The Transparent Detective by Kat Richardson:

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Jim Butcher once said that he modeled Harry Dresden on the hardboiled detectives of Mystery's Golden Age--guys who had two common traits: they got the snot beaten out of them regularly; and they knew how to cut up with the quips--to "lip off" as Mr. Butcher put it. I know who those guys are--guys like Sam Spade and Nick Charles and Philip Marlowe. I like those guys too, but I have to admit that one of my favorite detectives is not a tough guy who gets knocked around and bounces back or is quick with a smart-mouthed comment. He's the invisible man, the transparent lens through whose eyes the story and its setting is shown to the reader, but who is not, in fact, a motivator of the events. He's Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer, a man for whom detection is neither an exercise of ego, nor an unpleasant delivery from Circumstances R Us. It's just a job.

Even though a collection of Lew Archer short stories has been released recently, Lew doesn't get much play these days. He's the pure Mystery fiend's detective, as far removed from the quirky, fast-talking, idiosyncratic anti-hero of Hammett and Chandler as glass is from grits. He's not flashy, he's not charming, he's deceptively plain and quiet--an observer whose life is not meant for display. He's the detective Harper Blaine would most like to emulate and whom she simply cannot. But why not?

At this moment in the subgenre's development, Urban Fantasy is largely about character. You could have a pretty thin plot, but so long as it is driven by a strong and quirky character, the fantastical elements of the world, plot, or situation are acceptable. Much of what fans like is reading about their favorite UF hero's reaction and counter action to the spin of those elements. Harry Dresden would be just another detective is he wasn't also a wise-ass wizard. Anita Blake would be another tough chick with a 'tude, if she weren't a necromancer with relationship trouble, and Sookie Stackhouse would be a charming amateur sleuth in a small town if she weren't psychic and working for a werewolf while dating a vampire.

Not all UF is some kind of Mystery cross-breed, but they certainly offer some of the easiest frameworks for elaborating with Fantasy elements. Basic Mystery plot structure is... well, pretty basic; some ordinary law has been violated--someone's been killed, something's been stolen--and until it's fixed the specter of social chaos looms. It's very straightforward conflict--which is the engine of plot. Onto that robust and basic framework, you can hang almost anything. But no matter how tricky, twisted, and amazing the plot and its subplots are, there still has to be someone behind the wheel, not just the writer, but a narrator who knows how to pick the coolest route and show you the most amazing scenery of the Fantastic.

Urban Fantasy readers are not satisfied with a Sunday drive with a paranormal Hercule Poirot. They want a dynamic and interesting tour guide driving them through the realms of the Fantastic who knows the coolest route and can improvise when trees and monsters block the road. And one who will, in the end, fix whatever was broken and restore order. The transparent detective is not useful to them, Lew Archer's approach would be too bland. And Harper Blaine will never get to get to be the lens over society's insanity, taken case by case, because the society of Urban Fantasy already contains a lens placed over our own and the addition of the transparent detective only adds distance to the view.

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Kat Richardson

Poltergeist

Harper Blaine

Greywalker

detective

supernatural

murder

Penguin Books

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