Double Crossing Van Dine

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)> </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>As the Golden Age of Mystery began to flourish the books spread their wings and in some cases stretched believability. These authors sometimes shocked the readers but at other times the books seemed to be oh-so-similar to other mysteries.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>Of course Agatha Christie's </span><em style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>The Murder of Roger Ackroyd</em><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)> fell into the former category. A hundred years later readers are still fascinated by the solution to the story. At the time people were up in arms about the trick in the story.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>To prevent another </span><em style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>Ackroyd</em><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)> authors began to develop a code of fair play. What should the author do - and not do-to give the reader a shot at solving the crime? Ellery Queen issued a Challenge to the Reader which informed them that all the clues had been presented.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>Writers have never been ones to color inside the lines and being told not to do something brought out their creative ideas. Crippen & Landru presented </span><em style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>School of Hard Knox </em><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>in 2023 breaking all of Father Knox's rules and we're publishing a second similar volume this year.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>In the 1920s S.S. Van Dine wrote a list of twenty rules that must be followed. We've broken each of them. Willard Huntington Wright who wrote as Van Dine was not the usual mystery writer. He had written for literary magazines and lectured on philosophy before he had a breakdown in 1923. While he recovered Wright completed the synopses for six novels featuring a dilettante sleuth Philo Vance. Scribner was interested and thus began his twelve-novel career. The twenty rules were written in 1928 the same year as his third novel </span><em style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>The Greene Murder Case</em><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>. The article was published by </span><em style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>American Magazine</em><span style=background-color: rgba(242 239 221 1); color: rgba(61 8 27 0.75)>.</span></p><p></p>