Hello everyone
Did you know there are rules to writing crime fiction? Some even call these commandments.
Golden Age
The rules came about during the Golden Age of detective fiction (the time of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, and G K Chesterton, among others) and were codified by Roland Knox (another Golden Age author, and coincidentally, a Roman Catholic priest).
Behind the rules was a feeling of fairness to the reader: there was the notion that the reader should be able to identify the murderer at the same time as the detective. The clues should be there, even if reader didn’t notice a clue or fell for the author’s misdirection.
Modern Novels
Modern novels are very different from Golden Age novels, and reader expectations have changed over the past century. Generally, modern novels are more tightly plotted and readers are expected to take fewer leaps of belief. And for novels set in modern times, the nature of crime and forensics has also greatly changed leading to different methods of detection.
However there is still a place for these rules.
The Rules
At this point I should warn you that (at least) one of these rules may be—to use current jargon—problematic.
So…those rules:
- The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.
- All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of = Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
- No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
- No Chinaman must figure in the story.
- No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
- The detective himself must not commit the crime.
- The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover.
- The “sidekick” of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind: his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
- Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.
While some of these notions are rather archaic, I’m sure you’ll recognize how many modern novels follow these rules and how they make a story more satisfying for the reader. You’ll probably also notice how many modern novels completely ignore these rules (often several rules simultaneously)…and suffer no consequences for that transgression.
Concerns
On the face of it, the rule that no Chinaman must figure is troubling.
However, as I understand, this rule was motivated as a reaction against the use of racial stereotypes—a frequent racial stereotype at the time being the use of characters with East Asian ancestry, particularly in the role of villains. In today’s context the rules would probably be written to prohibit any racial (or other minority) stereotype in an antagonist’s role.
And to Close
I can’t leave without mentioning Ukraine. There are not words to describe my feelings: for those in Ukraine, for those with family, friends, and colleagues in the country, my thoughts go out to you.
I hope if you have a chance to make life better for any of the people of Ukraine, you take that opportunity.
I’ll be back in April. Until then.
All the best
Simon