Line #17 Analysis/FairPlayWhodunnit


1	! Van Dine's Commandments
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3	Creator/WillardHuntingtonWright under the pen name "S. S. Van Dine" has published "Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories", which can be treated as an extension of Knox's Decalogue:
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5	# The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.
6	# No willful tricks or deceptions may be placed [[UnreliableNarrator on the reader]] other than those played legitimately by the criminal on the detective himself.
7	# There must be [[RomanticPlotTumor no love interest]].
8	# The detective himself, or one of the official investigators, should [[DetectiveMole never turn out to be the culprit]].
9	# The culprit must be determined by logical deductions -- not by [[LuckBasedSearchTechnique accident]] or [[BatDeduction coincidence]] or [[HeelRealization unmotivated confession]].
10	# The detective novel must have a detective in it; and a detective is not a detective unless he detects. His function is to gather clues that will eventually lead to the person who did the dirty work in the first chapter;
11	# There simply [[AlwaysMurder must be a corpse]] in a detective novel, and [[KilledOffForReal the deader]] the corpse [[FakingTheDead the better]].
12	# The problem of the crime must be solved by [[AWizardDidIt strictly naturalistic means]].
13	# There [[RotatingProtagonist must be]] but one detective.
14	# The culprit must turn out to be a person who [[ChekhovsGunman has played a more or less prominent part in the story]] -- that is, a person with whom the reader is familiar and in whom he takes an interest.
15	# [[TheButlerDidIt A servant]] must not be chosen by the author as the culprit. It is a too easy solution.
16	# There must be but [[BigBad one culprit]], no matter how many murders are committed. The culprit may, of course, [[TheDragon have a minor helper or co-plotter]]; but the entire onus must rest on one pair of shoulders.
17	# [[GreaterScopeVillain Secret societies, camorras, mafias, et al.]], have no place in a detective story. To be sure, the murderer in a detective novel should be given a sporting chance; but it is going too far to grant him a secret society [[DiabolusExMachina to fall back on]].
18	# The method of murder, and the means of detecting it, [[AppliedPhlebotinum must be rational and scientific]].
19	# The truth of the problem must [[RewatchBonus at all times be apparent]] -- provided the reader is shrewd enough to see it.
20	# A detective novel should contain no [[{{Infodump}} long descriptive passages]], no literary dallying with side-issues, no subtly worked-out character analyses, no "atmospheric" preoccupations.
21	# A professional criminal must never be [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone shouldered with the guilt]] of a crime in a detective story.
22	# A crime in a detective story must never turn out to be an [[AccidentNotMurder accident]] or a [[NeverSuicide suicide]].
23	# The [[FreudianExcuse motives]] for all crimes in detective stories should be [[ItsPersonal personal]].

Context Analysis / FairPlayWhodunnit