Why detectives seem so exciting
Books / / December 19, 2019
The first rule of the Detective Club (and another five others)
The main rules of the genre in 1929 formulated by Richard Knox - a Catholic priest, author, radio host and one of the first members of the Detective Club.
- This detective is not allowed effect supernatural or otherworldly forces: all events should eventually get a rational logical explanation.
- The murderer must be mentioned at the beginning of the novel, but the progress of his thoughts to the reader is not allowed to attend.
- The detective can not be a criminal. This rule is violated in an Agatha Christie novel, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd."
- Can not be used to commit a crime invented poisons and gimmicks, the effect of which need further explanation.
- The detective can not rely on intuition and happy accident. He should follow the logical conclusions and can not hide the keys found and suggestions from readers.
- Indistinguishable twins and all twins can not appear in the novel, the reader is not pre-warned.
Who is the main character
The basis of any detective - detective figure.
classic hero
It is believed that the first in the history of literature has created a real detective, Edgar Allan Poe. In 1841, under the influence of Eugène François Vidocq's memoirs - former criminal and creator of the world's political and criminal investigation - English author wrote the story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The main product of the hero, an impoverished aristocrat, a prominent thinker and intellectual, C. Auguste Dupin, was the predecessor to the other detectives protagonists: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Father Brown.
Classic detective - the identity of comprehensive development and remarkable appearance. Sherlock Holmes smoking a pipe, playing the violin, has a hooked nose, tall and lean. He is capable of a chemist and inventor of his own deductive method.
Hercule Poirot - a man of small stature, with egg-head, black hair, which with age begins to paint. He was manic in respect of order and punctuality, which helps him to solve crimes.
Neither one nor the other has never been married, everyone has old love: Holmes - crook Irene Adler, at Poirot - Countess Vera Rusakova. They do not have friends, only servants or companions. Readers do not know any of the childhood of these outstanding investigators, nor about who their parents are, what family they grew up and how to educate. From readers hidden personal problems heroes.
A good detective - a function.
This rule used by Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and other authors of the classic detective stories. Doubt, desire, regret, psychological trauma, resentment and frustration does not help reveal the intricate offense. And Holmes, Poirot and authors need only to ensure that the final novel point the finger at the killer.
The modern hero
For a long time classic hero detective was a private investigator or detective amateur (such as Miss Marple). Professional police assigned a secondary role or a comic. Detective acted as a knight, which is investigating the crime for the sake of justice and not for the money.
Now detectives less like a fairy tale. Their heroes - "workhorses": police officers, members of the task force, officers of the law. Their images are more three-dimensional and vivid: the author are not only striking features of the main character (such as a pipe or a lush mustache), but also his childhood, personal life, psychological portrait.
The modern reader catchy charisma and depth of character. The character must be perceived as a real person who lives here and now. Therefore, the hero, besides advantages, there are negative qualities, weaknesses and controversial past, which affects its formation as an individual.
3 types of modern heroes
superhero
How do you know it. All rescues, outwardly successful, but does not believe in himself.
Example: Mila Vasquez from "theory of evil"Donato Carrisi.
Mila Vasquez works in the department to search for missing that employees with each other is called the limbus (the medieval Catholic theology, so called the place where fell the souls of those who do not deserve hell and eternal damnation, but can not go to heaven, for reasons beyond his control, - approx. Ed.). This charming girl who knows the psychology and is able to intuitively read the scene, feeling emotions killer.
Mila - classic psychological superhero type: all know how good it is in the case, it is empathetic and is able to gain people. In this case, the girl herself is not sure of his own ability. Moreover - she considers herself unworthy of motherhood, the good work relations. Her body was covered with cuts and wounds - causing injury to himself, she is trying to cope with the trauma. His beloved daughter she gave up for the mother upbringing as fears negatively affect the child.
This girl is very similar to the puzzle, which will certainly want to solve - pleasant but aloof with enthusiasm, but lonely. In it you can imperceptibly fall in love, but she is always on the alert and would not allow it.
bad cop
How do you know it. For the sake of justice and catch the real culprit may break the law - for example, breaks into houses of suspected and falsifies evidence. In the past, I could belong to the underworld, but changed.
Example: Stefan from Corso "land of the dead"Jean-Christophe Grange.
French writer and screenwriter Jean-Christophe Grange likes to take the classic opposition between the two reception geniuses (Sherlock Holmes - Moriarty) and convert it, the tolerance between the criminal law and the minister sign equality. He does this in the novel "Kaika", and in the recently published in Russian, "Land of the Dead."
Detective Stephen Corso and his adversary, serial killer, similar biography: Both lost early parents dangled on shelters, were subjected to physical and sexual violence, grew up on the street, took drugs.
Corso luckier investigator Catherine Bompard found his early teens, forced to give up drugs, to finish high school and go to police school. But the past does not leave a detective: he is antisocial and indifferent to the laws and regulations. Arrange illegal surveillance, crack house of the suspect or falsify evidence for it in the order of things. More than anything, he is concerned about the fate of her son, for the custody of which he fights with his ex-wife, Emily.
implicit hero
How do you know it. Initially, the reader does not even suspect that this character - the main. They may be the author himself or his alter-ego: postmodernists love this technique.
Example: Lynn Morgan of "The last manuscript"Frank Tile.
The most unexpected kind of modern hero can be seen in the famous French writer Frank Tile in the novel "The last manuscript." At first it seems that the main investigation in the novel are criminal police officer Altran Vic and his partner Vadim Morel. Altran is similar to the classic Sherlock Holmes - his encyclopedic memory. This quality is easily explained: it suffers hypermnesia - uncanny ability to memorize, but rather the inability of anything to forget.
Gradually, the focus of the novel shifts and turns Lyn Morgan in the center: a modest teacher who became queen thriller and wrote a best-selling novel, entitled "The Last Manuscript" after the disappearance of his daughter Sarah. That it starts to conduct private investigation and ends up with a killer one-on-one.
On what is based the plot
classic detective
In the right detective should mention the murder. Other forms of crime, like robbery or fraud, there are less and less popular. Most often, the author concentrates on a single crime.
The plot develops predictably: where the murder was committed, the detective takes the trail begins to interrogate witnesses, examines the crime scene, eye for detail.
The author does not forget about the false keys that can confuse the reader and make the clue more unpredictable. This creates a competitive atmosphere, but this is only an illusion: the reader is unlikely to win, and will reveal the crime before it does, for example, Poirot. In the final, the detective always gathers all the suspects in one place and explaining the present course of the investigation, indicating the killer.
Often a valued member of the investigation stands assistant detective. This figure is needed in the classical detective story, to ask questions about the main character, drawing the reader's attention to key details that he could miss. Classic examples of assistants - Dr. Watson in Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie in Hastings.
modern detective
Playing with the form product and mixing genres - main engine literature evolution. Modern authors detectives are forced to compete not only with peers, but also with the director and screenwriter of films and detective series. To engage the reader, they alter the shape of the plot, and their works, adopting something interesting from other fields of art, remembering and transforming the classics, or inventing new techniques.
5 story modern detective techniques
1. Kliffhenger
The hero is faced with a difficult dilemma: either learns important news, and at this point the narrative breaks off suddenly. This plot technique is often used in series, so that the audience wanted to see a sequel.
On kliffhengere builds his "evil theory"Donato Carrisi. Each of the 70 chapters is terminated at an intriguing moment when he finds an important clue, pronounces terrible secret (which nobody knows, including the reader) or get stuck in an unexpected scene turn. So Carrisi makes his novel dynamic and intense - the reader can not break away, swallowing the head, one after another.
2. Images of evidence and documents
Marisha Pessl's novel "Night Movie" fills text clippings of articles, documents and photographs. The same technique used and Donato Carrisi, sharing the three parts of the novel "The theory of evil" forms of protocol and transcripts of telephone conversations. Because of this, the reader gets the impression that he touches held evidence just keeps them in your hands - it is mesmerizing and addictive.
3. literary hoax
«last manuscript"Tile - one of the most enigmatic modern detective stories, as it is both a homage to the classic authors of detective novels (the final scene It is set on the cliffs of Etretat, on the jetty and rock needle - a tribute to Maurice Leblanc, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie) and refined literary hoax romance novel.
The narrative begins with a preface in which one J.-L. Traskman talks about the unfinished book of his father Caleb Traskmana of the same name - "The last manuscript." At the request of his father JL Editor Traskman finished the final two chapters and now represents the product to readers.
Then Caleb Traskmana novel begins, in which we learn about the writer Lyn Morgan, created the detective bestseller under identical the name "Last Manuscript" - the story of a simple teacher Judith Modrua, supportive relationships with lonely elderly writer Janus Arpajon. That gives Judith read his manuscript without a name, which tells about the rape and murder of teenagers committed writer named Kayaks Moebius: "Judith said the novel fiction, she does not know what is actually Arpajon described his own story and that kayaks - he himself. "
Tile adds a novel in the novel as matryoshka, and not by chance last matryoshka refers to the Mobius strip - at the same time simple and complex objects, which does not have a wrong side. The book is filled with overlapping characters, endless references to classic detectives and nested plots.
4. Investigation team
Despite the fact that the protagonist of the novel "Land of the Dead"- Detective Stephen Corso, watch out for his team no less interesting. A group of four subordinate Corso does most of the analysis and paperwork: interrogates witnesses or digs in endless excerpts on credit cards and accounts. And sometimes a team activity leads to more meaningful results than a single surveillance of the offender.
5. Trial
Classic detective novel ends when the offender is caught, but Granger goes further. The final part of the novel "The Land of the Dead", he dedicates trial of a serial killer, allowing the reader to doubt the abilities detective and continue to suffer the question: "Did the detective was right Corso? if he caught the cruel murderer or someone is still walking free? ".