Jenifer’s Shelter Island Journal: Mystery Season

Fall is now a day old , and though it brings football, and tailgate parties and the convivial abundance of Thanksgiving, it seems to me that autumn is really “mystery season.”

Yes, blizzards, or summer thunderstorms, or the ironic innocence of a lovely spring day, all provide provocative settings in which mysteries could unfold, but no backdrop can really rival the theatrical magic of a season that, with operatic magnificence, right before our eyes, replaces ravishing life with ravishing death. 

I mean, come on. Just the onset of an early dusk, the breeze edged with a sudden autumnal chill, dead leaves for a moment re-animated to dance down empty streets — it’s enough to shiver a spine. 

There’s nothing more fascinating to humans than death, the greatest mystery of all, as long as we can keep it at a safe distance, confined to a scary movie or under an afghan, in a cozy rendezvous with an Agatha Christie murder mystery.  In 2022, at a time when overall book sales were suffering a 6.5% decline, a National Publishers’ Data Bookscan report had this to say: “Mystery publishers, however, attribute much of their recent success to a robust demand for traditional cozies. ‘Cozies are definitely blowing up right now,’ observes Oceanview Publishing CEO Bob Gussin …. Readers are finding a safe harbor in mysteries. People love consistency, familiarity, charm, and humor. That’s the type of stuff that warms readers’ hearts and makes them want to come back time and time again,’ says Crooked Lane Books publisher, Matt Martz. ‘We’ve seen support for medium-boiled mysteries — not too gory, gritty, or dark. You might come to a crime scene, but they’re not going to overdo it.’ Readers continue to take comfort in the classic elements of the cozy mystery. ‘Traditional, small-cast, locked-door-style mysteries are very popular right now,’ echoes Virginia Stanley, of HarperCollins …‘ I still watch a lot of Agatha Christie when I want to veg out. I like doing crime fiction in the past. Writing about right now is stressful,’ says creator Ed Brubaker. ‘It’s such a strange time for humanity. It’s much better to look at the 1980s. Escapism is a really valid thing.’”

Of course, that 2022 report reflected the effects of the pandemic and people’s need to find comforting, safe-space activities to engage in.  By the time that report was issued, however, things had already begun to change.

In this country, at any rate, massive global threats like COVID had begun to take a backseat to home-grown anxieties regarding the seeming decline in the health of our national institutions.  The structures of government, that once had been seen as indestructible, suddenly showed signs of cracking.  Already popular, true crime stories in print and on television began to be inhaled by audiences who — if they’re anything like me — had begun to feel, especially after Jan. 6, like they themselves were trapped in a mystery, reminded daily that they and their country were, and are, under increasing threat but not having a clue how to “solve” it. 

Bloody and graphic, mega-popular true crime shows like “Dateline” and “48 Hours,” that aren’t your mother’s “Murder, She Wrote,” have been joined by countless other contenders all across cable-land in order to feed the public’s insatiable appetite for real crimes that, mostly, anyway, get solved. 

At its core, it represents a longing for truth, justice and the American way that seems to be vanishing.  

Our culture itself is beginning to respond.  From that same year, 2022, the following is a bulletin from Ramapo College in New Jersey: “The State’s public liberal arts college, today launched the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center (IGG Center), the first Center of its kind to offer case work, research, and hands-on education in investigative genetic genealogy. The vision of the innovative new Center is to secure justice through the ethical and proficient use of investigative genetic genealogy to support the resolution of cases involving wrongful convictions, unidentified human remains, and violent crime. The first class of students in the Center’s IGG Certificate Program will enroll in the Spring of 2023.”

And, in a recent update, “As of September 2025, the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Center has helped resolve numerous cold cases since its founding in late 2022. A full list of resolved cases is not publicly available, but multiple news reports… confirm several notable successes between 2023 and 2025. These include identifying human remains in Arizona, exonerating an individual in Wisconsin, and solving a historic New Jersey case.”

So “solving” is going on somewhere in this mystery season, and “justice” may prevail for some, but for others of us, the conundrum remains: Is this or isn’t this America?  For still others, just solving the mystery of where they put their keys will be enough.