by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: October 10, 2009   Last Updated: October 24, 2009

The traditions of private-eye fiction are lasting traditions. There will always be rich or beautiful people, hard boiled investigators, vicious criminals, fancy transportation, and a simple job that turns out to be a more complicated job. There will be crimes that cry out to be solved. There will always be puzzle pieces to collect and fit into the rest of the picture until the picture makes enough sense to explain what has happened: who did it, how, why, when, and where?

The private eye has a history of dysfunction and flaws that will represent human frailty, no matter how much the setting changes. The television series "Monk" and the Laurence Saunders Novels are fine examples, as is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

The future of private-eye fiction will always involve mysterious and critical forms of communication, whether they are suicide notes, frantic calls for help, or records that add more pieces to be worked into the incomplete puzzle of fact. There will always be some way in which the methods of communication can be faked, forged or used to fool the observer into believing something other than the truth of what has happened.

The future of private-eye fiction will always involve state of the art methods, weapons, and chemical processes for killing, robbing, embezzling, absconding, adultery and a host of sinister hi jinks. There will always be some hard to find proof of a chemical reaction, some cunningly concealed weapon, a missing fact, a seemingly perfect alibi, or a frustrating inability to understand how one simple event relates to another in a chain of events.

The future of private-eye fiction will also include tales that are set in the past, where classic puzzle solving applies to any era or historical event. The story can be set in any time or place in the past or present, and involve any person, real or fictional.

Private-eye fiction has been set in the distant future, in space, and on other worlds. The private eye genre applies to all genres, where the settings, characters, and the other aspects of the story are as compelling and engaging as the mystery, itself.

There is one element that will keep the private-eye genre of fiction from ever fading away: the independent, rogue, or amateur status of the investigator, who must operate outside of, or even against official agencies to get to the truth of a matter.

As long as there are creative and compelling reasons for solving the puzzles of life, there will be a place for the private eye in the real world and in fiction.

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