Who Are Your Friends?

Author Nancy Jill Thames

Leisure time used to consist of spending hours with some very special friends of mine, unfortunately, the past few years I've been so busy publishing books of my own that I've had very little time to do what I love - reading stories about some wonderful characters created by renown cozy mystery authors. You may have heard of them, or perhaps the characters they created. They are people I adore and love, even though most have passed away or lived (fictitiously of course) in an entirely different era. My goal as an author is to share the characters I've created with you as they live and solve mysteries together. One day, I hope to see actual photos of actors reenacting Jillian Bradley, Teddy (a special dog, perhaps), Cecilia Montoya (Jillian's personal assistant), Walter Montoya (Jillian's detective friend), Chief Viscuglia, Daisy Larsen, and a host of others taking part in the Jillian Bradley Mysteries. Now, until then, see if you can match the authors with their characters - one author has created more than one. 

Author Carolyn Keene

Tuppence and Tommy Beresford

Hercule Poirot

Author Dorothy Sayers

Jessica Fletcher

Author Agatha Christie

Nancy Drew

Author Donald Bain

Miss Jane Marple

Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Whimsey

Mystery novelist Nancy Jill Thames began publishing Christian fiction in 2010. The author of six books in the Jillian Bradley series, she is an award winning blogger and is listed numerous times on the Author Watch Bestseller’s List, this in addition to winning first place for her Chocolate Cream Pie.

When she isn’t plotting her next book, she spends time with her six grandchildren in two states, tags along with her husband on business trips, and plays classical piano for her own personal enjoyment. She is an active member of the Leander Writers Guild and supports the Central Texas SPCA with a portion of her book sales.

There Are Rules?

I'm kind of riding on Dionne's coattails here regarding writing rules, but did you know that someone actually came up with a set of written rules for mystery writing once upon a time? Neither did I.

That is until one day when I accidentally (that's when I find the really cool stuff) came across them during one of my internet searches. It seems a man named Ronald Knox came up with them in 1929. 

Now before you are tempted to dismiss these rules out of hand let me mention that he was a member of a group of mystery writers called The Detection Club whose membership included Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, R. Austin Freeman, and G.K. Chesterton.

Okay here are the Knox's "Ten Commandments” for mystery writers, with some interpretation from me, because this is my post after all.

Rule Number 1:  The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.

Explanation: No dropping in a villain on the last page that has not been mentioned in the rest of the whole rest of story please.

Rule Number 2: All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

Explanation: The ghost did not do it.

Rule Number 3: Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.

Explanation: This is a mystery not a melodrama.

Rules Number 4: No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.

Explanation: No making up your own science, that’s cheating!

Rule Number 5: No Chinaman must figure in the story.

Explanation really needed here: This comment was not meant to be racist. British mystery writers before this time were using often using foreigners (i.e. Chinaman in a broad term) as the villain just because there were foreigners. After all, no upright Englishman would commit murder. Mr. Knox was objecting to this plot device, not people from China. 

Rule Number 6:  No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.

Explanation: Detectives do not have "luck" or  “hunches”, they have evidence.

Rule Number 7:  The detective himself must not commit the crime.

Explanation:  Would kind of ruin a series wouldn’t it?

Rule Number 8: The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover.

Explanation: The detective may keep his deductions to himself, but no secret clues please.

Rule Number 9: The "sidekick" of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind: his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.

Explanation: Sidekicks can be silly but not stupid. You have other characters for that.

Rule Number 10: Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

Explanation: No “Secret Evil Twins” coming out woodwork.

Okay those are the rules. The question is, do mystery writers follow them anymore? Believe it or not I do, and I never even knew there were rules. 

Pretty smart fella Mr. Ronald Knox.

 

Mystery writer C.L. Ragsdale is the author of The Reboot Files a Christian Mystery Series. A California native, she loves to "surf" the web to research plot details for her fun, quirky stories with just a bit of whopper in them. She has a degree in Theatre Arts which greatly influenced her writing style. Working in various fields as a secretary has allowed her to both master her writing skills and acquire valuable technical knowledge which she uses liberally in her plots. She loves to embroider and knit and is a big fan of the old Scooby Doo cartoons.

Current E-Books
THE REBOOT FILES:  The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, The Island of Living Trees, The Harbinger of Retribution, and The Wrong Ghost.

www.shortmysteriesandtalltales.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CL-Ragsdale219184744858421