Murder They Wrote

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Today is “The Ides of March,” the March 15 date on which Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated in the year 44 BC. So, I’m going do a word salad rather than a Caesar salad discussing some memorable murders in literature — while trying to avoid too many spoilers in the specific details.

Murders are of course awful, even as they’re sometimes almost merited for righteous revenge reasons. Whatever the motives behind them, they can be a key plot device and make for painfully dramatic reading.

One novel’s title that literally telegraphs a killing is Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Written in a journalistic reconstruction fashion, the book is far from the author’s best work but still interesting.

Also quite interesting is Albert Camus’ The Stranger and its puzzling murder by the novel’s detached protagonist.

The brutal double-killing early in the iconic Crime and Punishment is…iconic. Then we spend the rest of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s psychological novel observing Rodion Raskolnikov’s angst, his attempts to justify his action, his worry about capture, and more.

Other novels with multiple murders? We’ve read a few — including Agatha Christie’s classic And Then They Were None and its many dispatched characters. They deserve some punishment, but do they deserve dying? Murders, of course, are a staple of mysteries, detective fiction, and thrillers.

Totally innocent is Black teen Donte Drumm, who’s wrongly accused of killing a white high school girl in John Grisham’s The Confession. Will that murder by someone else lead to another murder — the execution of Drumm — by racist authorities?

Which reminds me of the unjust killings by law enforcement of characters in novels such as Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give (another Black teen is the victim) and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (a white man is the victim).

Retaliatory killings? We see righteous ones in Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, Erich Maria Remarque’s Arch of Triumph, and Percival Everett’s James — the last book a reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Speaking of Twain, he wrote about the execution of a real-life heroine in Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc — a novel in the historical-fiction genre also inhabited by Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace and its double-murder.

If we include genocide in this discussion, various grim novels come to mind — including Holocaust ones such as William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice and Herman Wouk’s War and Remembrance.

In the short-story realm, there many murder-in-the-mix tales to choose from: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, etc., etc.

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this topic?

I will probably be offline much of tomorrow (Monday, March 16) while in New York City but will reply to comments after I return. 🙂

Misty the cat asks: “Is it necessary for my building to have a steering wheel?”

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This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, including many encounters with celebrities.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — with my thoughts about unofficial voting results on a school deficit matter roiling my town — is here.

77 thoughts on “Murder They Wrote”

  1. Dear Dave Astor, I always find a great joy reading you. Sometimes, I respond late. Please, forgive me for that. I read Campus’ The Stranger and Christy’s Ten There Were and None in high school. Thank you for bringing them back to my mind. Now, I am more mature, I think I’ll have to read them again for a better and deeper understanding. And I appreciated your previous Women in fiction. Sincerely, Ahmadou

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    • Thank you very much, Ahmadou! Glad you liked this murder post and the previous piece about women characters. Hope you enjoy “The Stranger” and “And Then There Were None” when you reread them. 🙂

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  2. Dave, your Ides of March “word salad” is an intriguing way to wander through literature’s darker moments. Shakespeare’s Macbeth comes to mind for me. The murder of King Duncan is shocking, yet the play quickly turns away from the act itself and toward the unraveling of Macbeth’s conscience and ambition.

    That is something I find fascinating in many great works of literature. Murder may begin the story, but it is rarely the real subject. The deeper question becomes why it happens and what it reveals about human nature, guilt, power, and the consequences of our choices.

    In that sense, the act itself is almost secondary. What endures is the way the author uses it to illuminate the human heart. I love this powerful line from Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 7)

    “I have no spur
    To prick the sides of my intent, but only
    Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
    And falls on th’ other.”

    Safe travels and enjoy New York.

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  3. I always love when the Hate U Give is brought up, because it reminds me how much that book impacted me. Such a great read. I’m reading Dan Brown’s Secret of Secrets, and like many of his other reads, there is some murder along with the mayhem! 🙂

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    • Thank you, M.B.! I agree that “The Hate U Give” has a big impact on a reader; it’s a really memorable modern novel.

      I didn’t like Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” enough to read more from that author, but maybe someday…

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  4. So many great books in this genre that I’ve not yet read, Dave! I don’t know if I’ve actively steered clear out of dislike or lack of time. Either way, I’ve just got some catching up to do! Just this weekend a friend mentioned “Listen for the Lie” by Amy Tintera. New to me…a book with murderous overtones from what I gleaned. And a great title! Sending Monday smiles to you my friend – thanks for another fab post. 💝😊💝

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  6. Many thanks, Dave, for having made me remember of some of the the very touching crime stories! I still remember quite well The Count of Monte Cristo, which you also mentioned and I also remember Charles Manson and his cult “The family” which used to kill famous people such as Sharon Tate! Many thanks for your topic and all the best:)

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  7. Well, I am rather stumped, I am afraid! Reading novels about murder (and mayhem) are not my cuppa of tea. Watch series and films are fine, but generally I wouldn’t know the authors, apart from Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, for example. Sorry about that, Dave.

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  9. As usual, Dave, your blog perfectly fits my current reading experience. Not the book (no murders in “The Rosie Project” but the fact that I just ate a Caeser salad while on my lunch break reading the somewhat problematic Simsion novel.

    ‘Murders are of course awful…’ Gotta disagree with this one, Dave. At least in the world of fiction. George RR Martin certainly wrote a murder or two that I greatly enjoyed! Stephen King has also pulled it off once or twice. Oh, and Anne Rice killed off the first ever vampire in a very satisfying way.

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    • Thank you, Sue! Et tu, Caesar salad?! 🙂

      I guess I was speaking of real-life killings with my murder is awful line, but, yes, some fictional ones can be satisfying. And some real-life murders evoke more regret than others.

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  10. I’m going to suggest another classic by Agatha Christie. Murder on the Orient Express is a different kind of multiple murder.

    I’ll also plug the books in my Dreamer’s Alliance series. Murders, attempted murders — revenge, suicide and self-defense — all kind of murders.

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    • Thank you, Dan! “Murder on the Orient Express” is definitely a classic, and, yes, it feature a very clever plot premise that redefines the multiple in multiple murder.

      Also, great that you mentioned your series! Quite a variety of methods of death…

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  11. I have to say I can’t think of anything but murder mysteries off the top of my head. “The Stranger” definitely had an effect on me in high school. And didn’t someone recently write a reimagining of it? There’s lots to work with. (K)

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  13. An apt topic for The Ides of March, Dave. Sad to say, I’ve read only a few of the novels you mention. Though I can’t recall any memorable murders in literature, I’ve found the murder of a child or a beloved character the most impactful.

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  14. I see you mention the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the comments. That show is exactly what your topic reminded me of…such unusual murders or twisty outcomes of those deaths. I loved that show, even as a kid. No surprise that my favorite genre ended up being mystery:)

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  15. An excellent topic, Dave, and no less than I’d expect of you. To my shame I haven’t read many of the books you list, although ‘The Stranger’ was a favourite and I have ‘Crime and Punishment’ waiting in my TBR. ‘Julius Caesar’ was of course a teen school read, and the subject of ‘justified killing’ was something that occupied the minds of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Jacobean Revenge Tragedy was very much about the subject, especially where the murder victim was a ruler or other person of great power. Thomas Middleton’s ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’ concerns a protagonist whose love was murdered some years before by the Duke, who’s also the ruler of their land. The revenge plot succeeds, but the revenger too meets his death – the feeling of the times being that it wasn’t a good thing to show somebody killing a ruler and getting away with it. That conflict continues today – note the recent killing in the USA of the CEO of a healthcare conglomerate, concerning which I’ve seen demonstrations on TV by those who feel the killer ought to be freed as the company failed in its duty to many who suffered and even died due to their seemingly heartless putting of profit over people. The problem is, of course, that a murder was committed, and letting the killer off would set a bad precedent. And of course I’ve gone off topic; but art of course mirrors real life, and vice-versa, which is why murder in literature is such an engrossing topic. Rant over. Catch you again later, Dave. Have a good week. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Laura! Art indeed mirrors real life, which is definitely one reason why there’s so much murder and other deaths in literature.

      That killing of the UnitedHealthcare exec you mentioned does bring up all kinds of issues. It was wrong for him to be murdered, yet the decisions he and his company made to deny medical benefits to countless people in the interest of maximizing profits led to thousands of deaths. Reminds me a bit of the debate between terrorism vs. state terrorism.

      Which also reminds me of the horrific recent U.S. bombing of that girls’ school in Iran as part of the wasn’t-necessary U.S./Israeli war on that country — but that bombing was allegedly accidental/allegedly based on out-of-date mapping, though who knows? 😦

      Certainly some ultra-memorable deaths in Shakespeare’s works, including “Macbeth” of course. I appreciate the other mentions, too!

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  16. Pingback: Murder They Wrote | dean ramser

  17. Most good books have a violent death, murder or otherwise.

    A double murder that didn’t happen, if the intended deaths did, in The Human Stain by Philip Roth.

    In Flannery O’Connor’s brilliant and haunting novel Wise Blood the principal character dies at the hand of a young policeman who preferred him unconscious as that would reduce the burden of bringing him in. He hits the man over the head with his billy club (new, for detail). “We don’t want to have no trouble with him”, he said [to his equally inexperienced partner]. You take his feet”. He died in the squad car, but they didn’t take notice, as the narrator casually observes.

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    • Thank you, Dingenom! True that many memorable novels have death in them, sometimes violent. It just occurred to me that one of the most violent “literary” novels I’ve ever read is Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian,” in which there’s all kinds of disgusting slaughter by white guys in the 19th-century American West.

      I’ve read “Wise Blood,” and it IS excellent and haunting. Flannery O’Connor was of course better known for her short stories, but did well with her rare longer-form writing.

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  18. This day commemorates what some thought was a justified murder. Motives for murder are endlessly interesting, both in real life and in fiction.

    All this is to give my brain time to serve up some titles that haven’t been mentioned yet. Sadly, the only one that comes to mind is one of my own books, so I’ll bow out right here. 😃

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    • Thank you, Audrey! Yes, when leaders rule in a brutal matter (which Caesar did at least partly), their murders can feel justified by some.

      You and others are always welcome to mention their own books, or books by fellow bloggers, in comments here. 🙂

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      • You’re welcome, Dave.
        Now that I’m awake, I have remembered one rather strange book that involves murder: Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. It’s one of those unreliable narrator books that muddles the brain (in a good way).
        And I’ll just mention my book The Friendship of Mortals, as an extra. Thanks for your indulgence!

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  19. As a writer of mystery novels and a devoted mystery reader, I can list title after title of excellent books with murders in them. However, with the exception of Agatha Christie’s novel, I get the impression you are talking about “literature,” Dave. There are a number of outstanding mysteries that I think should count as literature, though. Here are three examples of genre books with murders that I think are classics:

    Daphne du Maurier’s REBECCA

    Dorothy L. Sayers’s STRONG POISON

    Josephine Tey’s BRAT FARRAR

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    • Thank you, Kim! I avoided talking a lot about mysteries/detective fiction today because I’ve recently touched on that genre in several posts. I should have made that clear. 🙂 When one thinks of murders in novels, mysteries are a REALLY important part of the discussion, and, yes, that genre often is excellent literature.

      I appreciate the three examples you offered! I’ve read at least something by all those authors, and they’re great at creating suspense, psychological nuance, and more. (Among what I’ve read are du Maurier’s “My Cousin Rachel,” Sayers’ “Gaudy Night,” and Tey’s “The Daughter of Time.”)

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    • I’ve only read “Rebecca” once. I’m greatly looking forward to re-reading it one day to see how differently that unexpected murder hits when I know that it’s coming.

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  20. I read your posts for the wonderful wealth of knowledge and to reacquaint myself with literature I once studied decades ago. So I had to Google famous murders in fiction for a list of works you didn’t have room to cover, and Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” sounds like an interesting listen while I am working, if I can find an audio file. But I have been wanting to listen to Crime and Punishment for a while. So I might listen to that one first.

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    • Thank you for the kind words and comment, R. Jay! Googling can definitely help; I did that a few times while writing the post. 🙂 I remember seeing “Lamb to the Slaughter” adapted for a 1950s “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” TV episode (I watched a rerun of it at some point). “Crime and Punishment” would be very interesting to listen to!

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  21. Native Son by Richard Wright comes to mind. (That book made a big impression on me.) The Lovely Bones is another book featuring a murder, although I found the book flawed. The central conceit started unravelling about half way through.

    I just finished writing a short story based on a former student of mine who brutally murdered a store clerk.

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