Van Dine's Commandments: Difference between revisions

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The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.

In ''Umineko no Naku Koro ni'': It is forbidden to have a crime without all ~~blues~~ presented.

In ''Umineko no Naku Koro ni'': It is forbidden to have a crime without all clues presented.

=== Van Dine's Second ===

No willful tricks or deceptions may be placed on the reader other than those played legitimately by the criminal on the detective himself.

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The motives for all crimes in detective stories should be personal. International plotting and war politics belong in a different category of fiction — in secret-service tales, for instance. But a murder story must be kept gemütlich, so to speak. It must reflect the reader's everyday experiences, and give him a certain outlet for his own repressed desires and emotions.

=== Van Dine's Twentieth ===

And (to give my Credo an even score of items) I herewith list a few of the devices which no self-respecting detective story writer will now avail himself of. They have been employed too often, and are familiar to all true lovers of literary crime. To use them is a confession of the author's ineptitude and lack of originality. (a) Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect. (b) The bogus spiritualistic séance to frighten the culprit into giving himself away. (c) Forged fingerprints. (d) The dummy-figure alibi. (e) The dog that does not bark and thereby reveals the fact that the intruder is familiar. (f) The final pinning of the crime on a twin, or a relative who looks exactly like the suspected, but innocent, person. (g) The hypodermic syringe and the knockout drops. (h) The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in. (i) The word association test for guilt. (j) The cipher, or code letter, which is eventually unraveled by the sleuth.

And (to give my Credo an even score of items) I herewith list a few of the devices which no self-respecting detective story writer will now avail himself of. They have been employed too often, and are familiar to all true lovers of literary crime. To use them is a confession of the author's ineptitude and lack of originality.

{{plainlist|

:*(a) Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.

:*(b) The bogus spiritualistic séance to frighten the culprit into giving himself away.

:*(c) Forged fingerprints.

:*(d) The dummy-figure alibi.

:*(e) The dog that does not bark and thereby reveals the fact that the intruder is familiar.

:*(f) The final pinning of the crime on a twin, or a relative who looks exactly like the suspected, but innocent, person.

:*(g) The hypodermic syringe and the knockout drops.

:*(h) The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.

:*(i) The word association test for guilt.

:*(j) The cipher, or code letter, which is eventually unraveled by the sleuth.

}}

[[Category:Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]