{"id":286,"date":"2017-05-29T12:11:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T11:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grahamdinton.com\/wp\/?p=286"},"modified":"2017-05-29T12:25:15","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T11:25:15","slug":"the-10-commandments-of-knox-on-a-quiet-bank-holiday-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grahamdinton.com\/wp\/?p=286","title":{"rendered":"The 10 commandments of Knox on a quiet bank holiday Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recommend an excellent book called <\/span>\u2018Crime Fiction\u2019 by John Scaggs<\/a><\/span>. It is a comprehensive reference of the history of mystery and detective fiction.<\/p>\n

There is a chapter where I have come across Father Knox\u2019s \u2018Detective Story Decalogue\u2019 from 1929. Now, for all you experts out there, I\u2019m sure this is old news but it was a very interesting revelation to me.<\/p>\n

The Golden Age of crime fiction was codified by Father Knox with his ten commandments:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  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.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. All <\/span>supernatural<\/span> or <\/span>preternatural<\/span> agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Not more than one secret room or <\/span>passage<\/span> is allowable.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. No <\/span>Chinaman<\/span> must figure in the story.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. The detective himself must not commit the crime.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover.<\/span><\/li>\n
  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.<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Have you read crime fiction lately? Did it follow the rules? <\/p>\n

    They do seem a bit dated – especially rule 5! Not sure that\u2019s very pc these days or where the rule came from. I wasn\u2019t even sure it was wise to list it, but it\u2019s there in 1929.<\/p>\n

    Some say the Golden Age of crime fiction is actually now. Crime Fiction has never been better! Take a look now!<\/p>\n

    <\/span>https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Held-Ransom-Mystery-Graham-Dinton-ebook\/dp\/B06XSJ9HS3\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I recommend an excellent book called \u2018Crime Fiction\u2019 by John Scaggs. It is a comprehensive reference of the history of mystery and detective fiction. There is a chapter where I have come across Father Knox\u2019s \u2018Detective Story Decalogue\u2019 from 1929. Now, for all you experts out there, I\u2019m sure this is old news but it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skill"],"yoast_head":"\nThe 10 commandments of Knox on a quiet bank holiday Monday - Graham Dinton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/grahamdinton.com\/wp\/?p=286\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Graham Dinton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/grahamdinton.com\\\/wp\\\/?p=286#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/grahamdinton.com\\\/wp\\\/?p=286\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Graham Dinton\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/grahamdinton.com\\\/wp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aa4cda20d85d970f20575808140fd28\"},\"headline\":\"The 10 commandments of Knox on a quiet bank holiday Monday\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-29T11:11:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-29T11:25:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/grahamdinton.com\\\/wp\\\/?p=286\"},\"wordCount\":335,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Writing skills\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/grahamdinton.com\\\/wp\\\/?p=286#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/grahamdinton.com\\\/wp\\\/?p=286\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/grahamdinton.com\\\/wp\\\/?p=286\",\"name\":\"The 10 commandments of Knox on a quiet bank holiday Monday - 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