A Body Isn't Necessary

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a post about how ‘there must be a body.’ I was referring to S.S. van Dine’s “Twenty Rules of the Detective Story” and to my own experience with a cosy mystery without a murder which was horrid as a mystery novel (it was a nice romance novel, though, even if that wasn’t planned, I’m sure). S.S. van Dine claimed that a detective story must have a body ‘the deader, the better.’ After reading the book, I had to agree with him. After reading another two books, I now have to disagree to a degree.

I recently read two mysteries by Shanna Swendson from her ‘Lucky Lexie’ series which didn’t feature a body at all. In one case, there was a suggestion of murder and there not being a body was the point (“Case of the Vanishing Visitor”) whereas the other case didn’t even suggest a murder (“Case of the Curious Crystals”). Yet, none of the stories lacked in tension, stakes, and enjoyment for the reader.
Tension and stakes, of course, are what makes us enjoy a story. We want to read on because there’s something at stake and we enjoy the story more and more as the tension rises and pushes our own engagement with the characters and their possible fates. Now I think that the failure of the book mentioned above wasn’t not to have a murder, it was not to have stakes for the main characters and thus no raising tension. There was no personal involvement and there was nothing horrid to happen if the stolen fireworks weren’t found. The two books mentioned in the last paragraph, though, manage to build up stakes and tension wonderfully.

In “Case of the Vanishing Visitor”, Lexie seems to have met a woman who got herself killed afterwards. Given that Lexie can speak to ghosts and the woman is not to be found, dead or alive, it seems as if, perhaps, Lexie met the woman after she’d been killed already, but in the end, the facts don’t add up and it turns out that the woman isn’t dead and was never in danger of dying, either. Yet, the way the story handles the plot is excellent and you go through the uncertainty and the worry with Lexie as she tries to find the woman, dead or alive. It’s, therefore, not horrid when the woman turns up alive — it’s rather something you’re glad for after going through the story and learning about all the bad things that might have happened to her.
In “Case of the Curious Crystals”, no dead body is even suggested. A wave of strange thefts runs through the town and sows distrust between the regular ‘townies’ and the descendants of the sideshow crew (this is part of the town’s world-building and discussed from the first book of the series onwards — ‘Curious Crystals’ is the second book). Lexie needs to find out who steals cheap 1930s costume jewellery and why and so she stumbles over a try to sway the jury of an upcoming court case. The story has stakes — at least for Lexie and her love interest/local cop Wes, as both don’t condone influencing the court even if it’s not a murderer going free. More importantly, if the case is not solved, the tension between the townies and the sideshow descendants will only rise and one day might end in the severe injury or even death of an innocent person. That can’t be allowed. There’s stakes, there’s tension, there’s a satisfying end, so there’s a good book.
The other three of the five cases in the series (so far — fingers crossed here) do include at least one murder each, so it’s not as if the author has gone for lower stakes in general. The stakes in the two ‘body-less’ cases also don’t feel low at all. Sure, it might be more threatening if you’re caught in a bed-and-breakfast in a storm with a murderer, but watching as people distrust their neighbours simply for their pedigree can also be scary.

Lexie only has a personal involvement with the first case — she has found the victim, she is the person from out of town, and she is standing to gain something from their death (not that she knew and not that she needs them dead as it turns out). In all other cases, her interest in the case as the editor and reporter of the local weekly newspaper get her involved and she strives to solve the crime for the sake of solving it as well as for a more satisfying article in the newspaper. Not to mention that the ghosts of the victims want her to solve it so they can pass on. Then there’s the ghost of the former owner and editor of the newspaper, a delightful 1930s business woman, who will not be satisfied unless the newspaper brings out the news before the gossip mill can.
Nevertheless, all cases are engaging and interesting. They’re being brought to her attention in a suitable way, pulling her out of the regular life in town she has grown used to. They are challenging her by not being simple ‘open and shut’ cases. They involve friends and neighbours and her understanding of justice as well as her wish to make every edition of the newspaper as good as it can be. Not to mention that they bring her into closer contact with the charming and handsome Wes…

It is easier to make high stakes and rising tension when there is a murderer on the run, of course. In a cosy mystery (which is probably not the kind of detective story S.S. van Dine was thinking of in his semi-serious list), the stakes don’t have to be that high and the tension can rise much more slowly. In the end, the stakes must be high enough to engage the audience. The tension must rise fast enough to make them want to read on. If that is happening, you can have a good cosy mystery without a body and people will still enjoy themselves while reading it.