Marco Conelli's Blog

When traveling across America, visiting bookstores and readers of the Matthew Livingston series, my visual image always seems to be blue and yellow. That is the respective colors on the spines of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery novels that occupy much of the Young adult section of bookstores.

It never stops amazing me at how much incredible staying power these books have considering they began in the late 1920's.

For all the questions readers ask me about Matthew Livingston's resemblance to Sherlock Holmes, the series is indebted a lot to the popularity of Nancy Drew and the Hardy's.

Mysteries for young readers were always an intriguing genre and there were some great ones over the years. The concept of young men and women following clues and being smart, savvy, and brave for the sake of justice was amazing. Another series that was very popular was The Three Investigators. Three teenage friends embarked on solving hard boiled crimes while confronting dangerous criminals. Great stuff!

While embracing the spirit of these predecessors, Matthew Livingston has to exist in a world that has made a lot less sense of late and investigate crimes that prove to be diabolical and macabre. The perfect character to tackle such tall tasks is one who is himself tortured and difficult to be around. This current setting made it easy to develop the character of Matthew and make his persona so mysterious. Readers love him, hate him, and wonder about him. He is an unusual investigator but that provides him an edge to strive and survive and makes for a representative mystery series.

Looking on the shelf of a local bookstore this afternoon the blue and yellow spines stand tall. I smile as I see them as I am grateful to them. I feel like they are watching the back of Matthew Livingston.