Web Of Mystery

The mystery community has never been as tightly knit as the fandom of science fiction. While there are conventions like Bouchercon, they're not anticipated or attended the way science fiction conventions are (You Might Be A Geek #4: If you've ever been admitted free to a science fiction convention because of how you're dressed, you might be a geek). Of all the subtypes of mystery fiction, hardboiled fiction comes closest to having a true fandom, and that's particularly true online.

At the center of the web of mystery is William Denton's Rara-Avis mailing list. Active since 1997 (decades in Internet time), this list is devoted to a discussion of all things hard boiled. A number of prominent writers frequent the list, as well as webmasters from most of the mystery-related sites on the Internet. This list covers it all; recent posts have ranged from the career of New York City crime photographer Weegee to Sherlock Holmes as hardboiled detective.

One of the most vocal (and controversial, and interesting) of the Rara Avians is Kevin Burton Smith. Smith runs one of the best harboiled sites, The Thrilling Detective, an encyclopedia of information on private eyes in fiction. Literally hundreds of listings cover eyes ranging from the most prominent (Philip Marlow, Sam Spade) to the most obscure (Johnny Canuck, The Odd Man) in all media - print, film, television, comic books, and the web. Within the past couple of years the site's begun publishing detective mysteries itself, with stories by the likes of Laura Lippman, Leigh Brackett, and me.

The Thrilling Detective's fiction editor is Gerald So. In addition to his duties at TTD, he runs the DetecToday mailing list, focusing on current detective fiction. Gerald is also a Spenser expert, and runs Spenser's Sneakers, a mailing list devoted the The Great One.

Before Gerald assumed the position, TTD's fiction editor was Victoria Esposito-Shea. She's now the honcho at Hand Held Crime, a site that publishes a montly magazine of fiction and reviews not just on the web, but available for download to all sorts of hand held devices, from various electronic book formats to the PalmPilot and other handheld computers.

The web is particularly well suited to fiction magazines - no printing or distribution costs - and many magazines have taken full advantage. One of the oldest and most prominent is Blue Murder Magazine; after twenty issues and a (printed!) best-of anthology, this is the best-known mystery magazine on the Internet. Each issue features short fiction, mostly suspense and detection, and some regular contributors, including the aforementioned Kevin Burton Smith, who writes a private eye column.

Another ezine is Plots With Guns, run by Anthony Neil Smith and Hunter Hayes. In keeping with the "one big happy" theme, Smith has had his short fiction appear on several other sites. His site features stories that are generally more cutting-edge and experimental; the guidelines only require that each story contain a gun.

Anthony Dauer's judas_ezine is a recent addition to the hardboiled fold. Dauer is a frequent contributor to Rara-Avis, and his site is a good-looking addition to the mystery scene. Each issue focuses on a particular theme; the most recent issue features "country noir", while the next one looks at femmes fatale.

One of the graybeards in this field is Nefarious - Tales Of Mystery by R. K. Foster. The site's been around for a couple of years now, and is enormous and packed with all kinds of stuff, from stories and non-fiction articles to an extensive links section, and even a community section for its users.

If you visit enough of these sites, you'll start to recognize some of the writers, particularly the likes of Kent Westmoreland, Hugh Lessig, the ubiquitous Laird Long, O'Neil De Noux, Victor Gischler, Miles Archer, and others too numerous to mention.

The extensive cross-pollination (dare we say… inbreeding?) between all these sites adds to the clubby feel, and the importance and influence is starting to be felt offline. As the web of mystery moves father from its fansite origins, look for more and more major writers to take the online plunge. And, mark my words, some day a story published on the Internet will take home an award - not just a Webby, but a Shamus or an Edgar.