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| Vol. 18, No. 17 | Jan. 21, 1999 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 17 | Jan. 21, 1999 |
To John Jebb, acting assistant director of UD's Writing Program, mysteries or, as he prefers to call them, crime stories are more than beach, bedtime or escape reading.
Although crime stories can be fun to read, they also reflect moral and social issues, ranging from police corruption to racism, and many stand on their own merits as literature, according to Jebb.
"I've always had an interest in the South and things southern, in crime stories, and in the criminal justice system. I've been able to combine them in my research and writing," he said.
A graduate of the University of Virginia, with a master's degree from Villanova University and a doctorate from UD, Jebb wrote his dissertation on William Faulkner's detective hero, Gavin Stevens, who appeared in six Faulkner novels and eight short stories from 1931 until 1959.
Jebb incorporated his dissertation into a book, Isn't Justice Always Unfair? The Detective in Southern Literature, published in 1996, which he coauthored with another crime story aficionado, J. K. Van Dover of Lincoln University.
The title is a quote from Gavin Stevens in Faulkner's Smoke, reflecting the fact that "Justice sometimes needs a forceful, risk-taking, convention-defying champion-the detective," according to the book.
The book examines southern crime stories and detectives, from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, who invented detective fiction, to chapters entitled "The Corpse in the Country," dealing with Patricia Cornwell and others and "Miami Detectives," about the urban Florida crime scene.
In their conclusion, Jebb and Van Dover write, "The South can make at least three claims to distinction in the history of detective fiction: a Southerner, Poe, invented the genre; some of the greatest writers to exploit the genre-Poe, Twain, Faulkner-have been southern; and some of the best contemporary American detective story writers- Cornwell, Hiaasen and Burke at the very least-are southern. A student of the South could do worse than study its detective stories; a student of the detective story could do worse than study its southern authors."
Most recently, Jebb was invited to write profiles of crime story authors Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham, along with a critical overview of their works. for Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction. The encyclopedia, founded in 1996 as a reference book for libraries, reflects the importance of modern literature as a reflection of contemporary society. Profiles and book analyses discuss how different authors and books comment on social concerns. In addition, the encyclopedia provides an annotated bibliography enabling researchers to refer to the original sources.
Jebb's entry about Grisham includes a short biography, beginning with Grisham's background as a criminal lawyer. He began writing A Time to Kill early in the early mornings as an escape from the drudgery of his jobs of lawyer and state representative in Mississippi. His next book, The Firm, took off and began his successful literary career.
The article also deals with Grisham's publishing history in terms of his popularity and financial success. Jebb writes, "Grisham attracts almost no scholarly attention. Highbrow critics seem suspicious of him for his popularity and for his ties to genre.... The most balanced assessments...admit that Grisham's work has the expected limitation of genre, yet further admit that he has something special."
In addition to his biographical excerpt on Patricia Cornwell, Jebb wrote an analysis of her 1997 novel, Unnatural Exposure, and her heroine, Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner of Virginia, who has figured in Cornwell's series.
"Cornwell's novels address how the crime fighters adjust psychologically and emotionally," according to Jebb. "The challenge is to balance their reactions: They must not become so outraged that they cannot do their jobs, nor so professional that they become callused."
One of the social issues that is discussed throughout Cornwell's novels is the role of the professional woman. In the earlier novels, Cornwell writes about Scarpetta's "precarious status" in the male hierarchy and the glass ceiling. Later novels deal with her relationship with other successful women in the world of science. As Jebb points out, Cornwell "populates her novel with female scientists who function as literary role models" and concludes that Cornwell is "as effective a chronicler of bureaucratic politics as she is of criminal investigation."
-Sue Swyers Moncure
