Ordeal by analysis

Agatha Christie's The thirteen problems

Gary Day

pp. 80-96

in: Clive Bloom (ed), Twentieth-century suspense, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1990

Abstract

Critics of the detective story have commented that its appeal lies less in characterisation than in the solution of a problem. Jacques Barzun writes that "detection rightly keeps character subordinate" while George Grella comments "that the central puzzle provides the form's chief appeal".¹ Generally, characters are types who perform specific functions and only the detective is allowed to be interesting.