Murder in the Library

So this weekend I indulged my passion for crime fiction and ventured to the British Library to check out their ‘Murder in the Library’ exhibition.

I am a little obsessed with Agatha Christie and have long held a dream that when I draw my pension I’ll transform into a crime sleuth like Miss Marple. It’ll be murder solved in time for tea and cake every day.

Yes, it is a rather small exhibition hidden at the back of the library, but I think the saying small but mighty, is quite true. As you are guided through the A-Z of crime you can’t help, but exclaim in surprise at some facts or desperately want to smash the glass to get hold of original Arthur Conan Doyle manuscripts.

For instance did you know that one in three novels published in English around the world is a crime novel? That the very first official mystery novel was Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 novel ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ or that the word detective didn’t appear in the English dictionary till 1843.

I’m still trying to get my head around some of the people who have picked up the pen to enter the literary world. Who would have thought that Pele and Terry Venables hid desires to be writers off the pitch?

I've never been to the British Library (shock horror), but this has to be one of the best free exhibitions that I have been to in a long time. You are captivated from A-Z and can’t help but take note of authors to learn more about and continue the exploration into the world of crime fiction.

If there are any aspiring detective novelists out there, then below is ‘The Decalogue’, Ronald Knox’s rules, if not slightly absurd, for detective fiction.

1.	The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow
2.	All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course
3.	Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable
4.	No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end
5.	No Chinaman must figure in the story
6.	No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right
7.	The detective must not himself commit the crime
8.	The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader
9.	The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader
10.	Twin brothers and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them