Besides science fiction and fantasy, I try to maintain a general impression of the state of the mystery genre.
It's seemed to me that a lot of newly-published mysteries over the last several or more years have been set, not in the present day, but back in the 1970's, 80's, or earlier decades.
I wonder if that might be because those earlier times were pre-cellphones, pre-Internet, pre-Surveillance-Society?
In a society where everything is known, or has the potential to become known, has the traditional mystery story become impossible (or at least damn difficult) to write?
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Along the line of mysteries, I only recently realized science fiction blog Tor.com has a sister site, Criminal Element, covering the mystery and thrillers beat. One of their regular columns is "Noir's Goon Squad", profiling some of the actors and actresses who regularly portrayed thugs and goons and femme fatales in films of the mid-20th century. "Noir's Goon Squad: Barton MacLane" covers the career of a man who "just had a face you wanted to punch", "was the king of the assholes", and portrayed characters "like he was born in a bad mood." Apparently he was a pretty good actor; outside his film work, MacLane was a playwright and musician.
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