at least 20 hours of research on the subject, including arguments and counterarguments, I will remain neutral. That might sound like a cop out, but for most of these matters, my opinion is not needed. (I'm not that important!) 

Johnnie Cochran of OJ fame, made a profound statement. He said that it didn't bother him if a person thought OJ was guilty. It bothered him that people who knew little to nothing about the case thought OJ was guilty. There are hundreds, thousands of controversial matters that vie for public consciousness and my own.  I have selected a few to study well enough to provide a definitive statement. This has not (yet) been one of them.

So the Central Park Five are innocent and were railroaded. Historically, this has happened often enough to not make it a surprise.

And Linda Fairstein is innocent of wrongdoing in these matters, a different sort of railroading.

And the Central Park Five and/or Linda Fairstein could be guil. . . no, I'm not going there. My ignorance should never equal someone's presumption of guilt. 

Martin Hill Ortiz is a Professor of Pharmacology at Ponce Health Sciences University and has researched HIV for over thirty years. He is the author of four novels and numerous short stories and poems.

https://mdhillortiz.com/