“It has been said that the detective story flourishes best in an age of anxiety and pessimism, simply because we then have the greater need of the solace it offers.”
– P.D. James, British novelist and politician (1920-2044)
Dame Phyllis said that in 1993. She was on to something, wasn’t she?
“Why is the mystery genre so popular? “These novels are always popular in ages of great anxiety. It’s a very reassuring form. It affirms the hope that we live in a rational and beneficent universe.”
– P.D. James, British novelist (b. 1920) 
And here’s a shot of me at 8, reading a Bobbsey Twins mystery — proving that once mystery gets its teeth into you, you’re done.