twenty rules for writing detective stories”

Your California Privacy Rights. There must be but one culprit, no matter how many murders are committed. If there is more than one detective the reader doesn't know who his co-deductor is. A crime in a detective story must never turn out to be an accident or a suicide. Click here to explore some of our most popular posts. Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories by S. S. Van Dine. 3. is a game. 16. International plottings and war politics belong in a different category of fiction--in secret-service tales, for instance. No willful tricks or deceptions may be placed on the reader other than those played legitimately by the criminal on the detective himself. 4. There must be but one detective — that is, but one protagonist of deduction — one deus ex machina. The problem of the crime must he solved by strictly naturalistic means. ))), 20. 19. (g) The hypodermic syringe and the knockout drops. The bogus spiritualistic sÈance to frighten the culprit into giving himself away. There will inevitably be a certain number of them just as shrewd as the author; and if the author has shown the proper sportsmanship and honesty in his statement and projection of the crime and its clues, these perspicacious readers will be able, by analysis, elimination and logic, to put their finger on the culprit as soon as the detective does. It is a too easy solution. To wit: The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. A reader has a chance when matching his wits with a rationalistic detective, but if he must compete with the world of spirits and go chasing about the fourth dimension of metaphysics, he is defeated ab initio. But a murder story must be kept gemütlich, so to speak. Secret societies, camorras, mafias, et al., have no place in a detective story. It’s false pretenses. S.S. Van Dine’s twenty rules for writing detective stories *Those seem quite interesting. It is more — it is a sporting event. 8. All clues must be plainly stated and described. Makes sense to me.))). There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better. To be sure, the murderer in a detective novel should be given a sporting chance; but it is going too far to grant him a secret society to fall back on. Such crimes belong to the routine work of the Homicide Bureaus. The dog that does not bark and thereby reveals the fact that the intruder is familiar. His function is to gather clues that will eventually lead to the person who did the dirty work in the first chapter; and if the detective does not reach his conclusions through an analysis of those clues, he has no more solved his problem than the schoolboy who gets his answer out of the back of the arithmetic. But a murder story must be kept gem¸tlich, so to speak. Such methods for learning the truth as slate-writing, ouija-boards, mind-reading, spiritualistic se’ances, crystal-gazing, and the like, are taboo. The final pinning of the crime on a twin, or a relative who looks exactly like the suspected, but innocent, person. This is begging a noble question. Three hundred pages is far too much pother for a crime other than murder. It’s like making the reader run a race with a relay team. His function is to gather clues that will eventually lead to the person who did the dirty work in the first chapter; and if the detective does not reach his conclusions through an analysis of those clues, he has no more solved his problem than the schoolboy who gets his answer out of the back of the arithmetic. They have been employed too often, and are familiar to all true lovers of literary crime. This is begging a noble question. 15. He can no more resort to trickeries and deceptions and still retain his honesty than if he cheated in a bridge game. The truth of the problem must at all times be apparent — provided the reader is shrewd enough to see it. After all, the reader’s trouble and expenditure of energy must be rewarded. The culprit must be a decidedly worth-while person — one that wouldn’t ordinarily come under suspicion. This is begging a noble question. There must be but one culprit, no matter how many murders are committed. Take that, Le Carre. And one of my basic theories of detective fiction is that, if a detective story is fairly and legitimately constructed, it is impossible to keep the solution from all readers. That the clever reader does often thus solve the problem goes without saying. Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email. The detective story is a game. Such methods for learning the truth as slate-writing, ouija-boards, mind-reading, spiritualistic se’ances, crystal-gazing, and the like, are taboo.