P.D. James, the
creator of Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh, talked to NPR about the
ingredients and rules of a good detective story. They are deceptively simple:
- A crime (usually
a murder)
- A closed circle
of suspects, all of whom had motive, means, and opportunity
- A detective (pro
or amateur)
- The solution
The key rule is
that you can’t cheat the reader. In other words, the detective can’t know
anything the reader doesn’t. This rules out those “what nobody knew is that Mr.
Smythe had a twin brother and it was HE, not Mr Smythe who was killed in the
library!” endings.
James says she
thinks detective stories, with their element of predictability and endings that
restore order and justice, are perfect balm for these tempestuous times. She
has a new book out called, “Talking About Detective Fiction.”
Here is James in
an eight-minute interview with NPR:
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