Because a rogue planet plays a major role in the climax of Anderson's sf novel, Ensign Flandry, rogue planets are introduced in the dialogue in an early chapter. Similarly, in detective fiction, any clues cited during the solution of the mystery have to have been planted earlier.
It was not Anderson's detective, Trygve Yamamura, but James Bond who drew me into reading some Agatha Christie, the connection being that both Bond and Poirot travel in the Orient Express. On rereading Dead Man's Folly after many years, I discovered that, although a character is quoted in a later chapter as having said something in an earlier chapter, I cannot confirm even by careful rereading that she did say it earlier. Can Agatha Christie have got such a detail wrong? I am willing to discuss this with any Christie fan who may be interested. It takes us away from Poul Anderson as such but stays with the question of how to write a detective novel.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I did read my share of Christie's mysteries, but I liked better the stories of John Dickson Carr and Dorothy L. Sayers, to name two.
We know Anderson was a fan of the Great Detective, but were there any other mystery writers ge enjoyed reading? Except for Anthony Boucher I can't think of any other authors he alluded to who also wrote mysteries.
Ad astra! Sean
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