Ronald Knox: 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction
Ronald Knox was quite the eclectic fella-- a Roman Catholic priest (so of course he has to compile 10 Commandments), as well as a mystery writer who hung out with Agatha Christie and GK Chesterton in the Detection Club. He came up with these rules for mysteries, some of which (#5?) are kinda obsolete
- The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.
- All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
- 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 Chinese man 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 must not himself commit the crime.
- The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.
- The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal 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.
Well, these are fun, anyway! I have another list of TWENTY I'll post later.
2 comments:
I agree with most of his list, but I know of one brilliant fantasy/detective series where *of course* magic is part of the story. But Glen Cook introduced all the elements the reader needs for the solution to make sense.
I know- I think some of these rules are just out of date... because some good writers decided to break them, and it worked!
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