Many of the best writers of all time have
used their skill in the inverted form of story telling, as a glance
at our table of contents will show; and many of their tales depend
for their effect as much on character and atmosphere as on the play
and complication of events.
The statement that a good detective or riddle story is good in art
is supported by the fact that the supply of really good ones is
relatively small, while the number of writers who would write good
ones if they could, and who have tried and failed to write them, is
past computation. And one reason probably is that such stories,
for their success, must depend primarily upon structure--a sound
and perfect plot--which is one of the rare things in our
contemporary fiction. Our writers get hold of an incident, or a
sentiment, or a character, or a moral principle, or a hit of
technical knowledge, or a splotch of local color, or even of a new
version of dialect, and they will do something in two to ten
thousand words out of that and call it a short story. Magazines
may be found to print it--for there are all manner of magazines;
but nothing of that sort will serve for a riddle story.
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