Editing Detective fiction (section)

==Modern criticism==
===Preserving story secrets===
Even if they do not mean to, advertisers, reviewers, scholars and aficionados sometimes give away details or parts of the plot, and sometimes—for example in the case of [[Mickey Spillane]]'s novel ''[[I, the Jury]]''—even the solution. After the credits of [[Billy Wilder]]'s film ''[[Witness for the Prosecution (1957 film)|Witness for the Prosecution]]'', the cinemagoers are asked not to talk to anyone about the plot so that future viewers will also be able to fully enjoy the unravelling of the mystery. At the end of each performance of the play ''[[The Mousetrap]]'' by [[Agatha Christie]], audiences are asked not to reveal the identity of the murderer to anyone outside the theatre, so that the end of the play is not [[Spoiler (media)|spoiled]] for future audiences.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cohen |first=Noam |date=2010-09-18 |title=Spoiler Alert: Whodunit? Wikipedia Will Tell You |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/business/media/18spoiler.html |access-date=2025-03-23 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

===Plausibility and coincidence===
For series involving amateur detectives, their frequent encounters with crime often test the limits of plausibility. The character [[Miss Marple]] appears in twelve novels and twenty short stories,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Miss Marple - Characters |url=https://www.agathachristie.com/en/characters/miss-marple |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=www.agathachristie.com |language=en-US}}</ref> [[William L. DeAndrea|William L. De Andrea]] has described Marple's home town, the quiet little village of [[St. Mary Mead]], as having "put on a pageant of human depravity rivaled only by that of [[Sodom and Gomorrah]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=DeAndrea |first=William L. |title=Encyclopedia mysteriosa: a comprehensive guide to the art of detection in print, film, radio, and television |date=1994 |publisher=Prentice Hall General Reference |isbn=978-0-671-85025-8 |edition=1st |location=New York, NY}}</ref> Similarly, TV heroine [[Jessica Fletcher]] of ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' was confronted with bodies wherever she went, but most notably in her small hometown of [[Cabot Cove]], [[Maine]]; ''[[The New York Times]]'' estimated that, by the end of the series' 12-year run, nearly 2% of the town's residents had been killed.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/weekinreview/whodunit-that-under-40-crowd.html|title=Whodunit? That Under-40 Crowd|last=Barron|first=James|date=1996-04-14|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-29|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=2018-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129062218/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/weekinreview/whodunit-that-under-40-crowd.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It is arguably more convincing if police, [[forensics|forensic expert]]s or similar professionals are made the protagonist of a series of crime novels.

The television series ''[[Monk (TV series)|Monk]]'' has often made fun of this implausible frequency. The main character, [[Adrian Monk]], is frequently accused of being a "bad luck charm" and a "murder magnet" as the result of the frequency with which murder happens in his vicinity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mondayeveningclub.blogspot.ca/2009/02/butler-did-it-passion-for-mystery.html|title=The butler did it: A passion for mystery novels|website=mondayeveningclub.blogspot.ca|language=en|access-date=2018-03-22|date=2009-02-28|archive-date=2018-03-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322081851/http://mondayeveningclub.blogspot.ca/2009/02/butler-did-it-passion-for-mystery.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Likewise [[Kogoro Mori]] of the manga series ''[[Detective Conan]]'' earned a similar reputation. Although Mori is actually a [[private investigator]] with his own agency, the police never intentionally consult him as he stumbles from one crime scene to another.

The role and legitimacy of coincidence has frequently been the topic of heated arguments ever since [[Ronald A. Knox]] categorically stated that "no accident must ever help the detective" (Commandment No. 6 in his "Decalogue").<ref name=":4">{{cite web|url=http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv186.html|title=Father Knox's Decalogue: The Ten Rules of (Golden Age) Detective Fiction|website=www.thrillingdetective.com|access-date=2018-03-22|archive-date=2018-04-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401060245/http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv186.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Effects of technology===
Technological progress has also rendered many plots implausible and antiquated. For example, the predominance of [[mobile phone]]s, [[pager]]s, and [[Personal digital assistant|PDAs]] has significantly altered the previously dangerous situations in which investigators traditionally might have found themselves.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/stav-sherez-crime-fiction-and-technology/|title=Stav Sherez: crime fiction and technology – Dead Good|date=2017-01-29|work=Dead Good|access-date=2018-03-22|language=en-GB|archive-date=2018-03-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322142803/https://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/stav-sherez-crime-fiction-and-technology/|url-status=live}}</ref>

One tactic that avoids the issue of technology altogether is the [[Historical whodunnit|historical detective genre]]. As global interconnectedness makes legitimate suspense more difficult to achieve, several writers—including [[Elizabeth Peters]], [[P. C. Doherty]], [[Steven Saylor]], and [[Lindsey Davis]]—have eschewed fabricating convoluted plots in order to manufacture tension, instead opting to set their characters in some former period. Such a strategy forces the protagonist to rely on more inventive means of investigation, lacking as they do the technological tools available to modern detectives.

Conversely, some detective fiction embraces networked computer technology and deals in [[cybercrime]], like the ''[[Daemon (novel series)|Daemon]]'' novel series by [[Daniel Suarez (author)|Daniel Suarez]].