Rainy Saturdays are a writer’s blessing. We have no excuse but to sit at our keyboards and type away. No beckoning from kayaks or bicycles, no taunt of sunshine glinting off the water’s waves, even Mr. Peabody is perfectly content to forego his afternoon stroll through Mount Hope Farm. Today is one such day and this writer is enjoying the pitter patter of rain chatter on the roof. The gloomy weather helps to set the mood for the mystery I’m currently writing. Always a voracious reader of good whodunits, I’m now finding it’s great fun to plot out the workings of a mystery novel.
My fellow mystery devourers have Edgar Allen Poe to thank for creating the murder solving genre. THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE introduced his unique plot design for unraveling the 
details of a murder mystery, which then became a model of sorts for the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Poe’s Auguste Dupin was the first of many brilliant and yet unconventional crime investigators to come to life on the pages. Detective Dupin was followed by Dickens’ Inspector Bucket in BLEAK HOUSE, who has been hailed as the first important detective in English literature. Later came Sir Arthur Conan Dolye’s arguably most famous eccentric detective, Sherlock Holmes and the Queen of the Golden Age, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.
Many of the early crime detectives were members of the English gentry; Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn for example. The contemporary and exceptionally talented Elizabeth George has followed suit with her Inspector Thomas Linley, a.k.a. Lord Asherton.
Murders often took place on sprawling country estates or in quaint villages with cobble stone lanes. And in that Golden Age, the genre went beyond providing a good, entertaining read. The novels themselves presented a challenge in which the readers expected to participate. As a result, a certain set of game rules were established by Ronald Knox, an ordained Catholic priest, founding member of Oxford’s Detection Club and author of classic detective novels during that era.
Knox’s Decalogue for writing whodunits:
- The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.
- 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 himself must not commit the crime.
- The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover.
- The “sidekick” of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader 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.
Although the Murder Mystery genre has evolved over the decades, with numerous sub-genres sprouting forth, many of these rules still apply. This may seem surprising in light of all the advances in forensic science and technology, but Knox’s simple formula still stands. A detective story “must have as its main interest the unraveling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end.”
I must admit to breaking one of the above commandments already, and am contemplating bending a second. I can only tell you it’s not rule number five, for which I’ve turned up no legitimate explanation. For now we’ll leave it as a mystery. You’ll have to wait until I’m published to find out.
Stay tuned for my next post, Summer Reading Part Two. I’ll have some contemporary mystery writers to recommend.
I just finished P.D. James’ Talking About Detective Fiction in which she cites Knox. I confess to have broken a couple of those rules myself, particularly as my “Watson” character is one sharp cookie. (In fact, she hates being referred to as Watson!)
I love PD James but didn’t know about TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION. I will have to pick up that book. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Rosie!
Never realized there was such a set of rules for mystery writers. I was looking through your writings and am quite anxious to read “The Lighterman’s Curse”. It sounds like just the sort of book I enjoy. Can’t wait for it to be published. The Church House Gallery series also sounds intriguing.
It is your type of book and I hope you get to read it soon. Thanks for stopping by.
Rules are meant to be broken! Now I am more than anxious to get my hands on your stories.
Mysteries are my favorite read. I love trying to figure out whodunit, but love it more when I can’t.
Here’s hoping for more rainy days!
Hoping you’ll have something to read soon. I’ll have some suggestions in my next post so stay tuned!
See, this is why your the writer and I’m your sounding board. I’d get bogged down in the rules and never finish!
Can’t wait to discover which other one you might be breaking!
I’ll give you a hint…I’m not considering multiple secret passages. And you are a fabulous sounding board and beta reader which I greatly appreciate. Thanks also for checking in at the website.
I enjoyed reading the summaries of your manuscripts…I had no idea you had written so many! The mystery series sounds like fun. I look forward to reading it one day 🙂
I’ve been busy! You can be a beta reader when I finish the first manuscript in the cozy mystery series. Nate should be sleeping through the night by then. 🙂
As you know Loretta, I have never been a Mystery Novel reader but you have certainly inspired me to read one now. Who knew there were so many rules to mystery writing?? Love the information you have shared. Can’t wait to figure out what rule you broke!! Looking forward to Summer Reading Part Two.
As I just responded to the last comment from Cia, you might really like Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh’s great classic mysteries. Your competitive spirit will have you trying to figure out whodunit. I’ll lend you a couple from my library. But I’d love for you to have the chance to see which rule I broke! Thanks for stopping in.
Loved Ronald Knox’s list! Just finished reading Robert Galbraith’s (aka JK Rowling’s)The Cuckoo’s Calling. Had passed on it when it first came out, but her new one, Silkworm, has gotten good reviews and is about the same detective, so I thought it best to read Cuckoo first. Quite entertaining and she definitely makes good use of Knox’s list. In many ways, the Harry Potter books were a great mystery series with clues planted in the early books coming to prominence in the later ones, with many unexplained story lines all tying creatively together at the end. Had to give up on Mary Higgins Clark for mysteries, though–they always followed the same formula and made it too easy to figure out early on who had done it. Hard to top Poe or Arthur Conan Doyle, though!
Thanks for the recommendation on Cuckoo’s Calling. I’ve also heard good reviews of Silkworm, so those will definitely go on my list now! I do think you should add some Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh to your reading list. They are great fun whodunits!
Loretta, I very much enjoyed your brief history of the whodunit, all of which was news to me. Now I know why I have not read any good Chinese murder mysteries of late, or ever(Knox’s Rule #5, apparently). Your comment about the importance of Inspector Bucket in the mystery genre was very consoling since I have long suspected that the interminable hours I spent wading through the 900+ pages of “Bleak House” had not been time well spent. In truth, I am not a huge fan of mysteries, but I will change that view when I have one with your name on the cover. Keep up the good work.
PS- Your suggested “The Art of Hearing Heartbeats” is on deck on my Kindle once I finish “Carsick : John Waters Hitchhikes Across America”, an entertaining book on par with his movies, but probably not for everyone.
Sẽnor Caballero…I wish you would write a book…or a compilation of humorous essays. You and your brother both have such incredible talent. I must admit I didn’t spend interminable hours wading through Bleak House…but I did watch the Masterpiece Classic version which was pretty good. Thanks for stopping in…I always enjoy your commentary.
Loretta, I think we should take bets on which rule is being broken! Fascinating info on mystery writing! Maybe you should weave the rule breaking into your book! I hope I get to read it. Love, Deb
Good idea! I hope you get to read it soon, too! Thanks for stopping.
I’m so excited for you and for those of us who get to share your talent. I have been so busy-I’ve put off writing until I could spend much time with you but as we’re leaving for Ohio in the morning, afraid I can’t say more than give you a promise that as soon as I get back, you and I will have a good,good chat. love you,honey, and you mean so much to me and my family. Talk to you in 2 weeks. Pat
Safe travels and looking forward to that good long chat!
Keep up the good work Loretta, can’t wait to read more 🙂
Thanks for for stopping by, Pat!
Are you familiar with the genre-bending work “Murder, She Thought,” by the Jarbeau Brothers? It features an unlikely villain in the person of Raul Yerryberry, the dim-witted gardner. It mainly challenges the genre through its grotesque mediocrity.
Inside family joke alert! At first glance, I thought this was one of the spam responses that sometimes come in to the site and nearly deleted it. What a shame that would have been for those visitors to this site who were a party to that great genre-bending spectacle. I believe the work you refer to broke quite a number of Knox’s game rules and perhaps the reason for its ‘grotesque mediocrity’. Your humorous reply will be lost on many but I’m so glad you visited my website! I hope you will return again, Matt!
I can’t wait to see what you are writing next. Just had time to read the “rules” and have to admit they were news to me. I’ll not read a mystery again without looking for the rules and how much they’ve been adhered to. I know about ending a sentence with a preposition but I couldn’t resist. Love you much, Pat
Thank you for stopping by again, Pat! It is fun now to see if mystery writers are breaking the rules. I’m working on another mystery right now and hope to have it finished by the end of the year and into my agent’s hands. I will keep you posted. Looking forward to seeing you in Ohio. Hugs to you and the whole clan!