Unveiling the Grim Reality: Insights from Mary Watson on the True-Crime Incident that Sparked Her Fascination with Mystery novels
A Suburban Neighbourhood and the Darkness of Human Hearts: A Personal Journey into Crime and Mystery
In the last years of apartheid South Africa, a speaker lived in a suburban neighbourhood with tidy single-story houses and neat front gardens. Across the road, a field covered in brown scrub served as a playground for imaginary games involving soldiers and wars. Behind the speaker's house, severe-looking factories were ignored, and behind them lay a field that would later become a site of shocking violence.
The speaker's childhood was filled with a love for bloody mysteries and puzzles, which led to a deep appreciation for Agatha Christie novels. However, it was a real-life tragedy that would have a profound impact on the speaker's understanding of the world. A neighbour, just fifteen years old, was brutally murdered fifty meters from where the speaker slept, with a knife in the kitchen.
This violent event was an abrupt shattering that put the speaker and the area on edge. Until then, violence was perceived as something that happened elsewhere, but the shocking death changed everything. The speaker found a line in "Lord of the Flies" that drew together midnight tragedy, story, and a world that can be unjustly harsh even as it is mundane. This line would later become the point of departure for the speaker's adult thriller, "The Cleaner".
"The Cleaner" explores how ordinary people living ordinary lives may do terrible things. The speaker recognizes a similar enduring fascination in Agatha Christie's novels that drives their own writing, specifically in "The Cleaner". The speaker's children listen to snippets of these murder mysteries but are not as captivated as the speaker was at a similar age.
The speaker's fascination with Agatha Christie's novels continues to this day. They have been revisiting the novels and have reread them over time. Currently, the speaker is listening to Agatha Christie novels as audiobooks while performing domestic tasks. The speaker finds the aesthetic of Clue appealing, evoking a grand old house with a ballroom, library, and billiard room.
While Agatha Christie’s works represent a traditional British mystery genre with limited connection to apartheid’s brutal realities, contemporary authors like Mary Watson confront the legacy and lingering impacts of apartheid more directly. Watson's novel The Cleaner uses the genre of crime and mystery to engage deeply with South Africa’s violent history and its repercussions on perception, memory, and social relations in a post-apartheid context.
Thus, the speaker's personal journey into crime and mystery is a testament to the power of literature to explore the complexities of human nature and the impact of historical events on individual lives. The speaker believes that their first brush with murder brought a deeply felt awareness of the darkness of human hearts, an awareness that continues to inform their writing and their understanding of the world.
- Amidst general news and crime-and-justice, the speaker's personal experiences have inspired a shift in focus, delving into the human heart's darkness through the lens of a thriller titled "The Cleaner", which explores ordinary people doing terrible things.
- The speaker's enduring fascination with mental-health and mystery is evident in their preference for Agatha Christie's books, where psychological intrigue and human nature intertwine.
- As the speaker's literary interest expands beyond Agatha Christie to authors like Mary Watson, health-and-wellness intertwines with crime-and-justice as Watson's novel, The Cleaner, uses the mystery genre to delve into South Africa's violent past and its repercussions on post-apartheid perceptions, memories, and social relations.
