Cosy Autumn Mysteries

 

Intuition is like reading a word without having to spell it out. A child can't do that because it has had so little experience. A grown-up person knows the word because they've seen it often before.
- Agatha Christie

It might not feel like Autumn here, with temperatures still climbing into the mid-upper 80s, but it feels very atmospheric in the book world anytime. It is the time of year when I crave the mysteries and Autumnal vibes. With the season sprouting up everywhere around us, apples, pumpkins, leaves, and spices, I pretend we are in a new season with some decor, candles, and books. I buy apples. And I cook some dishes with butternut squash. 

I recently picked up a couple of Agatha Christie mysteries at the library, which were enjoyable reads, doing well to impart those mysterious vibes of solving puzzles. One was a spy thriller (Passenger to Frankfurt) and one was a murder mystery (Sad Cypress). Both were fun, puzzle solving adventures.

Life is full of mystery. We have seen much of these things before in perhaps smaller ways. Mystery seems to be swallowing the time around us, with questions and wonderings. I think part of why some of us enjoy murder mysteries so much is that they are a kind of fantasy, meaning, they are rather dramatic and unrealistic, so it's an escape from our own problems. It's not likely that kind of murder mystery would happen to us. All the while it is a fascinating exploration of human nature, personality, and crime. Why do people do what they do? What are the motives behind crime? Is there some past occurrence that deeply wounded a character? Is there another way to solve the puzzle of the murder? Did you catch that missing piece which broke the alibi? 

Using pieces of clues and observation, one does solve the mystery and/or murder. It's a cosy thing, with these books, that there is a mystery solved, and the reasons are brought to light. It reminds me that sometimes we think we can hide our selfish or bad behavior and it not be found out, it usually comes to light at some point. Not that we are committing crimes, of course, it's usually small things with us in real life. But that's what makes these kinds of golden age mysteries so enjoyable. They are at the same time relatable (we can sometimes put ourselves in the shoes of the characters and either feel the same or feel strongly opposed) and also provide us with an encounter of an outlandish fantasy kind of mystery that won't happen in your life that makes it an exciting read to puzzle the brain around. Don't mind me whilst I dip into many mysteries this season.