Wednesday A2 and A4 (Thursday for B4) first reviewed what was on the website and compared in-class notes with the notes online.
Second, we finished the genre flip chart covering types of mystery detectives and mystery rules. Please see this link for all the genre notes.
Third, we discussed Dan Brown and his new, run-away success and his other books as "industry standard." We also looked at www.amazon.com at Mary Higgins Clark and other authors that people who read MHC read.
There are 6 kinds of detectives:
1. The amateur detective (examples: Nancy Drew, Scooby Doo.) These are ALTRUISTIC detectives who are solving crimes because "it's the right thing to do."
2. The Neighborhood Detective (example: Murder She Wrote, Encyclopedia Brown.) This detective solves crimes in their town as a benefit to the town. These are often amateurs and are doing it to benefit the people they live with. They take place in a specific area, have a local sheriff, and local characters---like pastor/religious leader.
3. The Private Investigator.(Examples, Magnum, P.I., Sue Graftons's Kinsey Milhone, Psych.) These detectives solve crimes they are paid to investigate. This is their job, but they could quit at any time because they are motivated by money. It's not the same as a police investigation, but the private investigator is often a former policeman or someone involved with law enforcement.
4. The "Law and Order" Detective (Examples: CSI, NCIS, Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, James Patterson's Women's Murder Club.) These are detectives with titles (like doctor, Detective, Inspector, Crime Scene Investigator, Special Agent). They investigate crimes because "That's my job!" to uphold the law and bring criminals to "justice." They are motivated by right and wrong, legal definitions, and often led by science.
5. The SPY (Examples: Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider, Jason Bourne from The Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible) These detectives are discovering mysteries and solving crimes that are world-wide and involve the lives and issues of entire countries. They have gadgets and rules that are above and beyond normal standards.
6. The Personal Detective (Examples: Mary Higgins Clark characters, Dan Brown's Robert Langdon, romance-mysteries) This detective is motivated by life-and-death situations where he/she MUST solve the crime to stay alive. The initial murder being investigated is personal (a loved family member or close friend) and "it's personal" and they are on a "quest" to solve an unsolved murder the police haven't been able to solve.
Satisfying mysteries follow these 6 rules
Rule ONE: (clues) All the clues MUST be in the book. No clues are left out and suddenly appear at the end of the book. We want a chance to evaluate the evidence.
Rule TWO: (crime) The crime must be significant and we must care about it to want to solve it.
Rule THREE: (criminal) The actual criminal must be introduced early into the book. While we may not know his name, we know things about him.Rule FOUR: (detective) The detective must WORK at solving the crime. It can't be too easy or we feel cheated.
Rule FIVE: (suspects) There must be a defined list of suspects, and the actual criminal must be among them--or connected to the list.
Rule SIX: (non-sequitur) All the clues must make sense at the ending. There should be no random pieces of information (no red-herrings).
At the end, the mystery MUST be solved.
Most mysteries start "in media res" which is Latin for "in the middle" of the story.
