Captivating world of mystery novels, spy thrillers

It's difficult for many compulsive readers to wean themselves off detective novels or crime thrillers even in their mature age. It's only the aficionados of this genre of books who can feel the passion generated by these publications, dubbed by many pseudo novels. The habit of remaining obsessed with detective novels is universal. Lots of would-be serious readers eventually turn to mainstream books of literature. Once they savour the taste of the aesthetic aspects of books, most of them hardly turn back to recollect their teenage time or youth's irresistible passion for thrillers. Many of them do. A section of readers cannot earn the ability to completely extricate themselves from their 'crime thrillers' era'. On the other hand, the love for detective fictions is found among even serious writers.
Edgar Allan Poe, one of the greatest short story writers of all time, has written quite a few murder mysteries. Graham Greene, a major British novelist of the 20th century, wrote a number of mysteries. Critics do not call them inferior in any respect to Greene's literary masterpieces. All of those have been found on the lists of best-selling books over a long time. The detective and mystery novels comprise a distinctive branch in Bangla literature. Their writers began emerging in the early 20th century. The Bangladeshi poets Shamsur Rahman, Shaheed Qadri and a few others were fans of crime thrillers --- especially those by the British writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976). Many English-proficient younger authors are also among the passionate lovers of these novels. Researchers trace the history of Bangla detective novels to the early 20th century. The tradition was pioneered by Panchkari Dey, to be followed by his contemporaries and the later authors.
Unlike in any literature in the languages of the sub-continent, the Bengal region saw the unhindered growth of a rich tradition of detective novels. The emergence of a dozen mystery writers almost at a time proved a unique event. Surprisingly, these writers included also Rabindranath Tagore who had a latent passion for things mysterious and filled with suspense. His 'Khudhito Pashan' (The Hungry Palace) is considered one of the finest short stories in Bangla. In the later years after the emergence of modernism, the Bangla literature welcomed a group of authors who broke new frontiers in the content and form of detective novels. In place of the formula tale of a mystery murder, the detective locating a series of suspects, then following their activities, and finally exposing the real culprit in a dramatic exposure, many writers picked the analytical style. This genre remained focused on the dissection of the culprits' or the killers' mind. Writers in these works complete the job of the climactic exposition of the prime suspect's identity at the story's very beginning. The rest of the story remains busy dissecting the plot and other characters.
However, the average writers preferred the conventional method of the plot's progress to the analytical style. In line with this, the Bangla mystery-murder novelists were seen sticking to the age-old formula of identifying the criminal. They thought it to be the prime job of their sleuths. These writers include Sharadindu Bandyopaddhay, Satyajit Ray, Niharranjan Gupta, Swapan Kumar et al. The detectives appeared in their novels under the names of Byomkesh Boksi, Feluda, Kiriti Roy and Dipak Chatterjee. Popular novelist of Bangladesh Humayun Ahmed discovers a probing and analytical character in Misir Ali. The mysterious character has a psychiatrist's bent of mind.
Arthur Konan Doyl's Sherlock Holms and Dr Watson follow the conventional path of solving murder mysteries. Coming away from the beaten track, Agatha Christie turned to measuring the depths of the criminal minds. In this intricate job, she appeared in the guises of mainly Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. The female British author of detective novels reached the zenith of her fame and popularity while she was in her middle age. Her lucid prose style reminds one of the narrative richness of D. H. Lawrence. The author of 66 novels and 14 short story collections --- a number of them made into movies, Agatha Christie is also acclaimed as a mainstream British writer. Her books include Murder on the Orient Express (1934), The ABC Murders (1934), Death on the Nile (1937), Crooked House (1949), A Murder is Announced (1950), Endless Night (1967) and a lot of other rivetting ones. There is another branch of detective novels called espionage fictions. These fictions were exclusively based on inter-country spying during regional or international stalemates between superpowers, or the countries backed by either the Western or the then Soviet bloc during the Cold War. In common perception, it is Ian Fleming who is considered the pioneer of spy thrillers. In reality, the credit goes to James Ferimore Cooper who wrote the world's first espionage novel. Titled 'The Spy', it came out in 1821. Its plot is set against the background of Europe in the pre-WW-1 days. Many also call John le Carre the spy novels' pioneer. His book 'The Deadly Affair' came out in 1960.
The fact is Ian Fleming is the trailblazer of the modern Western genre of spy thrillers. His first book came out in 1953. The name of his secret agent --- James Bond, has over the years turned a metonymy for espionage novels. Bond's British bosses have assigned him missions to launch various types of operations against the installations in the ex-USSR, now Russia. Almost all the 12 Bond novels have won a global readership, with many of them turning into box-office smashing movies. The Fleming novels include Casino Royale (1953 and 2006), Dr No (1958), Goldfinger (1959), Live and Let Die (1954) and From Russia with Love (1957). The actors who have earned enormous fame by being cast in the role of James Bond, the secret agent, are Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Daniel Craig, Timothy Dalton and a few others.
Although limited to the Bengalees in Bangladesh, a spy thriller series earned thousands of readers in the country. The series is known after the name of its highly smart, innovative and devil-may-care hero Masud Rana. Its late creator Kazi Anwar Hossain was adept at creating the Bangladesh version of a secret agent. Despite the fact that he had reportedly taken a lot from overseas thrillers to trans-create the Bangladeshi spy, his deft exploitation of the plots and the use of a racy prose turned the Masud Rana series into a veritable craze among the young Bangladeshi thriller fans. Brought first to the young readers in the early 1960s, the rookie Masud Rana was slowly transformed into a seasoned spy or agent in a decade. As he proved himself to be a mature hero, the author sent him on daring assignments to hostile territories of the time.
On occasions, the Bangladeshi secret agent had to make his way through formidably set up enemy columns. It can be compared to scenarios found in thrillers written by overseas writers. Notwithstanding the Kolkata authors' excellence in writing conventional detective fictions, few of them have ever tried their luck in the area of espionage fictions. However, Bangla translations of Western spy thrillers have long created a wide market in West Bengal. In comparison, Bangladesh has a full-fledged locally born secret agent. But the country has yet to have its fiction-based detective personalities.

shihabskr@ymail.com