Reader\'s Digest India - 09.2019

Language

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Think of a theft at a bank vault with the
latest foolproof anti-burglary traps or
a train-jacking case where a compart-
ment disappears between two stations.

LOCKED ROOM: If an author decides
to have a character killed in a room
with all the entry points closed, know
then that they have been sacrificed
at the altar of one of the most fiend-
ish literary devices ever invented.
A locked-room scenario (in other
words, a hermetically-sealed cham-
ber) is a sinister situation in which a
crime is successfully committed at a
scene with absolutely no means of
entry or egress. The size and scale of
the locked room may vary—it could
even be an island cut off from the
outside world, where it’s evident that
only one of the occupants could have
committed the crime. Devising a suc-
cessful locked-room stratagem requires
special care, inspired imagination and
special attention to detail. No wonder
this device has a place of pride among
the best crime fiction.

UNREALIABLE NARRATOR: Authors

bestow unique powers to this figure—

they may distort facts, hide details or

manipulate events subtly while main-

taining the facade of being an impartial

chronicler of all that transpires.

Rule #1: Never trust a narrator unless

you want to be nastily shocked later.

This trope is rarely used with transpar-

ency. Hints about the unreliable nature

of a narrator, usually presented in the

first person, can appear as impercep-

tible revelations about their state of

mind, the specific words they may have

spoken and changed drastically later or

even mannerisms, behavioural itches

and character traits.

A great example of this is Akutagawa

Ryunosuke’s short story In a Bamboo

Grove (one of the inspirations behind

Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon) where

witnesses provide equally sincere, but

contradictory, first-hand accounts of a

murder—later dubbed the Rashomon

effect. Akutagawa’s story lets readers

decide for themselves the authenticity

of the incident.

CRIME FICTION VS DETECTIVE FICTION

Crime fiction: A broad overarching genre, it is used to describe any

work of fiction that details an act of a crime being committed. It does

not necessitate the presence of a detective for its execution—it may even

be a fictional autobiography of criminals and their thrilling escapades.

Detective fiction: This is a narrower category with a strong focus on

detectives. Irrespective of whether they have been thrust into the role

accidentally or not, the detective is expected to expose the guilty

party and their evil machinations by the end.