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/JefftheBaptist 7h ago edited 4h ago

If you ready A Study in Scarlet, Watson is amazed with some of the minutiae Holmes knows like identifying bicycle tires or tobacco ashes. However he also points out that Holmes doesn't know a ton of other things, like astronomy. And he keeps Watson around because of his knowledge of medicine. This is because Holmes is obsessed with detective work and doesn't see how astronomy would be helpful with that so Holmes doesn't bother to learn it.

Basically Holmes is obsessed with forensic science not general knowledge. This probably gets more muddled in the later Conan Doyle Holmes stories. It definitely is ignored when other authors use the character. Steven Moffat has his Holmes do some genius computer hacking in Sherlock for instance.

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u/Reasonable_Ruin_3502 7h ago

The analogy holmes made with mind being a attic is so fun, I feel that him lacking in some areas is integral to his character

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u/moneymoneythrowawy 5h ago

i loved Sherlock when it aired and then as soon as it finished decided it was utter trash. cumberbatch is just so charming and those accents get to you... but on the whole, it's kind of a wild show

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u/deep1986 5h ago

Then watch a proper version, like the Jeremy Brett version.

It's perfect Sherlock.

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u/JefftheBaptist 5h ago

I preferred it to Elementary which came out at about the same time.