"[A]s a body of critical work has begun to accumulate in this country, it becomes clear that the mystery in many ways represents a basic narrative model (it can be argued that such works as  Bleak House, Pere Goriot and Crime and Punishment are mysteries) and that writers of suspense stories and 'serious' fiction have actually carried on a dialogue for years. ... As [Umberto] Eco sees it, the impulse toward narrative abstraction reached a kind of dead end with the post-Modernists, and authors have begun now to appropriate old-fashioned storytelling techniques from the popular genres--though often, as he says, with 'non-innocent eyes.'"

--Michiko Kakutani,
   Mysteries Join the Mainstream