In the latest issue of its weekly newsletter on prose fiction, The Culture Alliance shines a light on detective fiction with a theological twist, provides an excerpt from a story written by high school student with a promising future, and gives the latest in news, opinion, and links to a few authors’ sites from the world of popular fiction.

In the latest issue of Fiction Friday included a review of Ralph McInerny’s theologically informed detective, featuring his character Father Dowling, a quote from G.K. Chesterton’s essay “The Ideal Detective Story,” and an excerpt from an extraordinary short story written by James P. Blaylock and one of his Orange County High School of the Arts students, Adriana Campoy.

Ralph McInerny follows, Gerald J. Russello writes, in the classic detective story tradition best exemplified by G.K. Chesterton:

The classic detective story is a morality play. Good, in the form of deductive reasoning and empirical observation, wins out over evil, at least to the extent of uncovering the murderer and exposing him to justice. The detective story at its best allows the full range of human motivation, from hatred and greed to a desire for redemption, to play out in limitless ways. Moreover, given the universality of human emotion, the settings for a good detective story can be just as varied, from country houses to urban offices.

 

 

It is no surprise, then, that some enterprising novelists have drawn on this tradition to create a peculiar literary character: the priest-detective. The best example of this is G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown, who featured in over 50 stories and was based on John O’Connor, a priest who figured strongly in Chesterton’s conversion. In the stories, an intrepid priest takes on the crimes of the Edwardian age, facing them with a sure faith in the supernatural combined with a profound grasp of reason and the potentialities of human evil. Neither sentimental nor coldly logical, the priest-detective represented, as Chesterton saw it, the Western intellectual tradition in balance.…

 

 

The Wisdom of Father Dowling has just come out, and this collection of 15 short stories featuring the eponymous hero illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the genre. Its title invokes The Wisdom of Father Brown, which is probably Chesterton’s best collection, and the two priests share several characteristics. The centrality of reason is one: McInerny, like Chesterton, is a committed Thomist, and the respect for reasoning is evident throughout Scholastic philosophy. Nevertheless, Dowling, like Brown, is also a committed priest, and the twin concerns for physical reality and metaphysical salvation are combined when he is looking to solve a crime. Other shared characteristics include a wry sense of humor and the enjoyment of the simple pleasures of life, such as friendship.

Chesterton explores what constitutes the “Ideal Detective Story,” while, in his typically humble manner, recognizing that he might not be able to create one:

There has been some renewal of debate on the problem of the problem story; sometimes called the police novel, because it now consists chiefly of rather unjust depreciation of the police. I see that Father Ronald Knox has written a most interesting introduction to a collection of tales of the kind; and Mrs. Carolyn Wells, the author of an admirable mystery called "Vicky Van, " has reissued a study on the subject. There is one aspect of the detective story which is almost inevitably left out in considering the detective stories. That tales of this type are generally slight, sensational, and in some ways superficial, I know better than most people, for I have written them myself. If I say there is in the abstract something quite different, which may be called the Ideal Detective Story, I do not mean that I can write it. I call it the Ideal Detective Story because I cannot write it. Anyhow, I do think that such a story, while it must be sensational, need not be superficial. In theory, though not commonly in practice, it is possible to write a subtle and creative novel, of deep philosophy and delicate psychology, and yet cast it in the form of a sensational shocker.

Adriana Campoy and James P. Blaylock have written a “subtle and creative” short story that Chesterton may have appreciated in “Stone Eggs.” Campoy is a student at the Orange County High School of the Arts, and James P. Blaylock is that school’s Director of Creative Writing.

 

“Stone Eggs” is a fascinating tale of mystery and discovery that leaves readers wanting more from this young writer. It and two other stories Blaylock penned with other talented OCHSA students are included in book Metamorphosis, produced by small press publisher Subterranean Press. Here is  brief excerpt:

His Uncle Jonathan had been gone only a couple of days when Max tried on a pair of the old man’s trousers. The strange idea came into his mind when he was petting the cat, and he didn’t question it. The trousers fit him well, as did the khaki work shirt and suspenders that had been hanging in the closet next to them. They were old fashioned, but they suited the house, in which everything hearkened back to a lost age. A suitable suit, Max thought, smiling at his own joke and feeling somehow more at home now, like a hermit crab in a new shell. Elmer, his uncle’s ancient, tailless cat, regarded him from the doorway with an air of approval, as if borrowing the clothing had been the cat’s idea all along.

 

 

The invitation to housesit had come in the form of a letter, posted, apparently, when the old man was already leaving, because Max had found the house empty, with a note on the kitchen counter that read, “Make yourself at home.” The invitation had been as vague about the date of his uncle’s return as it had been about his destination. That also suited Max well enough, since his lease had run out on the flat he had been renting above Watson’s Drug Store in the Plaza, and he was temporarily homeless. Most of his own stuff was in a closet-sized storage unit that cost him forty dollars a month, a sad comment on the state of his worldly goods. It occurred to him impulsively that he would quit paying the storage bill and simply let the stuff go. If he was going to make himself at home, he might as well do a thorough job of it….         

 

I highly recommend this short story for a bit of weekend reading.

Finally, a few links from around the world of prose fiction, including the websites of authors, both past and present.

–Daniel Crandall