Know the Rules Before you Break Them

I first came across "Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories," by S.S. Van Dine in High School and it really changed the way I read mysteries and approached similar kinds of writing. I don't agree with all of it. For example, I think a background love interest, if done correctly, can work in a nice extra dimension to a detective story. And rule 11, is of course still very relevant: "A servant must not be chosen by the author as the culprit...The culprit must be a decidedly worth-while person." However, I still think there's a lot to learn from this, and many of the points articulate why I so strongly dislike some mysteries.

A good example of this is a book a friend gave to me a couple years ago, Pride and Prescience, a Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery. I'm writing a blog on mysteries, so it's pretty clear that I like those, but I also love Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice, so this seemed like a slam dunk for me. Throughout the book there were a lot of pretty obvious "clues" that Caroline's mysterious behavior might have something to do with the ring she wore. But I figured the author wouldn't actually make me read a whole mystery book only to discover the mystery was a cursed ring.... (This was not only a very annoying conclusion for a mystery, but it made no sense in the Austenian world either. So Blehs all around).

S.S. Van Dine got it right, and still has it right, when he wrote rules 8 and 14:

"8. The problem of the crime must be 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 the world of spirits and go chasing about the fourth dimension of metaphysics, he is defeated ab initio."

"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."