The truth of the problem must at all times be apparent — provided the reader is shrewd enough to see it. Download books for free. No high-class, self-respecting murderer would want such odds. The detective story is a game. The detective novel must have a detective in it; and a detective is not a detective unless he detects. According to S. S. Van Dine, detective fiction writing seems to be ruled by twenty principles that would guarantee excellent results for both writers and readers of the genre. The culprit must be determined by logical deductions — not by accident or coincidence or unmotivated confession. He can no more resort to trickeries and deceptions and still retain his honesty than if he cheated in a bridge game. Such an author is no better than a practical joker. The motives for all crimes in detective stories should be personal. 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. 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 to fall back on. Crimes by housebreakers and bandits are the province of the police departments — not of authors and brilliant amateur detectives. Find books Van Dine's Commandments, also known as Willard's Twenty Wedges, are a series of rules for writing detective fiction published in S.S. Van Dine's article Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories.In Umineko no Naku Koro ni, the Commandments are used as tools and weapons for solving murder mysteries.The Commandments are predominantly used by Willard H. Wright. The problem of the crime must he solved by strictly naturalistic means. RED HARVEST and S. S. Van Dine's rules.
A crime in a detective story must never turn out to be an accident or a suicide. The detective story is a game. He must outwit the … Such methods for learning the truth as slate-writing, Ouija-boards, mind-reading, spiritualistic séances, crystal-gazing, and the like, are taboo. Three hundred pages is far too much bother for a crime other than murder. Secret societies, camorras, mafias, et al., have no place in a detective story. There must be no love interest. A reader has a chance when matching his wits with a rationalistic detective, but if he must compete with the world of spirits and go chasing about the fourth dimension of metaphysics, he is defeated ab initio. The rules Van Dine proposed weren't made for any sort of shock value, but rather because, like he said, the detective story was at the time(and still is by some) considered a sporting event, and every sporting event needs its rules. If there is more than one detective the reader does not know who his coeducator is.
such matters have no vital place in a record of crime and deduction. Van Dine’s 20 Rules. A fascinating and truly beautiful murder is irremediably spoiled by any such wholesale culpability. A detective novel should contain no long descriptive passages, no literary dallying with side-issues, no subtly worked-out character analyses, no "atmospheric" preoccupations. It must reflect the reader's everyday experiences, and give him a certain outlet for his own repressed desires and emotions. A really fascinating crime is one committed by a pillar of a church, or a spinster noted for her charities. To be sure, there must be a sufficient descriptiveness and character delineation to give the novel verisimilitude. A servant must not be chosen by the author as the culprit. No lesser crime than murder will suffice.
To bring the minds of three or four, or sometimes a gang of detectives to bear on a problem, is not only to disperse the interest and break the direct thread of logic, but to take an unfair advantage of the reader.
There must be but one detective — that is, but one protagonist of deduction — one deus ex machina. Among his novels: The Viaduct Murder, Double Cross Purposes, Still Dead. It is like making the reader run a race with a relay team. They have been employed too often, and are familiar to all true lovers of literary crime. The culprit must be a decidedly worth-while person — one that wouldn't ordinarily come under suspicion. It is a too easy solution. Van Dine's 5th: 'The culprit must be determined by logical deductions--not by accident or coincidence or unmotivated confession. There must be but one culprit, no matter how many murders are committed. Once an author soars into the realm of fantasy, in the Jules Verne manner, he is outside the bounds of detective fiction, cavorting in the uncharted reaches of adventure.