GOF as Mystery Novel

[Victoria McLure]

No: HPFGUIDX 9393

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Jim Flanagan" <jamesf at a...> wrote:


> Unfortunately, the information provided by the author of GOF is not 
> nearly enough for an intelligent reader to figure out "whodoneit."  
> My own response when Moody admits to being the Bad Guy, was mild 
> disappointment because there was so little evidence given along the 
> way to implicate him.  A good mystery would have the reader 
> saying, "of course it was Moody!"
> 
> I'm curious if anyone else has looked at GOF in this way. I'd be 
> particularly interested in comments from folks who have taken a 
> course in mystery writing, or who have written mysteries themselves.
> 
> -Jim Flanagan

In this sense, JKR does violate the "fair play" that is required (more 
or less) in crime fiction.  This idea was developed fully in the 
so-called Golden Age of crime fiction--1930's and '40's.  However, the 
information can be well hidden and subtle.  Agatha Christie was 
criticized loudly for making the criminal in "The Murder of Roger 
Ackroyd" the narrator.  Her reply was that the reader must consider 
all characters suspects and that all of the information pointed 
towards him.  
I, too, was a little disappointed in the revelations about Moody.  Is 
it possible that JKR wrote herself into a corner and had to fall back 
on this to make things work?  
OTOH, we do have some clues that something is not right, especially in 
terms of Winky and her behavior.  However, I agree, there isn't enough 
info. to point directly to Moody.

Vic