“R” is for Romance–A to Z Blogging Challenge 2022

My topic for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge is

Elements of Crime Fiction

My topic for today is:

ROMANCE

A thread of romance runs parallel to the main story in many detective novels. A love interest can blossom between amateur sleuths or suspects or witnesses.

Some detectives are portrayed as being suave and handsome so that an attraction develops with a young woman involved in a case. Two examples are Ngaio Marsh’s characters Inspector Alleyn and Troy and Dorothy Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.

Georgette Heyer is an author better known for her Regency romance novels. She has also written several detective stories. Nearly all of these have a subplot of a romance. Similarly M.M.Kaye (famous for her period novels) had crime fiction flavoured with love stories to her credit.

Agatha Christie’s detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple often end up playing cupid while solving crimes in their respective series. Sherlock Holmes makes the path of true love smoother by sorting out puzzling problems.

For me, a light hearted romance makes a mystery novel even more fun. I don’t like the dark kind of modern psychological thrillers so much.