Spooks, Spies, and Private Eyes: Black Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Fiction

American Visions, April, 1996 by Dale Edwyna Smith

Spooks, Spies, and Private Eyes: Black Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Fiction edited by Paula L. Woods (Doubleday. 1995. $23.95)--My declared love of the mystery genre has been met by the derisive disbelief of colleagues; nevertheless, my seduction by the form remains intact with this volume. Arranged in order of their publication are 22 mystery stories and excerpts from longer works by black authors, including Ann Petry, Chester Himes, Richard Wright and Barbara Neely. The classic "locked room" gambit is given a turn by George Schuyler (pen name, William Stockton). "The Shoemaker Murder," set in Harlem, first appeared in 1933 and relied heavily on period stereotypes: characters in this plotless exercise are depicted in racial terms--the "tragic" (here alcoholic) mulatto, the handsome "Negro" detective, and the murderer, "a Negro, very dark, and hunchbacked." Richard Wright's "The Man Who Killed a Shadow" looks more deeply, although it is clear that in 1946, when the story first appeared, a primary concern of black writers was explaining black society to whites. More recent work includes Hugh Holton's "The Thirtieth Amendment," meditations on life in an America expanded to include Mexico by a professional executioner for the prison system who studied his craft at Harvard. The best story of the lot is Aya de Leon's "Tell Me Moore," a tantalizing snippet of a work in progress. De Leon's female universe is neither imitative nor derivative; she has pushed the form forward, taking note of blacks' maturing attitudes toward color, gender and homophobia. It is a bright, funny, well-crafted tale, and I look forward to more of de Leon's work.

Dale Edwyna Smith is an assistant professor of American history and Afro-American history at Washington University in St. Louis whose reviews have appeared in Southern Review and Belles Lettres. Her last article for American Visions, "Recent and Relevant History Books," appeared in the February/ March issue.