When Whodunits Become Woke

In 1981, a 31-year-old child psychologist named Jonathan Kellerman began what would become his first published novel with an unusual goal: to write a mystery that steered clear of all of the genre’s tropes. This crime novel wouldn’t have a perpetually inebriated private eye outwitting an inept police detective, nor would there be a comely girlfriend whose only role was to provide the wisecracking sleuth with food and sex.