Crime Seen

In a parallel universe (also known as the state of California), private investigator Philip Marlowe, of Raymond Chandler’s masterpiece novel THE BIG SLEEP, tells us: “I watched him out of sight and went up the central walk of the La Baba and parted the branches of the third cypress. I drew out a wrapped book and put it under my arm and went away from there. No one yelled at me.”

This is not that book. Also, no cypress tree.

Still, no one yelled at any of us when we decided to wrap up the twenty-two pieces of writing we had artistically imagined as part of our spring 2022 creative expressions English Department course at Hunter College known in the vernacular as “Playing Detective” but listed more classically by the college’s Office of the Registrar as “English 25145 / Survey of Detective Fiction.”

CRIME SEEN’s puzzle products, created by seventeen sophomores, juniors, and seniors, were incited by instructor Robert Eidelberg’s list of twenty-five ideas for “creative constructions” in, on, and about detective fiction, with drafts studiously revised, rewritten, and edited following collegial feedback from the course’s Dr. Watson-type “sidekicks.”

We hope we’ve gotten you so curious that you will enter our crime scenes and enjoy our examples of crime seen.