Detective Novel Example
Drafting / / July 04, 2021
It is intended to discover a mysterious fact. Extraordinary Narratives, by Edgard Alian Poe, are an example of the detective novel. Let's read this piece:
"I have, as you know, keys with which I can open all the rooms or cabinets in Paris. In three months not a single night has passed, most of which I have not spent in person searching D's hotel... My honor is at stake, and to entrust you with a great secret, the reward is enormous.
Therefore, I did not abandon the search, but until every nook and corner of the house where it was possible to hide a paper was completely registered.
"But wouldn't it be possible," I suggested, "that even if the letter was in the minister's possession — and it undoubtedly is — he would have hidden it elsewhere than in his own home?"
"That isn't possible at all," said Dupin. The current peculiar situation of court affairs, particularly the nature of the intrigue in which D.. . it is involved, as is known, the possibility of presenting it at the moment - a document - of almost equal importance to its possession.
"The possibility of being introduced?" -said.
"Or, if he prefers, to be destroyed," Dupin said.
"It's true," I observed. So the paper is obviously in the hotel. As for the minister taking it with him, we consider such a hypothesis as absolutely out of the question.
"By all means," said the prefect. I have twice had him attacked by false thieves, and his person has been scrupulously searched before my very eyes. "{Cf. Complementary bibliography, No. 43)