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More Commandments for Detective Fiction

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 7 months ago

More Commandments for Detective Fiction


1939 saw the publication of Ronald Knox's Ten Commandments for Detective Fiction, a light-hearted but seriously meant attempt to categorise some of the main failings of detective fiction at the time. Despite the passing of nearly seventy years, Knox’s strictures still stand up, and should be read with careful attention by every would-be author. But there are many irritating and disappointing aspects of detective fiction that Knox didn’t mention, and perhaps it’s time to add a few more commandments to the canonical ten. Here is my Decalogue. There is some overlap with Van Dine's Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories, and why not?

 

XI. There shall be no more than one independent attempt on the victim’s life at any one time. In other words, if Mr. X is planning to stab Dr Y for stealing his wife, he shan’t attempt to do it, by sheer chance, at exactly the same moment that Miss Z is trying to poison Dr Y to cover up her defalcations. Only when circumstances dictate it – when Dr Y is just about to go overseas, or into jail, say – is it permissible to have two or more simultaneous unrelated murder attempts.

 

XII. Characters in the story shall not break everyday rules of moral behaviour unless they have been shown to have reasons to do so. In other words, it is acceptable to have the chauffeur blackmail the murderer when the chauffeur is known to be hard up, or a cad. It is not acceptable to announce casually: “Oh, by the way, the chauffeur was blackmailing the murderer,” as if this was one of the normal and accepted duties of chauffeurs.

 

XIII. The detective and his or her associates shall not suffer as a result of taking on the investigation – they are not to be shot, badly injured, severely poisoned, or lose their lovers, spouses or positions. It is the thriller hero who follows his or her emotional commitment into wildly dangerous circumstances. The detective is merely a representative of the impersonal forces of reason and justice and should have no stake in the case other than a desire to see justice carried out. Justice is too important to hang on the arbitrary outcome of a gunfight.

 

XIV. It is the detective’s business to eliminate suspects, not the author’s. No character shall be automatically excluded from suspicion because of their sex, race, position, socio-economic background or level of education. Evidence indicating poetic tendencies, literacy and clean hands will not be taken to exclude the scullery-maid without further investigation taking place. Where the evidence indicates that the murderer is, say, left-handed, consideration will be given by the detective as to how that might have been faked by a right-handed murderer. No detective shall ever say “S/He’s not that sort of person,” or “It’s not that sort of crime.”

 

XV. No character in a detective story shall ever say: “My goodness, this is just like a detective story”, or “That might happen in detective stories, but this is real life”, or anything remotely similar.

 

XVI. A fully-grown corpse is a heavy, cumbersome and noticeable object. Plots should not rely on corpses being rapidly whisked from place to place under the noses of the police, dragged great distances or distorted into unlikely positions, unless the victim is freakishly small or the murderer has access to the services of a circus strongman.

 

XVII. The detective must get it right. The reader who has spent 200 pages breathlessly following the ratiocinations of the Great Detective is entitled to see them proven correct. The detective story that abruptly swerves off at the end to provide another solution altogether is an insult to the detective and the reader. Of course the detective can make mistakes; but these mistakes must be corrected by the detective, not by the author.

 

XVIII. Children and animals are out of bounds. The killing or serious maltreatment of children and animals is not a suitable subject for entertainment. The most appropriate murder victim is someone who clearly has it coming, but innocent adults are acceptable.

 

XIX. The identification of the criminal at the end of the book should clearly show not only why and how they did it, but why none of the other suspects could have done it. The arbitrary selection of one candidate out of many is not acceptable.

 

XX. The investigation shall make progress in each chapter, even if this is only through elimination. An investigation that goes round in circles for six chapters and then stumbles upon a vital clue is not acceptable.

 

XXI. There shall be several clues. A clue is an event or description which allows the detective and the reader to reliably infer something which is not stated in the story. It sounds petty and childish to try and put a minimum on these, but the fact is that so-called detective stories have been published with one clue (e.g. The Ledger Is Kept) and no clues (e.g. Landed Gently). This needs to be severely discouraged.

 

Jon


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