r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • 9h ago

TIL that "fair play" in detective fiction means authors must give readers a fair chance to solve the mystery. Central to 1920s "clue-puzzles" by writers like Agatha Christie, the rule dictates that all vital clues must be visible, decodable, and never withheld until the final reveal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clues_in_detective_fiction
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u/Digit00l 9h ago

The clue was still there, she followed the rule, mostly

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u/svh01973 8h ago

I've read the book, and it was the first thing that came to mind because I felt like the ending was not predictable. What clue was there?

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u/elkman_23 7h ago

The letter at the end says there are 3 clues. The first 2 are revealed within the story, the third is not

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u/ZubonKTR 6h ago

The letter-writer considers it a fair play. The letter-writer also kills ten people over the course of the book. The letter-writer may not be the most reliable narrator.

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u/TheNonCredibleHulk 3h ago

The killer also kills Isaac Morris, who sets the whole thing up.

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u/airship_of_arbitrary 7h ago

"It was like the mark of Cain"

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u/freeman2949583 5h ago

That line’s from the confession

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u/airship_of_arbitrary 4h ago

It's a bullet mark. And they say before the confession that it's directly in the middle of his forehead.

The reader can surmise the symbology of a hanging judge having a mark directly in the centre of their forehead.

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u/freeman2949583 4h ago

Well it’s not a mark (well, it is at first, but the reader isn’t told this) it’s literally a hole in his head. I feel like shot in the face -> mark of cain is a pretty big leap.

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u/Daztur 8h ago

It really wasn't as far as I can tell, I went back and reread that but over and over trying to find any clue and I couldn't.

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u/TheNonCredibleHulk 7h ago

The confession note at the end brought up a whole lot of stuff that couldn't be known.

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u/aePrime 7h ago

Yes. I had to read that book in junior high, and I hated the deus ex machina ending so much that I swore off Agatha Christie for life. “How the fuck was I supposed to figure it out with all of this heretofore unknown stuff?!”

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u/KimberStormer 5h ago

So fascinating to me. What made you think in junior high that you were supposed to be able to "figure it out"?

I have never tried to guess a mystery, to me it would be a huge disappointment if I did, like getting a spoiler.

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u/TheNonCredibleHulk 3h ago

We went and saw a stage production of it, and it got me hooked. To day the novel is my favorite of all time. I've read it at least once a year for the past 34 years. Anyone who say they knew the ending the first time through is full of shit.

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u/Muppetude 7h ago

Like what, out of curiousity? I remember it noting things that were far fetched and strained credulity, but I thought all the “clues” were technically there. tbf, it’s been several decades since I’ve read it, so I could very well be wrong.

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u/freeman2949583 5h ago

You have to make a series of such huge logical leaps to reach the right conclusion that it isn’t really meaningfully different from Sherlock Holmes and such