From Marple to Murder, She Wrote: Elderly Detectives In Murder Mysteries
From Marple to Murder, She Wrote: Elderly Detectives In Murder Mysteries
A Quick Guide to Seasoned Sleuths In Crime Fiction
Welcome to a brand new edition of Only Murders In The Inbox! If you’re a regular reader, thanks for returning, I appreciate you. If you’re only just now joining us, we’re happy to have you! Every week, OMITI covers murder mysteries in literature and entertainment. We delve into the ways the Mystery genre is significant in pop culture. You’ll also find curated suggestions and lists here so if you’re looking for a particular type of read, I’ve got you! If you’re new to Only Murders, start here:
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Miss Marple, Image Courtesy of the BBC and PBS
Elderly Sleuths In Crime Fiction
With age comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes a great detective! The elderly amateur sleuth is both an endearing and popular character in classic murder mysteries and cozy whodunits.
One of the first elderly sleuths in crime fiction, Bill Owen, was made popular at the turn of the century in 1901. The Old Man in the Corner was written by the Hungarian-British novelist Baroness Emmuska Orczy, best known for her stories about the Scarlet Pimpernel. In Orczy’s stories, her armchair detective sits in a tea shop with Polly, a journalist who listens and conveys murder mysteries which Owen then proceeds to solve, using his experience from old age and his astute deductive skills akin to Sherlock Holmes. Bill Owen goes on to appear in thirty-seven stories and three collections between 1901 and 1925, starting with “The Fenchurch Street Mystery” in The Royal Magazine. These mysteries ushered in the armchair detective as a popular protagonist in crime fiction, later influencing the work of writers such as Rex Stout and Phyllis Eleanor Bentley.
Public Domain Images of Baroness Orczy, her first Bill Owen book and illustrations inside her Teacup Detective series; cover on the far right of The Old Man In The Corner courtesy of Pushkin Vertigo
A little hint about The Old Man In The Corner without spoilers in case you decide to read it: If you think artists borrow and sample a lot of previously written music in new tracks, trust me, murder mystery writers do all that and then some with their stories. When you read this book from 1901, fast forward to 1995 and you’ll realize one of the best suspenseful mystery movies of that year owes quite a lot to The Old Man In The Corner!
“There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.” — from Murder At The Vicarage, the first full-length Miss Marple mystery
The most famous elderly detective in Mystery made her appearance in short stories in the mid-twenties, with the novel published in 1930, five years after Baroness Orczy wrote her last Bill Owen mystery. Murder At The Vicarage was a surprising success for Agatha Christie at the time. That elderly amateur sleuth, Miss Marple, went on to become one of the most beloved protagonists in Mystery. It will amaze you to learn that Miss Marple only appears in twelve novels and twenty short stories total, unlike the BBC’s show Marple would have you believe.1
Since Miss Marple, the elderly sleuth has headed up one successful mystery after another in forms of entertainment, from Miranda James paperbacks to Only Murders In The Building. So why are sleuths over sixty so popular in crime fiction?
Years of experience, coupled with intuition, observation, and an understanding of human nature make elderly sleuths ideal ones. As Agatha Christie mentioned often in interviews2 she knew the distinct advantage Miss Marple had over other detectives, both professional and amateur, was her tendency to go unobserved (and constantly underestimated) because of her age and demeanor. No one notices the sweet old lady knitting in the corner, right? Yet Miss Marple was usually the shrewdest mind in the room!
Of all the types of amateur sleuths in fiction, elderly sleuths are my favorite. In fact, I love them so much so that my own debut novel features elderly detectives as my main protagonists! So here is a collection of clever little old ladies, nosy elderly gentlemen and observant retirees as the lead characters in murder mysteries.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
Books With Television Series
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, television series and novels As of this writing, production just wrapped on Netflix's brand new screen adaptation of Richard Osman's popular bestselling novel, The Thursday Murder Club. In this popular series, a group of retirees decide to investigate murders in their Cooper’s Chase retirement village in Kent. There's an insane cast, featuring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie and David Tennant. The Oscar-nominated film director Chris Columbus is at the helm. An official air date hasn't been announced yet. Make sure you’re subscribed to Only Murders for updates!
Murder, She Wrote television series, movies and novels by Donald Bain, Jon Land and Terrie Farley It wouldn’t be a proper list without the OG of elderly sleuths, Jessica Fletcher. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Jessica Fletcher is a retired-teacher-turned-famous-author who lives in the small town of Cabot Cove, Maine and solves mysteries in her free time. This Angela Lansbury series with made-for-TV movies are classics, and I know many readers who love the books, too! Start with the first one, Murder, She Wrote: Gin and Daggers, and don’t forget MSW: Murder Backstage and MSW: The Murder of Twelve.
The Marlow Murder Club by Jonathan Thorogood, television series and novels I’m a fan of Thorogood not only for his books, but also for his many television series, his most well-known show being Death In Paradise. The television adaptation of his book The Marlow Murder Club premieres on PBS on October 27th. The four-part series stars Samantha Bond (Downton Abbey, Home Fires) who is joined by Jo Martin, Cara Horgan and Natalie Dew. Bond plays seventy-seven year old Judith Potts, a woman who witnesses a murder only to have no one believe her. She teams up with some unlikely fellow amateur sleuths to find out what really happened.
Book Series
The Vera Wong Series by Jesse Q. Sutanto This mystery novel won an Edgar Award earlier this year. It’s about a lonely sixty-year-old widow who lives in San Francisco and finds a body in her teashop and decides to investigate. Sutanto’s second Vera Wong novel, Vera Wong’s Guide For Snooping (On A Dead Man) is set for publication next year. In 2023, Warner Bros. acquired the book rights to Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and has partnered with Mindy Kaling's Kaling International and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films for production.
Southern Ladies Mystery Series by Miranda James Lemme tell you, New York Times bestselling author Miranda James has got the cozy genre on lock. Southerners An’gel and Dickce Ducote are curious, charming, and ready to get to the bottom of what’s going on in their town! Start with Bless Her Dead Little Heart in this four-book series, and if you love these novels, try her Cat In The Stacks series.
Image Courtesy of Kensington Cozies
Honorable Mentions: Stand-Alone Novels and Television Series
One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley; Aunty Lee's Delights by Ovidia Yu; The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann; Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon; Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn; The Old Woman with the Knife, by Gu Byeong-mo (translated by Chi-Young Kim); Father Brown on Britbox; Darby and Joan on Acorn TV; Rosemary and Thyme on Prime Video; Only Murders In The Building on Hulu; Matlock on CBS; The Peg and Rose series by Laurien Berenson
Song of the Day: “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena” by Jan & Dean
The network and writers of Marple took liberties with Miss Marple’s mysteries, throwing her into Tommy and Tuppence stories and stand-alone mysteries, such as The Pale Horse. In Christie’s novels, Miss Marple never made appearances in those murder cases.
Christie’s interviews are available on agathachristie.com
Wonderful subject, Reda. "Murder, She Wrote" is my default TV show. When I watch the legendary Angela Lansbury, I'm obsessed with her beauty. She began the series at the age of 59, which begs the question, now, how old is "elderly"? The Golden Girls cast were also all in the late 50s, early 60s, but looking back, we thought they were all old ladies. My Louise Moscow spy thriller series follows the sassy female sleuth over 30 years and she is now post-menopausal, but still sexy AF. I'd love your feedback about that.
Going back even further than Orczy, there's Anna Katharine Green's middle-aged amateur detective Miss Amelia Butterworth, introduced in 1897's "That Affair Next Door." It's generally believed, though there's nothing down in black-and-white confirming it, that Miss Amelia was one of the influences on the creation of Christie's Miss Marple. She was definitely an influence on the creation of my own Mrs. Meade Mysteries (though Miss Butterworth is a *far* more assertive personality than my Mrs. Meade!).
Actually, Green had introduced a middle-aged professional in Mr. Ebenezer Gryce all the way back in "The Leavenworth Case" in 1878, and he was in his seventies by the time he appeared as a character in the three novels starring Miss Butterworth around the turn of the century!