Narration in TMoRA ✍️

Why is having a peripheral narrator the standard modus operendi for Golden Age detective writers?

Having the narration be through the words of the eccentric detective would undo tension, as the reader no longer would need to compete with their intellect.

Why is Christie's narrative decision in TMoRA 'avant garde' (new and experimental)

It went against everything that had been written before. It even subverted Knox's rules of detctive fiction, which were gospel at the time.

Why did the twist in TMoRA fundementally change the genre?

From now on, readers would be skeptical of any narrator as our trust in them is corrupted.

How did TMoRA change the genre for writers?

Writers (who didn't obsessively follow the rules of Knox) now felt able to artistically change the genre in order to avoid diluting bookshelves with repetitive Holmes and Watson style novels.

What did Christie say about doctors?

'such substandard individuals tended to be venerated as higher beings just because they worked in hospitals'

What concepts does Christie defy?

That narrators are always truthful (literary)

That doctors are trusted (social)

That we can recognise a criminal mind (psychological)

How many killer doctors appear in Christie's books

23 (including Dr. Armstrong from And Then There Were None)

Why did many critics not like TMoRA?

They believed she was a 'cheat' for blatantly lying and twisting the genre.

What did the New York Times say about TMoRA

Sheppard's narrative voice was a 'perfectly fair procedure'

What did Dorothy Sayers (novelist and playwright) say about TMoRA?

'Christie fooled you.'