This is a great articulation of what the mystery-as-puzzle genre needs to work properly! I’ve noticed that even Sherlock Holmes is, fascinatingly, useless from this perspective: he solves cases because he recognised someone (and didn’t say so) or by knowing the characteristics of a (fictional!) species of snake.
Sherlock Holmes isn’t usually fair play. He often withhold crucial clues from the reader to provide a dramatic ending. I especially love The Hounds Of The Baskervilles, but I’m not sure reader can really solve it before the solution comes up. It’s a great gothic tale, though.
Good list! I have to admit I hated the reveal in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I thought it was extremely unfair and cheater-ish and I haven't read any more of Christie's books (though I do intend to and have watched all the David Suchet Poirot episodes).
I liked that book but I don’t remember whether it follows these rules. My favorite Christie books are probably Death on the Nile and Five Little Pigs, which are very tricky to solve but perfectly fair.
Please write about it! I loved the plot twists, but I thought the whole "having a secret twin" thing was a bit of a shortcut, not unlike Shakespeare did! 😂 He certainly loved twins too.
This is a great articulation of what the mystery-as-puzzle genre needs to work properly! I’ve noticed that even Sherlock Holmes is, fascinatingly, useless from this perspective: he solves cases because he recognised someone (and didn’t say so) or by knowing the characteristics of a (fictional!) species of snake.
Sherlock Holmes isn’t usually fair play. He often withhold crucial clues from the reader to provide a dramatic ending. I especially love The Hounds Of The Baskervilles, but I’m not sure reader can really solve it before the solution comes up. It’s a great gothic tale, though.
Good list! I have to admit I hated the reveal in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I thought it was extremely unfair and cheater-ish and I haven't read any more of Christie's books (though I do intend to and have watched all the David Suchet Poirot episodes).
I liked that book but I don’t remember whether it follows these rules. My favorite Christie books are probably Death on the Nile and Five Little Pigs, which are very tricky to solve but perfectly fair.
Also, David Suchet is brilliant!
I’ll check those two out!
Brilliant! I loved this summary & agree a mystery is best when it “plays fairly.”
Thanks! Hope you find a great mystery to read.
How do you feel about KNIVES OUT? I loved the first one, but did you think they cut corners in the sequel?
I was actually thinking about writing a post about the sequel! I have a lot of thoughts about why it doesn’t work as well as the original.
Please write about it! I loved the plot twists, but I thought the whole "having a secret twin" thing was a bit of a shortcut, not unlike Shakespeare did! 😂 He certainly loved twins too.