Compilation of rules in writing mysteries

7/29/2019 Compilation of rules in writing mysteries

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Father Knox's Decalogue:

The Ten Rules of (Golden Age) Detective Fiction

Monsignor Ronald A. Knox (1888-1957) was a British clergyman, editor, a literary critic, a humourist and a

detective story writer himself who nicely laid out, with a gentle wit, the "ten rules" that guided detective fiction

in its so-called Golden Age. They appeared in the preface to Best Detective Stories of 1928-29, which Knox

edited. I think he was mostly joking...

1. 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.

2. All supernaural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.

4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific

explanation at the end.

5. No Chinaman must figure in the story.

6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which

proves to be right.

7. The detective must not himself commit the crime.

8. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the

reader.

9. 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.

10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.


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Top 10 Rules for Mystery Writing

Even more than writing in other genres, mystery writing tends to follow standard rules. This is because readers

of mysteries seek a particular experience: they want the intellectual challenge of solving the crime before the

detective does, and the pleasure of knowing that everything will come together in the end. Of course, the best

way of testing the mystery writing rules that follow is to read widely in the genre. See how others use them or

how and when they get away with breaking them.

1. In mystery writing, plot is everything.

Because readers are playing a kind of game when they read a detective novel, plot has to come first, above

everything else. Make sure each plot point is plausible, and keep the action moving. Don't get bogged down in

back story or go off on tangents.

2. Introduce both the detective and the culprit early on.

As the main character, your detective must obviously appear early in the book. As for the culprit, your reader

will feel cheated if the antagonist, or villain, enters too late in the book to be a viable suspect in their minds.

3. Introduce the crime within the first three chapters of your mystery novel.

The crime and the ensuing questions are what hook your reader. As with any fiction, you want to do that as

soon as possible.

4. The crime should be sufficiently violent -- preferably a murder.

For many readers, only murder really justifies the effort of reading a 300-page book while suitably testing your

detective's powers. However, also note that some types of violence are still taboo including rape, child

molestation, and cruelty to animals.

5. The crime should be believable.

While the details of the murder -- how, where, and why it's done, as well as how the crime is discovered -- are

your main opportunities to introduce variety, make sure the crime is plausible. Your reader will feel cheated if

the crime is not something that could really happen.

6. The detective should solve the case using only rational and scientific methods.

Consider this part of the oath written by G.K. Chesterton for the British Detection Club: "Do you promise that

your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please

you to bestow on them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition,

Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence, or Act of God?"

7. The culprit must be capable of committing the crime.

Your reader must believe your villain's motivation and the villain must be capable of the crime, both physically

and emotionally.

8. In mystery writing, don't try to fool your reader.


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Again, it takes the fun out. Don't use improbable disguises, twins, accidental solutions, or supernatural

solutions. The detective should not commit the crime. All clues should be revealed to the reader as the

detective finds them.

9. Do your research.

"Readers have to feel you know what you're talking about," says author Margaret Murphy. She has a good

relationship with the police in her area, and has spent time with the police forensic team. Get all essentialdetails right. Mystery readers will have read a lot of books like yours; regard them as a pretty savvy bunch.

10. Wait as long as possible to reveal the culprit.

They're reading to find out, or figure out, whodunit. If you answer this too early in the book, the reader will

have no reason to continue reading.

Mysteries: Rules of the Genre

By Kay House

Dorothy L. Sayers and the Detection Club wrote the rules that now define mystery and detective fiction. Other

authors, among them S. S. Van Dine,[i] proposed their own sets of rules, but the Detection Club rules were

unusually good. They struck an elegant balance between intellectual integrity and artistic license. This,

combined with the prominence of the Detection Club members as crime authors, appears to have made them

the defining force of the genre.

Hercule Poirot, Father Brown, and Lord Peter Wimsey all owe their existence to Detection Club members.

Wimsey, of course, is Sayers' creation. Hercule Poirot came from the fertile mind of Agatha Christie, and G. K.

Chesterton wrote the Father Brown mysteries. Sayers and Chesterton wrote detective stories to support their

more scholarly work. Agatha Christie reigned as the queen of crime fiction for more than twenty years.

Despite the fact that their mysteries fell into the mystery sub-genre now called "cozies,"[ii] their combined

eminence, together with the support of the rest of the club, established a pattern for the entire mystery and

detection genre.

In 1928, the Roaring Twenties were nearing an end. World War I was over, and the Great Depression was not

yet in sight. Writer Anthony Berkeley[iii] felt a need to socialize and talk shop with other detective writers. He

suggested to Sayers, Christie, Chesterton, and others that they and other crime writers dine together from time

to time, and these meetings became regular.[iv] By 1930,[v] the meetings had become the Detection Club, and

the effects of the Great Depression had begun to make themselves felt worldwide. The Detection Club started

publishing collaborative works to raise money for their meeting place. The first of these, Behind the Screen,

was a radio serial. It aired in the summer of 1930.

Sayers appears to have drafted the Detective Club's initiation ceremony.[vi] During the ceremony, new

members take oath that they will abide by the club's rules for detective fiction. All four rules are included in

the oath. First, detectives must solve their cases by using their wits. (Authors must refrain from using divine

revelation, coincidence, and the like.) Second, the oath forbids concealing any vital clue from the reader.

Third, authors promise that gangs, super-criminals, trap doors, and similar contrivances will be used only with

"seemly moderation." Finally, poisons unknown to science are forbidden.[vii] Club members apparently took


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the rules fairly seriously. Sayers' draft wished pages swarming with misprints and continually diminishing sales

on those who broke faith.[viii]

Despite the horrible punishments wished upon violators, the Club's rules were far less restrictive than those

proposed by S. S. Van Dine.[ix] He listed twenty rules, including an absolute ban on love interests. Van Dine

insisted on a solo detective -- no partnerships allowed. He mandated murder as the only crime worth the

reader's time, and forbade the use of servants and career criminals as perpetrators. Van Dine also considered

it cheating if an apparent murder turned out to be suicide. Professor Mary Ann Gillies of Simon Fraser

University[x] lists Van Dine's rules at http://www.sfu.ca/english/Gillies/Engl38301/rules.htm.

Members of the Detection Club wrote many successful mysteries in which they broke one or more of Van

Dine's rules. One story turns out to have been narrated by the murderer. Another mystery has no murder in it

anywhere. One apparent murder turns out to have been a suicide. Two or more detectives working in tandem

solve several mysteries by Detection Club members. Van Dine's rules are somewhat redundant, and the degree

to which Detection Club members violated them with impunity is flagrant enough to incite speculation about a

possible rivalry, or at least a touch of humor. (In each of the two years before Van Dine's rules were published,

at least one Detection Club member published a story that violated "the rules according to Van Dine.")

Two rules of mystery and detective fiction are so obvious that they are seldom stated. First, some mystery or

puzzle must hamper the resolution of the story's central conflict. The second rule applies to the entire broad

genre of fictional mystery, detection, and suspense: justice must prevail in the end.

First: no puzzle, no mystery. The puzzle must be as essential to the mystery or detective story as the

speculative element is to science fiction and fantasy. If you could give away the answer to the puzzle on the

first page and still have a story left, it wouldn't be a mystery. It might be a good story, but it would no more be

a mystery than replacing six guns with laser blasters can convert a western into science fiction.

To differentiate the mystery from another kind of suspense story, try the spy story. Here, there may be no

puzzle at all; the element of suspense may come only from "what happens next?" In the spy story we usuallyknow that the enemy consists of one or more nations or criminal groups who want to steal the secret, expose

the secret, stop the defection, or keep the secret from the main character. The conflict arises from the

opposing aims of the known enemies, and the reader continues to turn the page to find out how the forces of

justice prevail.

In a mystery story, the puzzle takes center stage. The protagonist's ability to resolve the main conflict must be

hampered by missing information. In a mystery, the main character resolves the central conflict by discovering

the missing information -- usually by whom, how, and why something was done. In Ngaio Marsh's Artists in

Crime,[xi] as in many other mysteries, the puzzle is "who killed the victim." That is not, however, the only

possible puzzle for a mystery. Take, for example, Marsh's Death in a White Tie.[xii] The central puzzle is not"how does the detective bring a murderer to justice," but rather, "how can the detective stop a blackmailer

whose identity is unknown?"

Second, in every story that fits into the mystery or suspense genre, justice must prevail in the end. The secret

in a spy story need not come into the hands of the protagonist's country, but neither may it fall into the hands

of its enemies. The spy or the detective may die, but the perpetrator must not escape justice. Justice need not

be administered in court. The case need not end with an arrest, but the reader must know the solution to the


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puzzle, and the justice, whether administered privately or publicly, must seem reasonably satisfying to the

reader. Satisfaction here has two aspects: the amends or punishment must be sufficient, and it must be, at

least substantially, brought about by the efforts of the detective(s). If the reader feels that the perpetrator "got

away with it," then the story may have been a great story, but it was not a mystery. If the reader feels that the

resolution happened as a result of events outside the detective's control, the reader feels powerless and

cheated. Mysteries promise their readers that justice exists, and that they have some power to keep things

that way.

Finally, one of the items listed in both the Detection Club's rules and Van Dine's rules requires emphasis and

explanation. No essential clue may be withheld from the reader.

For example, before Sherlock Holmes deduces that Watson has come from Afghanistan, the author must

provide all the clues Holmes observes. The story must say that Watson's face is browned and his wrists pale,

that one of his arms is held stiffly, that his face looks drawn, and that his behavior has a military air.[xiii] The

author can expect readers to recognize that the likeliest explanation for a dark face and pale wrists is a suntan

on the face. The author can expect readers to realize that this tan pattern is likely to be result from working

outdoors in the tropics or in the summer. The author may assume that the reader can look it up if she or he

does not know when British Army was engaged in Afghanistan. The stiff arm, haggard face and military bearingmust not be omitted. If they are, the reader feels cheated when Holmes says, condescendingly, "Elementary,

my dear Watson."[xiv]

Mystery fans don't mind a spice of romance, a detective partnership, or an old plot device used in an original

way. Many mystery fans are perfectly happy if a mystery also qualifies as speculative fiction in any of its sub-

genres. Most of them will enjoy exotic locations and historical settings, but nearly all of them are reading

partly for the fun of trying to solve the puzzle before the detective explains it. Old Ellery Queen books typically

had the last chapter or two sealed, with a notice on the front of the sealed section that the reader had now

been given all the clues. Many mystery fans are quite capable of beating the detective to the solution, and they

legitimately expect the author to play fair in the intellectual game of providing the puzzle and explaining how

their detective solved it.

So, taking the written with the unwritten and combining two into one, we now have five rules of the genre for

writing mystery and detective fiction.

1- The solution of some mystery or puzzle must be necessary in order to resolve the central conflict.

2- The detective(s) must use only their wits and skills to solve the puzzle, and these wits and skills must

believable in the context of the story.

3- No clue that is important to the solution of the puzzle may be concealed from the reader.

4- Unusual and improbable circumstances, such as super criminals, obscure poisons, crime rings, secret

entrances, coincidences and the like, must be used infrequently and skillfully enough to be believable in the

context of the story; and finally,

5- Justice must, in one fashion or another, be brought about by the action of the detective(s).

"Twenty rules for writing detective stories" (1928)

(Originally published in the American Magazine (1928-sep),


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and included in the Philo Vance investigates omnibus (1936).

by S.S. Van Dine

(pseud. for Willard Huntington Wright)

THE DETECTIVE story is a kind of intellectual game. It is more it is a sporting event. And for the writing of

detective stories there are very definite laws unwritten, perhaps, but none the less binding; and every

respectable and self-respecting concocter of literary mysteries lives up to them. Herewith, then, is a sort Credo,

based partly on the practice of all the great writers of detective stories, and partly on the promptings of the

honest author's inner conscience. To wit:

1. The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be

plainly stated and described.

2. No willful tricks or deceptions may be placed on the reader other than those played legitimately by the

criminal on the detective himself.

3. There must be no love interest. The business in hand is to bring a criminal to the bar of justice, not to bring

a lovelorn couple to the hymeneal altar.

4. The detective himself, or one of the official investigators, should never turn out to be the culprit. This is

bald trickery, on a par with offering some one a bright penny for a five-dollar gold piece. It's false pretenses.

5. The culprit must be determined by logical deductions not by accident or coincidence or unmotivated

confession. To solve a criminal problem in this latter fashion is like sending the reader on a deliberate wild-

goose chase, and then telling him, after he has failed, that you had the object of his search up your sleeve all

the time. Such an author is no better than a practical joker.

6. The detective novel must have a detective in it; and a detective is not a detective unless he detects. 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.

7. There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better. No lesser crime

than murder will suffice. Three hundred pages is far too much pother for a crime other than murder. After all,

the reader's trouble and expenditure of energy must be rewarded.

8. The problem of the crime must he solved by strictly naturalistic means. Such methods for learning the truth

as slate-writing, ouija-boards, mind-reading, spiritualistic se'ances, crystal-gazing, and the like, are taboo. A

reader has a chance when matching his wits with a rationalistic detective, but if he must compete with theworld of spirits and go chasing about the fourth dimension of metaphysics, he is defeated ab initio.

9. There must be but one detective that is, but one protagonist of deduction one deus ex machina. To

bring the minds of three or four, or sometimes a gang of detectives to bear on a problem, is not only to

disperse the interest and break the direct thread of logic, but to take an unfair advantage of the reader. If there

is more than one detective the reader doesn't know who his codeductor is. It's like making the reader run a

race with a relay team.


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10. The culprit must turn out to be a person who has played a more or less prominent part in the story that

is, a person with whom the reader is familiar and in whom he takes an interest.

11. A servant must not be chosen by the author as the culprit. This is begging a noble question. It is a too easy

solution. The culprit must be a decidedly worth-while person one that wouldn't ordinarily come under

suspicion.

12. There must be but one culprit, no matter how many murders are committed. The culprit may, of course,have a minor helper or co-plotter; but the entire onus must rest on one pair of shoulders: the entire indignation

of the reader must be permitted to concentrate on a single black nature.

13. Secret societies, camorras, mafias, et al., have no place in a detective story. A fascinating and truly

beautiful murder is irremediably spoiled by any such wholesale culpability. 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. No high-class, self-respecting murderer would want such odds.

14. The method of murder, and the means of detecting it, must be be rational and scientific. That is to say,

pseudo-science and purely imaginative and speculative devices are not to be tolerated in the roman policier.

Once an author soars into the realm of fantasy, in the Jules Verne manner, he is outside the bounds of

detective fiction, cavorting in the uncharted reaches of adventure.

15. The truth of the problem must at all times be apparent provided the reader is shrewd enough to see it.

By this I mean that if the reader, after learning the explanation for the crime, should reread the book, he would

see that the solution had, in a sense, been staring him in the face-that all the clues really pointed to the culprit

and that, if he had been as clever as the detective, he could have solved the mystery himself without going

on to the final chapter. That the clever reader does often thus solve the problem goes without saying.

16. A detective novel should contain no long descriptive passages, no literary dallying with side-issues, no

subtly worked-out character analyses, no "atmospheric" preoccupations. such matters have no vital place in a

record of crime and deduction. They hold up the action and introduce issues irrelevant to the main purpose,

which is to state a problem, analyze it, and bring it to a successful conclusion. To be sure, there must be a

sufficient descriptiveness and character delineation to give the novel verisimilitude.

17. A professional criminal must never be shouldered with the guilt of a crime in a detective story. Crimes by

housebreakers and bandits are the province of the police departments not of authors and brilliant amateur

detectives. A really fascinating crime is one committed by a pillar of a church, or a spinster noted for her

charities.

18. A crime in a detective story must never turn out to be an accident or a suicide. To end an odyssey of

sleuthing with such an anti-climax is to hoodwink the trusting and kind-hearted reader.

19. The motives for all crimes in detective stories should be personal. International plottings and war politics

belong in a different category of fiction in secret-service tales, for instance. But a murder story must be kept

gemtlich, so to speak. It must reflect the reader's everyday experiences, and give him a certain outlet for his

own repressed desires and emotions.

20. And (to give my Credo an even score of items) I herewith list a few of the devices which no self-respecting

detective story writer will now avail himself of. They have been employed too often, and are familiar to all true

lovers of literary crime. To use them is a confession of the author's ineptitude and lack of originality. (a)


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Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with

the brand smoked by a suspect. (b) The bogus spiritualistic se'ance to frighten the culprit into giving himself

away. (c) Forged fingerprints. (d) The dummy-figure alibi. (e) The dog that does not bark and thereby reveals

the fact that the intruder is familiar. (f)The final pinning of the crime on a twin, or a relative who looks exactly

like the suspected, but innocent, person. (g) The hypodermic syringe and the knockout drops. (h) The

commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in. (i) The word association

test for guilt. (j) The cipher, or code letter, which is eventually unraveled by the sleuth.

RONALD KNOX'S DECALOGUE

Here is Fr. Ronald Knox's famous Ten Commandment list for Detective Novelists (copyright 1929 Ronald Knox

and Pope Somebody):

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 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 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.

You will note, of course, that every one of these commandments has been violated at one time or another in a

classic mystery novel.

REVISED VERSION

This is presumptuous, but here is Grobius Shortling's Revised Version:

The criminal must be somebody mentioned in the story. (This is absolutely essential, otherwise the book

cannot be called a detective story. The other bit about 'sharing thoughts' is too strict, but a writer should still

be cautious because an outright authorial deception must be avoided.)

Supernatural elements are allowable for atmospheric or plot reasons, but they must play no part in the actual

solution of the mystery.


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Secret passages or hidden rooms are all right (if the setting allows it), but do not deserve to be used as an

explanation of the murder method.

Avoid unknown Amazonian arrow poisons or newly invented Death-Ray machines, unless as an author you are

qualified (scientifically) to justify it (i.e., if Newton had written a mystery based on his laws of Optics, that

would be OK, but don't presume to invent a poison if you don't even know that aspirin can be fatal.)

Do not use 'foreigners' or other aliens as major characters unless you have some real understanding of theirculture and mind-set, and they have some relevance to the plot beyond exotic obfuscation.

Avoid accidental solutions, as they are hardly fair in a story of deduction and the presentation of real clues. And

please do not inflict on the poor reader one of those mid-book "Mon dieu, how could I not have seen that

before" exclamations which sit like undigested food until the end of the mystery.

The criminal should not be someone you have intentionally presented as totally trustworthy. (If he/she is a liar,

at least provide some clue to give the reader a chance to spot that.)

All clues must be revealed, although it is perfectly legitimate to disguise them. (But I would draw the line at

basing a clue on some misspelling of a word, American vs. British usage, for example, because most books arehardly proofread any more.)

There should but doesn't have to be a 'Watson' or some observing point of view that sees but misinterprets the

events under investigation. (Only common sense, otherwise where is the drama?)

Do not try to fool the reader with improbable impersonations, such as a woman posing as a man or vice versa

and getting away with it by consummate acting ability, especially when they are deceiving people who know

them well. (This doesn't even work in Shakespeare.) Especially avoid wigs and false whiskers!

TEN MORE COMMANDMENTS

A few more caveats based on this reviewer's prejudices (another 10 Commandments):

Do not try to confuse the reader with elaborate timetables based on train schedules, etc., as there is no

guarantee that things like that would ever work out for even the carefullest murderer. (Sod's or Murphy's Law.)

Avoid having your Prime Suspect turn out to be the culprit after all, because this is ultimately disappointing(unless you are clever enough to totally reshuffle motives and alibis).

Do not present an 'impossible crime' situation without at least attempting to verify its plausibility by

experiment. Also try to avoid using an accomplice to abet the criminal's illusion. (That's OK for stage magicians

with their assistants, but spoils a mystery plot where the villain has to deceive the detective, almost, but

without cheating. It makes a lot of sense, too, if you are a villain, not to risk collaboration.)


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The murderer should never turn out to be somebody incapable of committing the crime, at least as presented

in the lead-up (i.e., invalids in wheelchairs, morons, a person in an intensive-care ward, an astronaut who

happened to be in orbit at the time).

A conspiracy involving a hired hit-man, or a mysterious Illuminati cartel, does not belong in a true detective

novel. This also includes situations where several suspects are independently up to no good and just happen to

be on the scene at the relevant time. (Sod's Law, again, and a very mechanical manipulation of coincidence for

supposedly dramatic purposes -- this won't fool anybody and should be dismissed as mere padding.)

No faking of fingerprints or other forensic details. In spite of their portrayal, even the police a hundred years

ago were not as incompetent as they were made out to be. Nowadays, if you want to commit a murder, forget

trying such a thing, unless you can afford a good lawyer to screw up the expert witnesses at your trial!

If you are going to talk down to the reader (who is an ignoramus, whereas you are a genius), via your detective,

make sure your facts are correct. Twaddle about Egyptology (curse of the pharaoh, etc.) is unacceptable.

Informative facts about some obscure subject, however, are beneficial.

Do not present your detective as an ineffectual fool or allow him or her to show any signs of not being superior

to the reader or the 'Watson' (except to the extent that the detective can have misjudgements and

miscalculations for the sake of 'bonding' with the reader). An incompetent detective is an actor in a comedy,

not a detective story.

Get your details of real police policies and forensic science up to date as far as you can. Unless the book takes

place in the classic stranded house-party tradition, there is no way an author can get away with ignoring public

procedures, no matter how gifted the detective.

Finally, a personal peeve: Don't have a large cast of characters and refer to them all by their Christian names,

such as Evelyn, Jane, Meg, Charles, and Chris. Who in the hell are you talking about?

Grobius Shortling (July 4, 2001)

HOWARD HAYCRAFT'S RULES

A classic readers' guide was published in 1941 (Murder for Pleasure renewed 1968 Howard Haycraft) and

while dated is one of the best treatises on the subject. Haycraft's "Rules of the Game" chapter expounds in

greater detail than a simple decalogue. Here are the sub-sections (paraphrased or reinterpreted, not quoted in

full -- just to provide the flavor):

Structure and Sources: Mainly keep in mind that the plot comes first and that the actions of the characters are'retrofitted' into it, which is how a detective story differs from a crime novel where of course the characters

themselves drive the plot. Any central pivot, such as an expertise about some unusual subject, is up to the

author -- as long as it is accurate.

The Need for Unity: In other words, make the story fit the devised crime. A person -- detective, suspect, witness

-- should not act out of 'character' just because the plot demands it. In that case, it is better just to redesign the

character.


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The Detective: This is almost axiomatic -- one must have a detective who is distinctively defined, preferably a

series detective (which saves having to create a new one for each book -- easier that way both for the writer

and the reader and engenders a familiarity that ensures comfort and a market for new books). Initially defining

a detective whom readers can 'identify' with as a familiar friend is one of the hardest things, apart from

plotting, for a detective novelist to do, but once done removes the burden of re-explication.

Watson or Not?: Discouraged now because it is trite, but if you have to have one, make him a total opposite of

the detective -- e.g., Archie Goodwin vs Nero Wolfe.

Viewpoint: Standard literary practice, whatever the genre. There has to be a consistency of delivery for the

story, no matter what technique is used (first person, omniscient, point-of-view, whatever).

The Crime: There really must be a murder, or at least a major felony -- otherwise, what's the point? Who's

ripping off the hand towels at the Dorchester Hotel is hardly the business of a mystery novel.

The Title: "The best advice to the author faced with the selection of a title is not to worry about it." Having a

good title and basing the book on it is like the tail wagging the dog. 'Nuff said.

The Plot: Keep it flowing from one thing to another and don't get sidetracked into dead-ends. Well, that'scommon sense for all fiction.

"Had I But Known": That has always been a bugaboo among mystery fans since Mary Roberts Rinehart and

earlier. It is the ditzy heroine sneaking into Bluebeard's chamber even if she has been repeatedly warned not

to. It is the kid's action when told "Whatever you do, don't climb on the railway tressle." Does not belong in a

detective story. (Can be fun enough in a gothic romance or horror novel or something of the sort.)

Emotion and Drama: Of course for dramatic reasons there has to be some of this for the sake of interesting the

reader, but for the most part remember that this is a novel of detection, not a love story.

The Puzzle Element: Don't make that the whole story; this is not a crossword puzzle.

Background and Setting: Basically, the author should be familiar personally with the location. If you were in

Aruba for three hours on a cruise ship trip, don't set your novel in Aruba based on that. Use real settings when

possible, for verisimilitude, and be accurate. And, PS, don't borrow somebody else's setting, such as Wuthering

Heights.

Characters and Characterization: Not all of the players need to be fully defined -- puppet roles are fine (cops,

servants, etc.) -- but at least the detective, the murderer, and preferably the victim should be convincingly

realized. Is this obvious or what? But a lot of formula mysteries totally ignore this precept.

Style: Avoid corniness, pretentiousness, and overwriting. (Duh...)

The Devices of Detection: Don't be so elaborate as to make the dnouement incomprehensible. Beware of

ignorance of the simple rules of evidence and forensics. (Then follows a whole list of things to avoid, like

tobacco ashes, locked rooms, footprints, etc., but that is just HH's judgment based on what were clichs then. If

it works, then it's OK, right?)

Physical Boundaries: This is basically advice on how long a mystery novel or story should be. Times change --

sometimes very lengthy, sometimes very short, now lengthy again (because of the high cover cost of a book


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these days -- padding out an extra couple hundred pages, which isn't that more expensive production-wise,

makes the reader think it's worth the money).

Some General Considerations: Basically extols the existence of bodies like The Detection Club in England, which

encouraged new ventures in this genre, and was a professional forum for both established and hopeful writers.

MWA encourages this now in the US (but not so much back then).

S.S. VAN DINE'S TWENTY RULES

(Originally published in the American Magazine -- Sept. 1928)

THE DETECTIVE story is a kind of intellectual game. It is more -- it is a sporting event. And for the writing of

detective stories there are very definite laws -- unwritten, perhaps, but none the less binding; and every

respectable and self-respecting concocter of literary mysteries lives up to them. Herewith, then, is a sort Credo,

based partly on the practice of all the great writers of detective stories, and partly on the promptings of the

honest author's inner conscience. To wit:

.The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly

stated and described.

No willful tricks or deceptions may be placed on the reader other than those played legitimately by the criminal

on the detective himself.

There must be no love interest. The business in hand is to bring a criminal to the bar of justice, not to bring a

lovelorn couple to the hymeneal altar.

The detective himself, or one of the official investigators, should never turn out to be the culprit. This is bald

trickery, on a par with offering some one a bright penny for a five-dollar gold piece. It's false pretenses.

The culprit must be determined by logical deductions -- not by accident or coincidence or unmotivated

confession. To solve a criminal problem in this latter fashion is like sending the reader on a deliberate wild-

goose chase, and then telling him, after he has failed, that you had the object of his search up your sleeve all

the time. Such an author is no better than a practical joker.

The detective novel must have a detective in it; and a detective is not a detective unless he detects. 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.

There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better. No lesser crime than

murder will suffice. Three hundred pages is far too much pother for a crime other than murder. After all, the

reader's trouble and expenditure of energy must be rewarded.

The problem of the crime must he solved by strictly naturalistic means. Such methods for learning the truth as

slate-writing, ouija-boards, mind-reading, spiritualistic seances, crystal-gazing, and the like, are taboo. 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.


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There must be but one detective -- that is, but one protagonist of deduction -- one deus ex machina. To bring

the minds of three or four, or sometimes a gang of detectives to bear on a problem, is not only to disperse the

interest and break the direct thread of logic, but to take an unfair advantage of the reader. If there is more than

one detective the reader doesn't know who his codeductor is. It's like making the reader run a race with a relay

team.

The culprit must turn out to be a person who has played a more or less prominent part in the story -- that is, a

person with whom the reader is familiar and in whom he takes an interest.

A servant must not be chosen by the author as the culprit. This is begging a noble question. It is a too easy

solution. The culprit must be a decidedly worth-while person -- one that wouldn't ordinarily come under

suspicion.

There must be but one culprit, no matter how many murders are committed. The culprit may, of course, have a

minor helper or co-plotter; but the entire onus must rest on one pair of shoulders: the entire indignation of the

reader must be permitted to concentrate on a single black nature.

Secret societies, camorras, mafias, et al., have no place in a detective story. A fascinating and truly beautiful

murder is irremediably spoiled by any such wholesale culpability. 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. No high-

class, self-respecting murderer would want such odds.

The method of murder, and the means of detecting it, must be be rational and scientific. That is to say, pseudo-

science and purely imaginative and speculative devices are not to be tolerated in the roman policier. Once an

author soars into the realm of fantasy, in the Jules Verne manner, he is outside the bounds of detective fiction,

cavorting in the uncharted reaches of adventure.

The truth of the problem must at all times be apparent -- provided the reader is shrewd enough to see it. By

this I mean that if the reader, after learning the explanation for the crime, should reread the book, he would

see that the solution had, in a sense, been staring him in the face -- that all the clues really pointed to the

culprit -- and that, if he had been as clever as the detective, he could have solved the mystery himself without

going on to the final chapter. That the clever reader does often thus solve the problem goes without saying.

A detective novel should contain no long descriptive passages, no literary dallying with side-issues, no subtly

worked-out character analyses, no "atmospheric" preoccupations. Such matters have no vital place in a record

of crime and deduction. They hold up the action and introduce issues irrelevant to the main purpose, which is

to state a problem, analyze it, and bring it to a successful conclusion. To be sure, there must be a sufficient

descriptiveness and character delineation to give the novel verisimilitude.

A professional criminal must never be shouldered with the guilt of a crime in a detective story. Crimes byhousebreakers and bandits are the province of the police departments -- not of authors and brilliant amateur

detectives. A really fascinating crime is one committed by a pillar of a church, or a spinster noted for her

charities.

A crime in a detective story must never turn out to be an accident or a suicide. To end an odyssey of sleuthing

with such an anti-climax is to hoodwink the trusting and kind-hearted reader.

The motives for all crimes in detective stories should be personal. International plottings and war politics

belong in a different category of fiction -- in secret-service tales, for instance. But a murder story must be kept


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gemuctlich, so to speak. It must reflect the reader's everyday experiences, and give him a certain outlet for his

own repressed desires and emotions.

And (to give my Credo an even score of items) I herewith list a few of the devices which no self-respecting

detective story writer will now avail himself of. They have been employed too often, and are familiar to all true

lovers of literary crime. To use them is a confession of the author's ineptitude and lack of originality. (a)

Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with

the brand smoked by a suspect. (b) The bogus spiritualistic seance to frighten the culprit into giving himself

away. (c) Forged fingerprints. (d) The dummy-figure alibi. (e) The dog that does not bark and thereby reveals

the fact that the intruder is familiar. (f)The final pinning of the crime on a twin, or a relative who looks exactly

like the suspected, but innocent, person. (g) The hypodermic syringe and the knockout drops. (h) The

commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in. (i) The word association

test for guilt. (j) The cipher, or code letter, which is eventually unraveled by the sleuth.

13 Types of Mysteries

Did you know there are 13 different types of mystery? Do you know which category you actually belong in? The

following article was penned by Author Stephen D. Rogers .

From Cozy to Caper: A Guide to Mystery Genres .The mystery genre has developed many sub-genres over the

years. While some stories straddle categories, correctly labeling your mystery will determine how an editor

responds to your submission.

Following are thirteen of the most common slots.

Cozy.-When the rich uncle is found poisoned, the kindly lady from across the heath skips her afternoon tea to

discover which of the family members committed the dastardly deed. The cozy, typified by Agatha Christie,

contains a bloodless crime and a victim who won't be missed. The solution can be determined using emotional

(Miss Marple) or logical (Poirot) reasoning. The Malice Domestic convention celebrates this tradition and

produces an annual anthology.

Amateur Sleuth.-Even though his business partner's death is declared a suicide, Frank can't shake the feeling

that his partner was killed to sabotage the defense contract. The amateur sleuth tries to solve the murder of

someone close. Either the police have tried and failed or misread the murder as an accident/suicide. Both the

loss and need for a solution is personal. These are usually single-shot stories and novels since lightning rarely

strikes the same person again and again (outside of a television series).

Professional Sleuth .-Although Swiss banks were world-renowned for discretion and secrecy, Hans knew heneeded to explain the dead body in the vault before Monday morning. The professional sleuth is an amateur

sleuth in a professional setting, preferably a setting which is unique and intriguing. Not only is inside

information used, but solving the crime returns order to a cloistered environment. Think Dick Frances and the

world of horse racing.

Police Procedural .-As Lieutenant Dickerman watched the new guy blow too much dust across the glass table

top, he reached for the antacids in his pocket. The killer had struck four times now and Dickerman had to

depend on clowns fresh out of the academy to gather evidence.The police procedural emphasizes factual police

operations. Law enforcement is a team effort where department politics often plays a large role. If you plan to


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write one of these, you need to spend time with police officers and research the tiny details which will make

your story ring true. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels describe the workings of a fictional big-city department.

Legal/Medical .-The defense lawyer knew that the surgeon was going to be a difficult expert witness. Lawyers

and doctors make effective protagonists since they seem to exist on a plane far above the rest of us. Although

popular, these tales are usually penned by actual lawyers and doctors due to the demands of the information

presented. To find latest legal/medical mystery look no farther than the bestseller list.

Suspense -Despite the fact Greg hadn't seen the killer flee the scene of the crime, the two attempts on his life

convinced him the killer believed otherwise. Instead of the sleuth pursuing the criminal, in suspense the

protagonist is the one being pursued. Here the question is not so much "Who done it?" but "How will the main

character stay alive?" These thrillers are often blockbusters.

Romantic Suspense -Despite the fact Vanessa hadn't seen the killer flee the scene of the crime, the two

attempts on her life made her wonder if she shouldn't have said anything to Richard. Add a hefty dose of

romance to a suspense and produce a romantic suspense. Not only does justice prevail, but love conquers all.

The spectrum runs from Mary Higgins Clark to mystery lines from the paperback romance publishers.

Historical -When Sam Adams turned the Boston Massacre into a call for revolution, he neglected to mention

that one of the men killed was shot not by the British but by someone firing from a second story window. Move

your mystery into the past, near or far, and you've entered the realm of the historical mystery. Crime has

always been in fashion and the possibilities are limited only by your imagination and ability to research.

Mixed Genre -As if it wasn't bad enough that a clone had terminated a robot, Inspector Ji suspected the killing

had been ordered by the Velusian ambassador. Move your mystery into the future and you've entered the

realm of the mixed-genre mystery. Although mixed-genre isn't confined to SF, science fiction is a healthy

market which welcomes the marriage. Isaac Asimov's ROBOT series is one example of a future police detective.

Private Eye -He fingered the retainer in his pocket, tried to remind himself that the client was always right. It

didn't wash. She thought she could buy him but he wasn't for sale. The Private Eye is as much an American icon

as the Western gunslinger. From the hardboiled PIs of the 30s and 40s to the politically correct investigators of

today, this sub-genre is known for protagonists with a strong code of honor. While Lawrence Block's Matt

Scudder is an unofficial PI, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone is licensed.

Noir -He fingered the check in his pocket. He knew it would bounce, but so had Mac when he hit the pavement

from seven stories up. While much PI is Noir, Noir also covers stories from the other side of the fence. Noir is a

mood: gritty, bleak, and unforgiving. The usual brutality is about as far from Cozy as you can get. Plug "noir"

into your favorite search engine to find a wealth of sites offering original and reprinted fiction.

Crime-They had thirty seconds to cut the alarm. Best time during drills had been fifteen. Now, twenty seconds

after opening the faceplate, Allison slipped and dropped the pliers inside the wall. Suspense in the crime story

comes from wondering whether the plan will work. We're rooting for the bad guys because they are smart,

organized, and daring. The ride will be a bumpy one. This sub-genre works well in film. Consider renting The

Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, Entrapment, or The Thomas Crowne Affaire.

Caper -The gun had been loaded when he left the house this morning so why wouldn't it shoot now? Gus

cursed as he throttled the lump of metal and then glared down the barrel. A caper is a comic crime story.


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Instead of suave and calculating, the caper chronicles the efforts of the lovable bungler who either thinks big or

ridiculously small. Finally we get to laugh.

Description

Mystery stories are characterized by a central puzzle, where something is unknown and it is the role of the

main character to discover the hidden secret. The main character is thus often endowed more with brain than

brawn.

Mysteries may include:

Why an event happened.

How an event happened.

When an event happened.

Who did what.

What a strange object is.

Where something is hidden.

What is going to happen.

When something will happen.

Clues and hints as to the answer to the mystery may be given along the way, but a good mystery is not obvious

until the end, where strange events all now make sense.

The mystery may be the who or how of a wrong-doing. It may also be explaining apparent supernatural events

or other unknown. Thus crime, whodunnit and horror stories typically have a mystery theme.

Example

Sherlock Holmes stories

Rear Window

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Discussion

When something is unknown, our sense of control is affected and we are driven to find the answer to thepuzzle. Mystery stories thus draw us in and engage us in solving the mystery.

We may indulge in a race with the main character in following the clues. Sometimes we shout 'it's obvious' as

they stumble in the dark and sometimes we are amazed at their perspicacity.

We all have mysteries in our life, at the very least what the future holds. Mystery stories reassure us that there

are good answers to life's problems and that all will be revealed in due course.

Documents

Compilation of rules in writing mysteries