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A battle of wits?

Posted on Jun 21, 2021 in Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr | 4 Comments

Recently my old friend Pauline reminded me that when we were teenagers, we used to read Agatha Christie together and try to work whodunit. We must have been thirteen or fourteen years old. We would even draw up lists of suspects and clues. I had forgotten all about that. And I can’t remember whether we ever got the better of Dame Agatha, but I somehow doubt it.  As I continued to read crime fiction in my twenties and thirties, I went on enjoying fairly clued mysteries by writers like Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy L Sawyers and I remember being particularly pleased when I fingered the murderer in Marsh’s Death in a White Tie.

That was why I found Gladys Mitchell irritating in those days. She has many good qualities, but tight plotting is not one of them. These days I am more forgiving and can often, though not always, enjoy them for their atmosphere, their glorious eccentricity and for her sleuth, the splendidly intelligent and reptilian Mrs Bradley.

As for John Dickson Carr, the maestro of the locked room mystery, yes, his novels are, I suppose, fairly plotted, but I have never yet worked out whodunit by logical deduction and I’d be very much interested to know whether anyone else does. I do however sometimes guess, through a kind of process of elimination, because after reading a number of JDC’s novels, I’ve realised that certain types of people tend not to commit murder in them, so can probably be ruled out. That’s in contrast to Agatha Christie, where absolutely anyone might have done it. She turns our assumptions that certain types of people don’t commit murder against us. It is one of the ways that she pulls the rug from under our feet.

Reading JDC’s The Four False Weapons recently (purchased for a mere £1.50) I didn’t really try to work out the solution, but just went along for the ride. I especially enjoyed the nail-biting climax where the murderer is revealed as the result of a thrilling high stakes card game. I wondered if JDC had invented this extraordinary game called Basset, but I’ve looked online and it is indeed a real game that was played in the 17th century. He describes it brilliantly.

While I do still enjoy a battle of wits with an author – and have sometimes challenged readers of my own novels to a contest –  it’s not all that matters to me these days.

 

4 Comments

  1. Margot Kinberg
    June 21, 2021

    It’s interesting, isn’t it Christine, how we change as we mature. I think that includes our views about reading and authors, too. You make some well-taken points about these authors, too, and I agree 100% that part of Christie’s gift was that you can’t rule out anyone as a suspect. There’s no person would absolutely wouldn’t commit a murder in her books. I suppose I’m more open to different styles of writing than I was as a child; I think that happens as we get older. I wonder if that impacts that way we write…

    Reply
    • Christine Poulson
      June 21, 2021

      Yes, Margot, in many ways one’s writing horizon does expand, and yet, if I think about what I was reading in my twenties, I don’t think I am as adventurous as I was in my late teens and early twenties, when I read voraciously, and not just as part of my English degree. I would read just about anything. Now I tend to go for books that I am pretty sure I will enjoy, though my book group does quite often force me out of my comfort zone and I think that is a good thing.

      Reply
  2. tracybham
    June 21, 2021

    I do like to guess whodunit, but I miss a lot of the clues, and pay more attention to how I think the author is trying to fool the reader. In all cases, I am willing to just go with the flow rather than look for fair play and clues, because I am more interested in the writing style and the entertainment I am getting from the book.

    I was much less critical when I was younger, I enjoyed everything I read.

    Reply
    • Christine Poulson
      June 25, 2021

      I feel the same, Tracy, and am happy to go with the flow, and yes, I am more critical, and, as I said in any earlier post, less inclined to give a writer the benefit of the doubt.

      Reply

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