And the title is still something of a
misnomer, for many narratives involving a puzzle of some sort,
though belonging to the category which I wish to discuss, are
handled by the writer without expert detective aid. Sometimes the
puzzle solves itself through operation of circumstance; sometimes
somebody who professes no special detective skill happens upon the
secret of its mystery; once in a while some venturesome genius has
the courage to leave his enigma unexplained. But ever since
Gaboriau created his Lecoq, the transcendent detective has been in
favor; and Conan Doyle's famous gentleman analyst has given him a
fresh lease of life, and reanimated the stage by reverting to the
method of Poe. Sherlock Holmes is Dupin redivivus, and mutatus
mutandis; personally he is a more stirring and engaging companion,
but so far as kinship to probabilities or even possibilities is
concerned, perhaps the older version of him is the more
presentable. But in this age of marvels we seem less difficult to
suit in this respect than our forefathers were.
The fact is, meanwhile, that, in the riddle story, the detective
was an afterthought, or, more accurately, a deus ex machina to make
the story go.
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