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Puzzle? or Sleuthing?

NightRayDuck 17 Feb 11 at 7:14 a.m. GMT

As a reader, do you search for a puzzle that you'll solve? Or do you look forward to seeing a clever or at least diligent sleuth succeed in bringing some justice to the case?

I've seen this argued on various discussion threads, back and forth, with statements about likes and dislikes, so I figured it might be interesting to list some of them in one thread. Since you are on this forum, I shall assume that you do enjoy at least a few Christie stories, or that you look forward to starting on some Christie works. For simplicity's sake, I ask replies to this post to simply name a Christie story that had annoyed you very much, due to the elements PUZZLE and SLEUTHING ACTIVITY being in some awkward imbalance, one of them being over-prominent, or one of them being insufficient. Describe the imbalance. I do realize that sometimes it's not simply the content of the story (what the "crime" is and what the "sleuth" does), but also the presentation, the treatment, which clue was revealed first, whether the sleuth made any mistake... But please, if you're willing, to share annoyances or disappointments that are mostly due to awkwardness between the two elements in one particular story.

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6 replies

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Tommy_A_Jones 22 Feb 11 at 1 p.m. GMT

Thankyou darknightforays, I don't like slow Burners and sometines have difficulty with ones set abroad although I like Appointment With Death which is odd because I am not keen on the ones where the Sleuth appears late, again an exception is Appointment With Death

NightRayDuck 22 Feb 11 at 4:36 a.m. GMT

Hi Tommy!  I did post a reply coupla days ago, don't know where it went. Main thing in my reply is that your ability to enjoy many different types of characters and clues (Dying Words, Picture Puzzle, Cold Case) and humour... wonderful! Thank you for the reply. 

Tommy_A_Jones 19 Feb 11 at 5:10 p.m. GMT

I look for a situation I can enjoy, A Group of people in an enclised space like a House, Plane, Island or Train, I also like Books with a little bit of Humour, I like it if a Cold Case is involved and I also like it if there is the usual types involved; Pretty Young Things, Military Men, women or women with Double Barrelled Names, A Vicar, and a Doctor and I particularly like it if there is a stange Message like in Postern of Fate or Dieing Words, When I say Humour I mean when Hastings, Ariadne or Mrs Bantry or Bunch or Grezelda appears I always smile, sa,e with Craddock, Japp, Spence and Battle.

I am sorry if this doesn't answer the question, BTW I love the Picture Puzzle in The Clocks

Tommy_A_Jones 19 Feb 11 at 5:10 p.m. GMT

I look for a situation I can enjoy, A Group of people in an enclised space like a House, Plane, Island or Train, I also like Books with a little bit of Humour, I like it if a Cold Case is involved and I also like it if there is the usual types involved; Pretty Young Things, Military Men, women or women with Double Barrelled Names, A Vicar, and a Doctor and I particularly like it if there is a stange Message like in Postern of Fate or Dieing Words, When I say Humour I mean when Hastings, Ariadne or Mrs Bantry or Bunch or Grezelda appears I always smile, sa,e with Craddock, Japp, Spence and Battle.

I am sorry if this doesn't answer the question, BTW I love the Picture Puzzle in The Clocks

Lone_Wolf 17 Feb 11 at 8:39 p.m. GMT

Yeah, ATTWN isn't really a detection novel.

I don't consciously try to solve the puzzle myself. To me, the point of the puzzle plot is the feeling of retrospective illumination when the solution is revealed, the mixture of surprise and inevitability.

NightRayDuck 17 Feb 11 at 7:36 a.m. GMT

I'll start with one famous Christie book that had always made me wonder about "mystery". In my first language, the genre is referred to as "sleuthing fiction" or "detective fiction", and I ended up reading the genre for seeing a somewhat successful solving of a case, rather than a series of puzzling events that the characters never figure out.

The story is the novel And Then There Were None. Similar to the fact that it's been recommended as a Christie starter for a habitual reader of the horror genre, this novel gives me a similar feeling as the Shakespeare play Hamlet gives me. I do enjoy And Then There Were None when I am in the mood for some Hamlet, but I feel that sleuthing activity in And Then There Were None was nearly non-existent, and any that had been carried out had been utter failures. There was no solution for any of the victims who tried to avoid death, and there would be no confirmed solution for the readers without the coincidence of the killer leaving a note of explanation, and the chance recovery of that note, finally delivering it to the police officers who were working on this case. (Imagine, my friends, what would have happened to the case if this note washed up on the shores of China!) To me, this novel feels like some type of "portrait of the human condition", or "the futile attempts to escape evil". Without the miracle of "the recovery of the killer's letter", the readers would end up surmising all they could but never able to confirm the "official solution" to the story. I find that rather depressing.