The Murder Game: Play, Puzzles and the Golden Age

This extensive if somewhat shallow study from Agatha Christie scholar and archivist Curran (The Hooded Gunman) explores how game-like qualities drove the long-term success and influence of detective fiction in the early 20th century. Curran sets the genre’s golden age between 1920 and 1945 and outlines common characteristics among mysteries published in the era, such as an emphasis on solving a puzzle (a crime that typically involved murder), a limited number of suspects, and a surprise ending. He then delves into the development of specific rules for mysteries, created most notably by novelists Ronald Knox and S.S. Van Dine, like the concept of “fair play,” which requires all clues to be made available to the reader so they are on an even playing field with the fictional detectives. Common devices are also discussed, like the game-within-a-game plot, in which characters play a game that results in a real-life crime; in Agatha Christie’s novel Dead Man’s Folly, for example, a game of “Murder Hunt” leads to the pretend victim’s actual killing (“Where better, from the writer’s viewpoint, to hide a murderer than in a ‘murder’?” Curran writes). Some spoilers are included, but Curran largely protects gameplay. Though his comprehensive history of the genre is jam-packed with examples, it lacks a stimulating overall argument tying the elements together. Murder mystery fans will leave with an extensive reading list but few new insights. (Jan.)