#intuitionist detective novel

[puutterings]

idle theories or chimerical clues, and the wide world in which to forget it all

        “...and working along that line without blundering into irrelevant issues, I have arrived at the infallible conclusion.”       “Yes, sir,” said McCarty. “Have you got the man?”       Terhune frowned.       “That will come,” he announced shortly. “The process of ratiocination alone would disclose him in time, but we shall not adopt so lengthy and crude a measure. The objective side of crime is particularly amenable to scientific analysis, and with that objective firmly fixed in the mind the solution presents no difficulties to the expert intelligence.”       “I’ve no doubt of it in the world,” agreed McCarty [189] in haste. Of course, me being an outsider and belonging to the old school that’s past with these wonderful new scientific discoveries you’re master of, sir, it’s that interesting I can’t keep my mind from it.”       “That is natural,” Terhune acknowledged generously. “I like to ssee a man without prejudice toward innovations which he is not mentally equipped to grasp in their full practical significance.”       A dull red appeared behind McCarty’s ears, but he shifted to the other foot and asked naïvely:       “Then you’ve no objections, Mr. Terhune, to me puttering around a little and asking a few questions of some of the witnesses, just to satisfy my own mind? I’ll not be bothering you, or interfering with the real investigation, but you know we old fellows like to pull in the harness now and again.”       Terhune waved his hand airily.       “Go as far as you like, my dear McCarty! Come to me with what puzzles you have some time when I’m not so busy, and I’ll set you straight.”       “Thank you, sir,” McCarty hesitated. “I was thinking of having a bit of a talk with Mrs. Doremus and maybe that girl of hers, this afternoon. Of course if you’d rather I didn’t, sir, thinking I might upset your plans, or want me to wait till you can be along, too — —”       “My good man,” Terhune turned with an air of amused impatience, “my plans are not susceptible to change because of anything you may be able to discover. Go to her by all means, and ask what you please, but please don’t bother me with any conclusions you may reach. I am concentrating upon this from a scientific standpoint, and my attention must not be even momentarily deflected from it by idle theories or chimerical clues. Run along, Mac, and investigate to your heart’s content.” ₁

      Storm thumped his pillow viciously. Dogs had been kicked from the path before and would be again! There, within reach of his hand behind the panel lay the price of all that he asked of the future! A little more of George Holworthy’s puttering solicitude, of Nicholas Langhorne’s sleek patronage and domineering authority, a week or two still perhaps of the mask of mourning, the treadmill of the office, the dodging of hypocritical, unctuous sympathy over Leila’s loss; and then freedom! Freedom at last and the wide world in which to forget it all. ₂

      sources (both by Isabel Ostrander)

1 The Clue in the Air : A Detective Story, by Isabel Ostrander / author of Suspense, At 1:30, Etc. / frontispiece by Paul Stahr (Grosset & Dunlap,; copyright W. J. Watt & Company, 1917) : 189 : link (Harvard copy) a different Harvard copy, better view of frontispiece illustration, and showing W. J. Watt on title page (along with his distinctive logotype, via hathitrust) : link

a funny (long and interesting) “review” at goodreads : link

and, on this and other fiction by Ostrander, Mike Grost, at mysteryfile :       The opening of Isabel Ostrander’s The Clue in the Air (1917) is a full intuitionist detective novel. There is a Dying Message. There is a description of a whole apartment building, and the suspects living on various floors and corners — a description that could have served as a blueprint for the many Golden Age novels which have elaborate floor plans in their stories. link (22 January 2009)

2 Ashes to Ashes by Isabel Ostrander / Author of “The Island of Intrigue”, “Suspense” “The Clue in the Air” etc. (Robert M. McBride & Co., 1919) : 195 : link same (Harvard copy, via hathitrust) : link BPL copy via archive.org : link

summary, commentary, and great photo of dustjacket art at deadyesterday (October 14, 2018) : link that dustjacket is one of a uniform group of six Ostrander titles, viewable at/via gallica.org : link from the Bibliothèques spécialisées de la Ville de Paris

published by Hurst & Blackett, (London, 1921) ?  

Isabel Ostrander (1883-1924) wikipedia : link

see PulpFlakes for a thoroughly researched (and interesting) essay on Ostrander (24 October 2020) : link continued (31 October 2020) with a story on Ostrander’s blind detective, Damon Gaunt : link and, relatedly, “The first blind detective in modern English fiction” (a3 October 2020) : link  

[souldagger]

9, 22, 29 for the book asks?

9. Favorite detective novel(s).

a master of djinn by p. djeli clark and the intuitionist by colson whitehead <3 i have a weakness for detectives placed in scifi/fantasy contexts

22. Favorite example of a Chosen One trope in a book.

i'm on the fence on whether Tarisai counts as a chosen one or not, but i'm gonna go with raybearer by jordan ifueko!

29. How many books do you have on your 'to-be-read' list?

um.

[amrv-5]

taking The Intuitionist to the cafe for noir inspiration cause it’s the closest thing I own to a detective novel

[theliterarybug]

Afro-Futurism/Afro-Fantasy Fiction

Afrofuturism, a term coined in the 1990s by Mark Dery in his article “Black to the Future,” describes music, literature, and art that contains elements of science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, historical fiction, Afrocentricity, and non-Western cosmologies. The genre primarily critiques past and present dilemmas faced by people of color, while also imagining futures for those groups that stem from the experiences of cultures formed as a result of the historical African diaspora.

--Barnes and Nobles Genre Primer

Children’s Fiction

Bayou Magic Jewell Parker Rhodes

Ten-year-old Maddy  on a visit  with her grandmother begins to realize that she may be the only sibling to carry on the gift of her family's magical legacy.

The Ear, The Eye and The Arm by Nancy Farmer

Three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for  General Matsika's three children that  are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine In 2194 in Zimbabwe.

Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor

Nnamdi has vowed to avenge his father who was murdered, but he doubts his abilities. A mysterious encounter at night, u a magical object that gives him super powers, and a charge to use those powers for good changes his life forever.

Malice in Ovenland by  Micheline Hess

Home for the summer Lily Brown has amazing adventures using  her kitchen oven.

Maya and The Rising Dark by Rana Barron

12-year-old Maya discovers that her missing father has been protecting a supernatural boundary between worlds.

Sci-Fu by Yehudi Mercado

Wax mistakenly  summons a UFO that sends him to a robot-dominated planet of Discopia. Wax and his friends  must learn the intergalactic musical martial art of Sci-Fu to save Earth.

Adult Fiction

Biniti:  The Complete Triology  by Nnedi Okorafor

The adventures of Binti first of the Himba people to attend  oozema university.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf (Book 1) by Marlon James

A  Tracker joins a searches for a mysterious boy who disappeared three years before but us targeted by deadly creatures.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The historian of the water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slaves thrown overboard by slavers keeps all the memories of her people both painful and miraculous, until she discovers that their future lies in returning to the past.

The Fifth Season (Book 1) by N.K. Jemisin

Vengeful Essun pursues her husband who killed their son and took their him across  a dangerous landscape.

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead

A black female elevator inspector must prove that her method of inspection by intuition, as opposed to visual observation, is not at fault when an elevator in a new city building crashes.

Minion: A Vampire huntress legend by L.A. Banks

Damali Richards  must discovered  who is  behind the brutal murders that have stunned thepolice  and her.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

An eighteen-year-old African American woman inherits a trait that causes her to feel others' pain as well as her own, flees northward from her small community and its desperate savages.

Rosewater (The Wormwood Trilogy Series Book 1) by Tade Thompson

When something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro  a government agent must earch for an answer.

Young Adult Fiction

The Beast Made of Night (Book 1) by Tochi Beast Onyebuchi

Taj, a talented aki, or sin-eater he must fight to save the princess he loves and his own life.

Children of Blood and Bone (Book1) by Tomi Adeyemi

Zelie embarks on a journey alongside her brother and a fugitive princess to restore her people's magical abilities.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

A supernatural teen shunned by her superstitious community because of her differences  is invited to fight for the emperor in an all-woman army.

Given by Nandi Taylor

Yenni  whio has never been away from home must find the cure for her father’s wasting illness.

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

Tarisai who is raised alone longs for the closeness she could have as one of the Crown Prince's Council of 11, but her  he is  forced to kill the Crown Prince.

Shuri: A Black Panther Novel by Nic Stone

Shuri must  travelfrom Wakanda to discover what is killing the plants her people depend on for their survival.

Steeplejack by A.J. Hartley

17-year-old Anglet Sutonga investigates the death of a young apprentice while caring for her sister's baby against a backdrop of racial tensions, political secrets and a stolen historical icon.

The Sunbird by Elizabeth Wein

Young Telemakos travels to the kingdom's salt mines to discover the identity of the traitor to the crown who, ignoring the emperor's command, is spreading plague with the salt from port to port.

Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafer

Zahrah, a timid thirteen-year-old girl, undertakes a dangerous quest into the Forbidden Greeny Jungle to seek the antidote for her best friend after he is bitten by a snake, and finds knowledge, courage, and hidden powers along the way.

47 by Walter Moser

Number 47, a fourteen-year-old slave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832, meets the mysterious Tall John, who introduces him to a magical science and also teaches him the meaning of freedom.

[dakotadanger]

Elevator inspector is a government position of high importance. For an entire city of tall buildings, vertical transportation is essential. Lila Mae Watson, the first black female inspector in the city, is blamed for a catastrophic failure, total freefall, in a prestigious new building. She’s a member of the intuitionist school of elevator inspectors, who operate by feeling and sensing problems in the car and cables. They’re opposed by the empiricists, and with a department election coming up, the crash is heavily politicized.

Watson tries to get to the bottom of the crash, and the entire field and history of elevators in the city. At the heart of her investigation is the supposed “black box” designed by her hero James Fulton, which is rumored to be the elevator of the future, the second elevation, that will change vertical transportation forever.

The Intuitionist is a detective/crime story set in a speculative world where elevators rule. I think it’s about systems, the real greed and corruption that moves the world, and how it works to suppress or capitalize on the achievements of black innovators.

I think I lost some interest when I realized it was a complicated detective novel too smart for me to solve. I didn’t have a clue about anything until Lila Mae explained it to me, so I was just along for the ride. But I liked this world of vertical transportation and quite enjoyed my time there.