OBSOLETE DEVICES
According to Mr. S. S.--Vau Dine, lhe American writer of mystery novels, certain devices have been outlived, and are, therefore, "taboo to any self-re-specting writer of detective fiction." These devices arc printed in an article in the American "Bookman": — Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with tho brand smoked by the,suspect. The bogu's spiritualistic seance to frighten the culprit into giving himself away. Forged finger-prints. ( The dummy figure alibi. The dog that does not bark, and thereby reveals the fact that the intruder is familiar. The final pinning of the crime on a twin or a relative who looks exactly like the suspected, but innocent person. Tho hypodermic syringe and the knock-out drops. The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in. The word association test for g\ii)t. ' The cypher,. or. code .letter, which is-| eventually unravelled by the sleuth.
A man who tells nothing, or who tells all, will equally hnvo nothing told him. —Lord Chesterfield.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 42, 17 August 1929, Page 21
Word Count
180OBSOLETE DEVICES Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 42, 17 August 1929, Page 21
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