Inverted detective story
Inverted detective story , or " howcatchem " (from " How catch them? ", To be translated as "How do you catch him or her (the villain)?" ) Describes the concept of gradually solving a crime, which is rarely used in crime novels and television series . whereby the viewer / reader knows very early on who the perpetrator is.
background
A special feature of the narrative style of the inverted detective story is that, as a consumer of the story, one follows the sophistication of the investigator and observes the perpetrator trying to lay wrong tracks or to cover up his perpetration. In Guilt and Atonement , one of the most important works in world literature, the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky describes a murder by a young student at the beginning of his novel, which is only cleared up at the end of the novel.
The term is called inverted, i.e. the other way around, because the Whodunit principle, which predominates in crime novels, does not apply here. With the Whodunit (from English "Who's done it?") The readers or viewers do not know, and usually the investigating detective, who the perpetrator is, and only towards the end of the story does the perpetrator become clear.
Practical use
R. Austin Freeman followed the pattern of the inverted detective story in several of his stories, beginning with his short story collection The Singing Bone , published in 1912 . He later wrote:
“Some years ago I devised, as an experiment, an inverted detective story in two parts. The first part was a minute and detailed description of a crime, setting forth the antecedents, motives, and all attendant circumstances. The reader had seen the crime committed, knew all about the criminal, and was in possession of all the facts. It would have seemed that there was nothing left to tell. But I calculated that the reader would be so occupied with the crime that he would overlook the evidence. And so it turned out. The second part, which described the investigation of the crime, had to most readers the effect of new matter. "
“A few years ago, as an experiment, I came up with a reverse detective story in two parts. The first part was a meticulous and detailed description of a crime, the explanation of the history, motives and all accompanying circumstances. The reader had seen the crime being committed, knew all the facts and everything about the perpetrator. It seemed like there was nothing more to be said, but I was betting that the reader would be so preoccupied with the crime that they would overlook the evidence. And so it happened. The second part, which described the investigation into the crime, must have seemed like a new case to most readers. "
Another example is the novel Malice Aforethought (German published as intentional. The story of an ordinary crime ) from 1931, which Anthony Berkeley Cox had written under the pseudonym Francis Iles. Freeman Wills Crofts ' 1934 novel The 12.30 from Croydon is another important example.
1952 on BBC television play Dial M for Murder by Frederick Knott , the same principle was used. Alfred Hitchcock's film version of When Calling Murder was released in 1954. Hitchcock had already used the principle in his 1948 film Cocktail for a Corpse : Here two arrogant students murder a fellow student out of thrill and their professor clarifies the case during the course of the film. On the other hand, according to Hitchcock, something puzzling in a film rarely creates suspense. As an example, he cites the Whodunit , the classic detective story, and its principle of only betraying the perpetrator at the end. The Whodunit is not something that causes suspense / tension, but rather a kind of intellectual puzzle. The Whodunit arouses curiosity, but the kind of curiosity that is without any emotion. But emotions are a necessary part of suspense.
The short stories by Roy Vickers also almost all follow the principle of the inverted detective story. Here, the eccentric inspector Rason from Scotland Yard takes center stage, re-rolling old cases.
Numerous works from the Lord Peter Wimsey series, such as Unnatural Death (German title: No natural death ) and Strong Poison, come very close to this principle . In both cases, there is actually only one possible perpetrator who actually turns out to be the perpetrator in the middle of the story.
Popularization in television series
The inverted detective story became popular due to the very successful American television series Columbo . Between 1968 and 1978 and again between 1989 and 2003, Peter Falk portrayed the torn criminalist in a crumpled trench coat in a total of 69 episodes, almost all of which are inverted detective stories. Another special attraction here is that the inspector always presents himself as particularly clumsy and inferior, thus increasing the self-confidence and arrogance of the perpetrator. The English phrase "howcatchem" (from " How catch them? ", To be translated as "How do you catch him (the villain)?" ) For the inverted detective story was developed in the 1970s by the American magazine TV Guide in connection with Columbo .
The principle was also used later in the series Diagnosis: Murder , Criminal Intent - Crime in Sight and Monk, as well as in the feature films The Perfect Crime or Woody Allen's Match Point .
In addition to Columbo , detective series such as Furuhata Ninzaburo from Japan , Luther in Great Britain and Motive in Canada have also taken up the concept. The first episodes of the German crime series Derrick were also inverted detective stories, but this did not go down well with the public and critics, so that the makers soon returned to the traditional form.
Urs Bühler used this method in a Tatort produced for SRF and broadcast in September 2015 . In the episode You will be judged , the viewer knows both the perpetrator and the motive very early on and can follow actions and investigations in parallel. This is unusual for a crime scene , as the classic Whodunit concept is generally used here . The episode Das Monster von Kassel by Stephan Brüggenthies and Andrea Heller , produced for HR and broadcast in May 2019, is told according to the same principle.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Inverted Detective Story - Pearson's Magazine
- ^ François Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock: Hitchcock . Simon and Schuster, January 1, 1967, p. 51 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed November 24, 2015]).