Trying to do my research and reading published private detective novels. My question is why are they usually written in the 1st person narrative ?? This throws me completely off my game from when I decided to write a PI story haha. If 1st person is the most common (as it seems to be) I have to rethink every aspect of how to tell the story.
I'd have said it's mainly traditional - they even feel compelled to have a 1st-P narrator in the films. I guess it would have been about vividness/escapism - there is often relatively much touch/taste/smell description in PI stories, but there are some better comments than that here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/07/first-person-narrative-detective-novels I liked the point that related it to the need to fill wordcount.
I think the schtick of first person narration goes back to the Film Noir days where that genre lent itself to the device, and it provides for easy dramatic exposition. edit. It can also amplify the sense of sympathy, or antipathy, toward the narrator.
I read a lot of detective novels and mystery in general, and I'm not sure I agree that they're usually written in 1st person. It might be more common than in other genre fiction, but I find Romance tends to have more 1st person works (that I've seen, which is just anecdotal to be sure) than in private detective work. This isn't what you asked, but I write in both 1st and 3rd person, so I thought I'd share how I decide on a POV for my work. If it's a story heavy book, where the narrative arc is the most important part, I write in 3rd person (I do this for my Thriller/Suspense series and my Sci-Fi series). For books that are mostly character driven and where the character arc is the most important part, I go with 1st person to get you more into the head of that character. I do this for my Romance series. So if I was writing a detective novel, I'd ask myself if I needed the focus to be on the action/story arc, and keep that the focus and giving my self more options to see the story by being able to see from it from other characters viewpoints, or if I wanted to keep the reader tight in with the main character and watch the story progress through their eyes. Again, I know that's not what you asked, but I think it might be a helpful way to look at it.
I think it depends on the style. I know exactly the type of narrative you’re talking about, but I’d also say it relates to a very specific type of PI story. Is it Raymond Chandler that writes these typical ‘hard boiled’ PI stories? If this is the style you’re going for, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t write it in first-person, as this is part and parcel of the tone. If on the other hand you’re going for a different style, with a story that just happens to be about a PI, there’s no reason whatsoever you can’t write it in third-person.
