I started my mystery exploration with what I had on hand, or, rather, what I could get my hands on. My roommate kindly lent me a few of her mystery movies, all of which consist of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. Agatha Christie is famous for her murder mystery series as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for Sherlock Holmes. I spent last night watching an episode entitled "Cat Among the Pigeons". The movie was quite good, the actors wonderfully British. From this film I've discerned a few things about the genre.
There is a basic formula. The piece, be it film or novel, starts out with a vague introduction of characters. If it is a series, as they often are, there might be a little more focus on the main detective, who rarely is employed by the police full time. (In this particular case, the inspector called upon for the case is wary of Poirot's help at first, until he "proves" himself to be worth the effort. Poirot states early in the movie that he does not want to be "stepping on of the toes".) Then there is the first "incident". Most often it is a murder, but sometimes it is a missing object of great value. Murder tends to be most common. Sometimes there are several murders. Then follows the investigation, where strange twists and turns are revealed, as well as dirty secrets and underlying alliances. Then there is the grand finale, the accusation with undeniable proof that the murderer had done it.
I think I will be watching a few more films, as well as exploring a few books.
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