Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Have you ever watched Columbo? Every episode started off showing us who did it and how. The show showed how Columbo solved the murder. It worked rather well.
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That is the conceit that makes the Columbo mysteries true classics: the puzzle isn't whonnit but rather what is the clue that unravels the plan or solves the case. The rumpled slob is also a affectation that makes him engaging. (Anybody who saw Mrs Columbo knows it's an act.
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Other mysteries focus on how the crime was committed, how the culprit's alobi might be cracked, etc. There's the locked room mysteries, the two-places-at once alibi, the ice bullet, the missing body, etc.
Every once in a while a writer comes up with an entirely new puzzle type but those are rare and hard. Most mysteries are perforce variations on the classics. Doesn't diminish the fun.