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YOU_AGAIN

                                                   April 6, 2009

    A common scene,
    though not quite
    a required scene:

    The police arrive and
    discover that our hero          A Perry Mason episode: Tragg arrives
    has once again got there        at the crime scene, and finds Mason
    ahead of them.                  and Drake talking in the living room.
                                    He glares at them darkly and aburptly
                                    snaps "Where's the body?"  Mason says
                                    nothing, he just points helpfully to
                                    a doorway, and Tragg stalks through.

    Alternately: the
    police demand to
    know if the             This, of course,
    detectives are          describes nearly    One suspects actual
    working on a case,      every Nero Wolfe    cops would be less
    and are told            story.              shocked at a
    definitely not.                             professional lie,
    Then they're hired,                         but reality has
    and the police come                         little to do with
    back in screaming,                          these scenes.
    with accusations of
    lies.                                    Does that bear
                                             repeating?

                                    Private or amateur
    Or, once upon a time:           detectives don't
    Scottland Yard                  regularly investigate
    reluctantly consults            murders, and actual
    the great amateur               murders don't often
    expert once again.              work as logical puzzles--   Further,
                                    typically the               unsolved
        Sherlock Holmes,            murderer is obvious         domestic
        of course.                  or unfound.                 murders are
                                                                hardly a
                                      So, you might             huge social
                                      wonder what one           problem,
                                      would mean by             compared to,
                                      "realistic mystery        say, drunk
    These are all a                   novel".  And you          drivers.
    variation of                      might ponder why
    "the praise of                    our fictions are          Or compared
    one's enemies".                   dominated by              to the
                                      scenarios that are        all-too-easily
    The official experts              so obviously              "solved"
    have a grudging,                  fictional.                international
    suspicious respect                                          murders.
    for the hero.

        PRAISE_OF_ONES_ENEMIES


                    You might look at this
                    as a solution to a
                    technical problem with
                    a series detective--
                    the main character is
                    repeatedly getting           The problem gets
                    involved in what would       worse if the hero is
                    really be                    a private detective,
                    once-in-a-lifetime           and still worse if
                    situations.                  an amateur detective.

                    This issue could just
                    be ignored-- some
                    improbabilities only
                    get worse when
                    explained-- but if
                    commenting on it can
                    be made use of, then
                    that's what you
                    should do.




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