4. The detective himself, or one of the official investigators, should never turn out to be the culprit. This is bald trickery, on a par with offering some one a bright penny for a five-dollar gold piece. It's false pretenses.
I'm definitely going to disagree with that one. There are a lot of interesting twists around the idea that one of the investigating officers, or even the hero in a really clever story, is actually the guilty party. Val McDermid did a particularly good job of the former -- once the hero realises that the only other person definitely in the area at the time of the first death was the local Bobby he then has to find the one bit of evidence that will prove his theory before it's too late. Of course the reader gets to suspect earlier because the bad cop offers to lie about where he was for a later death, supposedly to protect a fellow officer with motive but no alibi for that particular crime.
As for me, I break the rules all the time. I don't think it matters that a death was technically suicide or an accident if the investigation uncovers facts that would otherwise have remained unknown. I'm going to be very interested to see who works out what amongst my test readers too.
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Date: 2006-02-22 09:50 am (UTC)I'm definitely going to disagree with that one. There are a lot of interesting twists around the idea that one of the investigating officers, or even the hero in a really clever story, is actually the guilty party. Val McDermid did a particularly good job of the former -- once the hero realises that the only other person definitely in the area at the time of the first death was the local Bobby he then has to find the one bit of evidence that will prove his theory before it's too late. Of course the reader gets to suspect earlier because the bad cop offers to lie about where he was for a later death, supposedly to protect a fellow officer with motive but no alibi for that particular crime.
As for me, I break the rules all the time. I don't think it matters that a death was technically suicide or an accident if the investigation uncovers facts that would otherwise have remained unknown. I'm going to be very interested to see who works out what amongst my test readers too.