More specifically, fear in these mysteries and thrillers is linked to race, either in the form of racism or even cultural difference. Regardless of the guise it takes, each of these books wields fear in an intriguing way connected to issues around race or ethnicity. In a way, it makes sense: we are living during a time when the U.S. (among other places) is grappling hard with its own systemic racism. Whether you understand our current moment as a settler-colonial reality (as per Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion) or the manifestation of a racial caste system (as per Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents), the fact remains that race is a central concern today (not that it hasn’t been before). However, the books on this list explore race through fiction. They have just as many ideas, histories, and theories embedded in them as the rich tapestry of nonfiction work being published on race right now, they just happen to use fear as the inroads into such ideas. Just as Claudia Rankine works to open up space for dialogue about race and racism in Just Us: An American Conversation, so do all of these books tap into the potentials of genre — specifically, mysteries and thrillers — to create space for reflection (and maybe a conversation or two). I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
