Readers who often discuss mystery novels must have seen these two terms: one is plot and the other is trick. The so-called plot, literally translated, refers to the plot. If it is more elegant and profound, it is the structure of the novel, the layout of the story, and the subtlety of its succession and transformation; while the trick refers to the essential puzzle elements of the mystery novel, which can be The plot of murder can be a bizarre case, or even a highly misleading narrative. Mystery novels have risen in the rivers and lakes with tricks, and have been popular for hundreds of years with plots.With trick, mystery novels have reasoning at all; and plot turns mystery novels into a kind of fiction.In the long history of the development of mystery novels, does the biggest driving force come from the development of trick or the development of plot?This matter is extremely difficult to say.But when ordinary readers talk about mystery novels, the first thing that comes to mind is murder, and then the method to complete the murder (trick), which is always an indisputable fact.The reason for this is very simple - when mystery novels were at their peak, all famous writers were masters of trick research.And the most dazzling one is John Dixon Carr, the "King of the Chamber of Secrets" from the United States.

John Dickson Carr was born on November 30, 1906 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, USA, the only son of House Democrat Wood Nicholas Carr.The latter was once a lawyer before becoming a member of Congress.The good family conditions not only gave Karl the opportunity to develop his hobbies, but also broadened his horizons.When he was only four years old, he began to come into contact with Baum's fairy tales, Stevenson's romantic fantasy stories and Alexandre Dumas' historical romances because of his father's encouragement.Among them, the latter two had the deepest influence on him—the novels of these two writers, on the one hand, established the tone of adventure and suspense in Carr’s novels in the future, and on the other hand, directly contributed to his historical mystery novels.And Karl's preference for mysterious things such as magic and witchcraft may have originated from Baum's series of stories.

After so many years and years of nurturing, Carl will gradually reveal his writing skills.At the age of eleven, he surprised those around him by publishing news reports about court trials and murders.At this time, Karl, of course, had read the legal documents and criminal files in his father's library, but he seemed to have no interest in real crimes.Reading at a young age convinced him that crime is like history, and even though the reality is ugly, novels on this subject can be romantic and interesting.So he has always been very interested in mystery novels. He has read all the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack Futrell, and GK Chesterton, and he admires their weird ideas, such as the haunted novel. Castles, winged daggers, disappearing people... In 1941, he commented in a letter to a friend: "The works at that time often started with striking strange styles or impossible situations, and then provided an unexpected ending. Although this is a bit naive, it is undoubtedly creative." He was greatly influenced by the mystery novels of that period, always deliberately emphasizing the "impossibility" of criminal cases, and often laying out some horror legends in his writing, In this way, the development of the story is promoted, and the word "impossible" is vividly rendered.This can be regarded as an important feature of Carr's novels.

In 1921, Carl came to the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. While studying, he often wrote novels for the English club and participated in activities such as moonlit fencing.Four years later, he successfully entered Haverford College, and in March of the following year, a novel "When Drinking Death..." appeared in the school's monthly literary magazine "Haverford People".Shortly thereafter, Carr became one of the editors of The Haverford People because of his proficiency in writing and enthusiasm for writing. At the end of 1926, he created his first secret room murder story "Shadow of the Lamb", the protagonist is the French police detective Henri Banklin - almost all the protagonists in his novels during the study period.The advantages and disadvantages of Banklin's story are obvious: the advantage is forging ahead and being ambitious; the disadvantage is as he later commented to a new author: "Novices always want to shock the readers, and as a result, they are a little bit stuck when answering. "Henry Banklin is of great significance to Carl. This series is not only the first series of stories he created, but also his first full-length mystery novel. Its predecessor is Banklin's novella published by Carl in 1929. Story "Grand Guignol". In 1930, it was published by Harper Company in the United States, and it was reprinted six times within two months, and the sales volume was naturally good.It is worth mentioning that this novel is not only popular in European and American countries, but also highly praised by Japanese readers. For example, Rito Nikaido clearly stated: "It is also the first novel, and Karl's work is better than others. Compared with this novel Compared with works with obvious Quinn's cold and hard writing style, the plot of the novel is undoubtedly more popular and more sensational."

After graduating from Haverford College, Carl went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne in 1928.It is said that he never showed up in class, and only engaged in creation blindly. The "Grand Guignol" mentioned above is one of the achievements.Another "achievement" was a historical novel, which unfortunately was destroyed by him on the grounds that it was unreasonable.As of 1932, Carle had published four novels of Banklin, and gradually got tired of this character, intending to start over and conceive some new works.The Banklin story has been put on hold since then, and it was not until 1937 that a new chapter "Four Wrong Weapons" came out, and then it really disappeared.

Looking back, let’s talk about the new works conceived by Carl, whose common features are British detectives and British sentiment.Why?Of course there is a reason.However, in August 1930, when Carl was crossing the Atlantic Ocean, he met Clarice Cleves from England by chance.Karl gave her a copy, and the two met at the seashore, and the affair has been out of control ever since. On June 3, 1932, they were secretly married.At the beginning of the next year, the two left the United States by boat. They only wanted to travel to England for a few weeks, but Karl felt that the British countryside was very suitable for settlement, so he simply stayed.Before leaving the United States, Carl did two things. One was to authorize Harper's company to publish a new book, starting the detective story of Dr. Gideon Fell; the other was to find a new publisher, William Morrow, to publish a non-series book The novel "The Bowstring Murder". The reason why "The Bowstring Murder" has to change the publishing house is because Harper Company has a strange rule: it will not publish more than two works by the same author in the same year.As a result, Karl contacted a new publisher, intending to publish a new book under the name of "Christopher Strait". Unexpectedly, after printing, the signature was "Carl Dixon", which made it clear to anyone with a discerning eye. This is the pseudonym of the writer.Afterwards, Carl suggested that the other party change it to "Cartwright Dixon", and the other party also agreed, but he changed his mind when it was published and changed it to "Carter Dixon".Although Karl expressed dissatisfaction again, he finally obeyed the meaning of the publishing house and used the name ever since.

Gossip is off the table.However, a year after the publication of "The Bowstring Murder", Carl showed a new trump card-Sir Henry Merrivier (HM for short) detective story.The series made its debut with "The Murder at Plague Village" and received rave reviews.The high recognition from readers doubled Carl's confidence and his desire to create more vigorously. He released many excellent works one after another, all of which aroused strong responses.People at the time looked sideways at him, calling him, Agatha Christie, and Ellery Quinn the "Big Three of the Golden Age", and at the same time bestowed him with the reputation of "King of the Chamber of Secrets". In 1936, Carl joined the British Detective Writers Club, the most influential and active detective writers club at that time, and became the first American to join the club.

After publishing many novels, Karl intends to change to a new style, and has a great interest in scripts. On 27 December 1939, the BBC began broadcasting his three-act radio play Who Killed Matthew Corbin? ", this is his debut radio play, and the protagonist is Dr. Phil who is in full swing.Since then, Karl began to create a large number of plays of this type, mainly including mystery plays and reasoning plays, which are very popular with audiences.The reason is that Karl knows how to use the subjective imagination of the audience, and often uses some noises to make the audience have illusions, so as to achieve the misleading he expected.This is undoubtedly a very clever narrative trick. The author never tired of it, and the listeners greatly appreciated it. As a result, during the "World War II", the US military made an exception and let him stay on the BBC to serve the people of the allies.

By the end of World War II, the leader of the British Labor Party came to power, which led to an economic downturn, and Karl couldn't help but gradually lose interest.But he still lived in England, drafted an important biography with a lot of material obtained from Arthur Conan Doyle's son Adrian Conan Doyle, and did not return to the United States with his family until 1948.This biography was published at the end of 1949, and it was named "The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle".Later, the two of them jointly created it, which contains twelve Sherlock Holmes stories, which is recognized as the most orthodox Sherlock Holmes sequel.

When he returned to the United States, Carl received a warm welcome. Celebrities in the American reasoning circle, such as Ellery Quinn, Clayton Lawson, Edward Hawke, Anthony Butcher and others, all came to visit him one after another.They quickly formed the top reasoning circle at that time, and they often held meetings to discuss the composition of the secret room.But Carl has lived in England for too long, and his writing style inevitably has a strong European charm, and his novels are always witty and humorous, so that some people once suspected that he is the British writer Woodhouse. In 1951, with the resignation of the British Labor Party and the return of Churchill, Carl once again came to the UK for a long-term stay, but his physical condition was very poor at that time, and he suffered several serious illnesses in succession, which caused the level of the novel to decline, until early 1954 Only basically recovered. In 1955, after recovering from his illness, Carl came to London, where he became active again in the British Detective Writers Club, and intentionally inspired some young writers, including Edmund Crispin and Christiana Brand.Carl was closely connected with them, benefiting the juniors a lot.At the same time, he also created some high-level works again, such as "Captain Cutthroat" and "Flame, Burn!" ", "Fears Are Often the Same" are basically historical mystery novels. In 1963, Carl won the "Lifetime Master Award" issued by the Mystery Writers Association of America (MWA), which is the highest honor in the reasoning world and is well-deserved.However, the good times didn't last long. The next year he suffered a stroke. Although the treatment was effective, his left hand was almost paralyzed. This undoubtedly greatly affected his creation. It was not until 1965 that he published a new book.This novel is generally regarded as the best of his later work, and the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets is simple and convincing.

In the same year, Churchill died of illness, and the Carls returned to the United States to live in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1970, on the 40th anniversary of Karl's creation, MWA presented him with the "Edgar Allan Poe Special Award" in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the past 40 years. In 1972, Carr published his last novel, the historical mystery The Hungry Goblin, and for the next five years he was hard at work on a new mystery, The Pirate Way, whose detective is said to be Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, unfortunately, was not completed; and the memoir "Confessions of a Prisoner" he was supposed to write was also absent. On February 27, 1977, Carl died of lung cancer at the age of seventy. As mentioned above, Karl wrote a lot of works in his life. He published more than 75 novels of various kinds, as well as a biography and several plays.He once said frankly: "I just want to write mystery novels. I don't mean boring things like peerless masterpieces, I mean I just want to write mystery novels." So his novels can only be divided into two categories, One is puzzle-solving mystery novels, and the other is historical mystery novels.The former is the most conventional and orthodox mystery novel, arousing readers' interest with "tricks", among which "impossible crime" is the most popular.The so-called "impossible crime" novel, in simple terms, is something that cannot be realized physically and logically. answer. The types of "impossible crimes" mainly include bizarre deaths, mysterious disappearances, instant transpositions and no survivors, etc., and the most concerned theme is secret room murder. Regarding the murder in the secret room, there has always been a consensus in the reasoning community: if a person who claims to be a reasoning writer has never used the subject of the locked room, he cannot be regarded as a real reasoning writer.Because of the unique status of the subject of the secret room, it not only requires a mastery of physics and psychology, but also needs some inspiration that has never been germinated before. Therefore, Carl, who designed nearly sixty kinds of secret rooms, was naturally dubbed "the secret room" King" reputation.Carl's Chamber of Secrets has two characteristics, one is ingenuity and ingenuity, and completes the chamber from all angles; the other is to keep the answers fair and reasonable, and will not hide clues from readers.Of the two, the latter is obviously more difficult to achieve and more worthy of respect.It is no wonder that the great critic Edmund Crispin said: "In terms of subtlety of technique and skill in creating atmosphere, Carr is indeed among the three or four greatest detective novelists in English-speaking countries after Edgar Allan Poe." Among the more than 50 kinds of secret rooms, the main bearers are the Phil series and the HM series. Dr. Gideon Fell, the protagonist of Carl's second series after Henry Banklin, is also the detective who has accompanied him for the longest time. From 1933 to 1967, he solved a total of 23 major cases , and several short stories.The prototype of Dr. Phil is GK Chesterton, whom Karl admires very much, so he has most of the latter's characteristics in appearance: he has a huge body, likes smoking pipes, pince-nez, boat-shaped hat, and walks with a rattan cane.He holds bachelor's and doctorate degrees from several prestigious universities, was first a president, and retired to focus on lexicography. From the point of view of body shape, Sir Henry Merrillville and Dr. Phil are very close. They are both very rare big fat men. As the creation time goes by, the former gradually shows the former British Prime Minister whom Karl admires very much. The shadow of Winston Churchill. HM holds the title of Baronet, has a violent personality and has worked in the British Secret Intelligence Service. Another identity is the British Royal Counsel and Registered Physician. He has a good understanding of law and medicine, and occasionally appears in court for debate. In 1981, "King of Short Reasoning" Edward Hawke presided over a secret room selection, inviting 17 authors, editors and critics to vote.As a result, the Phil series topped the list with 104 points, while the runner-up "Hell's Edge" only scored 55 points, almost double the difference between the two; in addition, the same series ranked fourth, and HM series and Hell also made the list.Of the ten secret rooms, Karl occupies four of them, which is nothing less than an unshakable myth in the history of reasoning. It is probably this selection that has made the Phil series more and more valued by the reasoning community.In fact, earlier, Carl received the most attention for the HM detective story. In 1941, the famous mystery critic Hayclough even said: "(HM that old guy) is the most popular among the famous detectives of today's writers." Comparing the publication time of the Phil series and the HM series of novels, It is not difficult to find that Dr. Phil's case focuses on exploration, and the novel's murder schemes and structural rules have repeatedly made breakthroughs; while the HM stories of the same period tend to appear restrained and steady, and generally maintain a forward momentum, unlike the occasional Phil series. There is a fall back.Dr. Phil's first appearance was in 1933, and it kicked off with a terrible curse - Chatham Prison was the hanging ground for the execution of witches in the past, and its previous wardens would die with a broken neck. After the old warden's tragic death, his eldest son According to the will, he took over the job of the warden, and indeed he was doomed.The novel has a strong Gothic style, horror, mystery, subtlety, and spookiness. It gives people a sense of horror from the soul, far surpassing the bloody and straightforward stories of Banklin's stories, and fundamentally establishes the tone of Carl's future creations.Since then, Karl has repeatedly explored and deliberately mixed the rationality of detective novels and the irrationality of Gothic novels in his works. The secret room murder is closely integrated. Since then, Karl has created these two series alternately. Because of his clear goal and certain talent, he quickly reached a staged peak.Its logo is from 1935.It is said that Carl originally wanted to lay out a story of Banklin, but soon found that this was not going to work, so he transferred the case to Dr. Phil.Featuring two perfect Impossible Crimes, one with the Chamber of Secrets and the other with No Footprints in the Snow!In addition, this novel also has a "Secret Chamber Handout", sorting out and summarizing various methods of constructing secret chambers throughout the ages, showing that Carl has a good research on mystery novels.Afterwards, Karl continued his efforts, and several novels had their own innovations, such as the narrative in turn and the court argument, all of which were breakthroughs in the inherent narrative methods of his novels.In particular, the composition of the secret room is nothing more than a new way of thinking for the theme of the secret room. (It is proved by the data that the secret room is not obtained by imagination, but by Karl himself.) In 1939, the Second World War kicked off. As the scale of the war continued to rise, mystery novels were inevitably affected, and gradually showed a tendency to move closer to general literature. trick. , , , are all famous works of excellent quality, and it can be regarded as another peak moment of his in terms of level.Especially that and the same year, it marked a new breakthrough in Carl's creation - this is his first novel that relies entirely on the story, its tension and twists and turns are so addictive, so it is often called the last of the HM series A masterpiece.A few years later, Carl ended the series. The reason may be that his creative ability declined due to serious illness, or he wanted to transition to the creation of historical mystery novels, or of course there may be other reasons.In short, in 1953, Carl published the twenty-second novel "Knight's Cup" in the HM series; and the short story "The King of Miracles" published in early 1956 was the last case of HM. Compared with the two, readers who prefer Dr. Phil are undoubtedly more fortunate. The series did not end until "Yin of the Moon" in 1967, and the later novels basically performed well, such as "The Fear of Box C" , are all worth watching. Another category of novels created by Carl is the historical mystery novel.His "Bride of the New Gate" published in 1950 is recognized as the first full-length historical mystery novel, exactly one year earlier than Josephine Tey.Readers who have a little knowledge of the history of reasoning must have heard the story of the bet between Carl and Clayton Lawson.Lawson is one of the four founders of the Mystery Writers Association of America. In addition to writing novels, he often performs magic tricks on stage under the name "Marini", so his novels are full of magic. At the end of 1940, Lawson wrote a letter to Carl, who lived far away in the UK, and proposed an almost crazy idea: In an ordinary room, not only the doors and windows are closed, but all the gaps are sealed from the inside with tape, and the murderer enters the room and completes the murder. Then disappeared from the room.Carl was very interested in this, and expressed that he must write a secret room novel with this theme, so there was the HM series in 1944.And behind this "Bride of the New Door", there is also an anecdote about Carl and Lawson-they competed to challenge the trick that all the furniture in a room suddenly disappeared.Who would have thought that it would unintentionally set a precedent for historical reasoning novels, which is not an interesting story? Having set a precedent, Carl simply began to frequently create such novels, and the number even exceeded his puzzle-solving mystery novels in the same period. In 1951, he published his second historical mystery novel "The Devil in the Velvet". The hero of the novel reached an agreement with Satan and was sent back to England during the time of Charles II. The idea of ​​"time travel" was well received.Including his last novel "The Hungry Goblin" published during his lifetime, they are all works of this type.The protagonist of the novel is Wilkie Collins, the author of "Moon Gem". The only regret is that the novel that Carl conceived to use Arthur Conan Doyle as a detective failed to complete, otherwise the two novels will definitely complement each other.Although Karl was suffering from cancer in his old age, his mind was still full of fresh conspiracies. Historical reasoning novels, as the name implies, include two elements. One is history. If there is no certain accumulation of knowledge, it is absolutely impossible to write about historical themes; It's nothing more than a farce.Karl is well-known in Europe and the United States for his puzzle-solving and reasoning novels, and his ability to analyze problems is naturally first-class; and he has been deeply interested in historical issues since he was a child, and he is familiar with all kinds of weird legends. Readers only need to read his, "The Plague It is not difficult to get a glimpse of Zhuang Murder", "Red Widow Murder", and "The Murder of Zhuang". Carl's historical reasoning novel, with "Flame, Burn!" " is the most powerful, followed by "Fears Are Often the Same", and the rest of the works are generally good.For example, "Captain Cutthroat", the background is that Napoleon is preparing to attack Britain, and it tells the story of a spy who discovers the French's intentions, so he is repeatedly murdered.Another example is The Hidden Witch, subtitled "An Edwardian Play", which brings 1907 England to life, and the tricks are good too, with the building where the murder takes place surrounded by sand, where there are of course no footprints.Afterwards, Carl returned to the United States and successively created three historical mystery novels with ancient New Orleans as the stage. one class. Incidentally, in 1936, Carl published "The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey", which revolved around a real murder case in 1678. A successful exploration of historical mystery novels. Next, let’s talk about Carl’s non-series puzzle-solving mystery novels.There are not many works in this category, but the level is generally good.Especially classic is and .The former uses atypical French scenes. Although it lacks impossible crimes, it has beautiful psychological hints and misleading, vaguely Agatha Christie style.If readers want to know how wonderful it is, they only need to read Christie's comments on this novel, and they will naturally know-"There are very few works of today's detective writers that can confuse me, but Carl always can." "Court" refers to the fact that almost all courts in the Middle Ages sentenced wizards to fire at the stake.This novel is one of Karl's otherworldly classics. With a very peculiar structure, it accommodates factors of reasoning, horror, supernatural and psychological suspense, and also introduces a large number of female poisoning cases. The development and reversal of the whole story It is shocking and inexplicable. In terms of fame and level, it is enough to compete with such famous works.The dead in the coffin disappear out of thin air, open the non-existent door and disappear from the secret room... all kinds of bizarre phenomena make it particularly fascinating. In addition, Calshan has some other writings, such as biographies and plays.Since the previous article has introduced it, the space here is limited, so I won’t repeat it here. Carr's influence on speculative fiction is profound and far-reaching, and there is no doubt about it.His greatest contribution is to maintain the fairness and innovation of mystery novels, point out the direction for later generations, and set an example.The most important thing for a mystery novel is to be logical. The answer to the murder (trick) and the answer to the motive (humanity) must be logical, otherwise it will be false.Of the two, Carl obviously puts tricks first, so his novels focus on solving puzzles, focusing on analysis, and are good at laying out and exaggerating stories. His novels are natural, unlike some writers who rely on words to win.It’s like his critique of the “tough guys”: “You use writing—often pretentious writing—to disguise a lack of creativity.” This is the most fascinating part of Carl's novel.Everything revolves around reasoning, everything revolves around tricks, everything revolves around murder, crisp and simple.Since Carl made his debut in 1930, he has led the trend for decades, swept countless readers, and even stimulated the creation of countless writers. "French Karl" and "Japanese Karl" have appeared one after another, and the tribute works emerge in endlessly, which is enough to prove its enduring charm. Among the reasoning writers who admired Carl, the most famous ones are as follows: (1) Clayton Lawson, an American reasoning wizard and a close friend of Carl, whose novels incorporate the basic principles of magic performances, with unique tricks and new ones. Important works such as "From Another World" are all A masterpiece of secret room theme; (2) Heck Talbert, a short-lived genius in the American reasoning circle, was greatly influenced by Carl, but left only two novels and a few scattered short stories, the most amazing of which is "The Fate of Hell", which combines More than a dozen impossible crimes, the style is very close to Karl; (3) Anthony Butcher, a famous critic of mystery novels, once created "Nine Nine Gods" to pay tribute to Carl; (4) Paul Holt, known as "French Carl", admired Carl's talent, thoroughly collected and read all the French translations of Carl's novels, and then began to write, especially the theme of secret rooms, and the novels are very popular among Japanese readers. It has repeatedly appeared in the annual list of overseas works of "this reasoning is great"; (5) Henggou Zhengshi, the leader of the Japanese reasoning literary world, once stood side by side with Edogawa Ranpo. He was deeply influenced by Karl in his early years. In 1948, he paid tribute to Karl and his work of the same name; (6) A native of Nikaido, known as "Japanese Karl", his works have a strong sense of classical nostalgia. He once paid tribute to HM's debut work "The Murder of Plague Village" with "The Murder at Chidezhuang", and another special article commented on Karl one by one. The advantages and disadvantages of each novel. At this point, I would like to use Anthony Butcher's conclusion to conclude the whole article-"If Christie is the queen of reasoning, then Carl is the king."