Sinclair Lewis .... Upton Sinclair .... and..... Jane Haddam?

Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, and…. Jane Haddam?

Yes.

Lewis and Sinclair used the novel to take readers beyond the façade of our society to reveal and explain issues not easily seen, understood, and often ignored. Jane Haddam does the same with complex interpersonal and social issues that exist in today’s world.

She takes readers to a prep school campus where scholarship is confused with intelligence; to a movie location where actors gain public attention with behavior instead of talent; to a small town where local residents look with scorn and resentment at a fellow native who achieves success on a national scale. The rest of Haddam's plots are as varied as these three examples.

For readers who want murder, Haddam includes one. Sometimes, there are two, or even more. To solve these crimes, she had created the character, Gregor Demarkian, a former head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, now retired, and living in Philadelphia. He is not a private detective. He abhors the concept. He is a crime consultant. Sometimes, he gets paid, sometimes, he does not.

This character, oft called an American-Armenian Hercule Poirot, has been the central character in Haddam’s work through twenty-seven novels since his first appearance in NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, published in 1990. At times, Demarkian’s demeanor could be compared to Colombo, the TV character portrayed by the late Peter Faulk. They both think a lot faster and deeper than outwards appearances convey.

However, readers should be prepared for much more than a murder on page four, fourteen, or at the latest, page forty-four, with the rest of the book devoted to a simplified process of determining whodunit. The crimes with which Demarkian becomes involved are not simple ones.

People impacted by the crimes have other daily issues to face, ones not erased, but often exacerbated by the situation. There may be a direct connection between these issues, or maybe not. This is the beauty of Haddam’s writing, part of the puzzle. It is Demarkian’s task to look at the crime, look at the issues, and sort through them to identify the guilty party. It’s this aspect of the novels that elevate them above the average whodunit.

While the author mixes social issues with murder, she does not hit the reader over the head with a point of view. She uses Demarkian, with his slow, questioning, but always-focused thoughts and questions, to shine a light on them. They become a natural part of his investigation. This approach not only presents elements of the issues, but their potential consequences that the reader might never consider on his or her own.

Those who open a Haddam novel should not expect an easy read. She is one of the few novelists writing today who appears to have experienced enough of life to understand the human condition at its deepest roots. And she is one of the few with the talent to pass on to the reader what she has come to know through that experience.