{{short description|Subgenre of detective fiction}} [[File:And Then There Were None 1945.jpg|thumb|In Agatha Christie's ''And Then There Were None'', a murder occurs among a group of strangers in a house on an isolated island.]] The '''closed circle of suspects''' is a common element of detective fiction, wherein a given crime (usually a murder) occurs within a limited and predefined group of characters, all of whom are isolated in a confined setting such as a remote estate, island, or train, ensuring the perpetrator must be one among them.<ref name="Carlson1993-20-21"/><ref name="Curran2010"/> This narrows the investigative focus to a limited number of suspects, each with credible means, motive, and opportunity.<ref name="paul"/><ref name="Paul1991"/><ref name="James2011"/><ref name="Herbert2003"/> The detective has to solve the crime, figuring out the criminal from this pool of suspects, rather than searching for an entirely unknown perpetrator.<ref name=paul/><ref name="Carlson1993-20-21"/> The subgenre that employs this can be referred to as the '''closed circle mystery'''.<ref name=paul/><ref name="Paul1991"/><ref name="Carlson1993-20-21"/> Less precisely, this subgenre – works with the closed circle literary device – is simply known as the "classic", "traditional" or "cozy" detective fiction.<ref name="Levinson2002"/><ref name="Mellencamp1992"/>
==History== This type of narrative originated in British detective fiction.<ref name="Carlson1993-20-21"/><ref name="Anderson2007">{{cite book|author=Patrick Anderson|title=The triumph of the thriller: how cops, crooks, and cannibals captured popular fiction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XVlo-engkYsC&pg=PA24|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=6 February 2007|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-0-345-48123-8|page=24}}</ref> Agatha Christie's ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' (1920) has been credited as a work that started this trend.<ref name="Anderson2007"/><ref name="Lehman2000"/> Other writers of that period, dating to the first half of the 20th century, a time known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (or more general, mystery fiction), reliant on the closed circle and related literary devices include Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh (the Queens of Crime), G. K. Chesterton and Americans S. S. Van Dine and Ellery Queen.<ref name="Levinson2002"/><ref name="DuboseThomas2000"/><ref name="CharlesMorrison2002"/>
Those early closed circle mysteries preferred a common setting: a British country house.<ref name="Carlson1993-20-21"/><ref name="Curran2010"/><ref name="Anderson2007"/><ref name="DuboseThomas2000"/><ref name="Carpenter1973"/> The country house was a common enough element that closed circle mysteries set in such a location are sometimes known as "country house mysteries".<ref name="Bargainnier1987"/> The persons involved were also commonly part of the upper class, generally the landed gentry.<ref name="Carlson1993-20-21"/><ref name="Herbert2003"/><ref name="DuboseThomas2000"/><ref name="Carpenter1973"/> Other settings than the country house are possible, such as ships, trains, islands, and so on.<ref name="Curran2010"/><ref name="Lehman2000"/> The requirements for the setup of the mystery enforce certain limitations on the genre. Certain settings are frequently represented in the genre, typically involving upper-class characters to whose properties outsiders have limited access.<ref name="Carpenter1973"/><ref name="Rzepka2005">{{cite book|author=Charles J. Rzepka|title=Detective fiction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYq7D2VCmc0C&pg=PA15|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=7 October 2005|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-2942-1|pages=14–15}}</ref> The numbers of suspects vary, from a group as small as four or five, to all the passengers of a train, coach or wagon.<ref name="Curran2010"/> The location may be temporarily isolated by a snowstorm or similar, and may or may not have a working telephone, but generally has a working power supply as well as servants to cook and clean (who are not generally suspects)
After the Second World War, the closed circle mystery became less common as other types of crime novels rose to prominence;<ref name="MullenO'Beirne2000"/> nonetheless, writers such as Rex Stout, Lucille Kallen, Cyril Hare, Jonathan Gash, and Simon Brett have employed the device in their fiction.<ref name="Bargainnier1987" />
While the closed circle is a common device in literary fiction, it is a much less common occurrence in actual criminal investigations.<ref name="Carlson1993-20-21"/>
== Country house mystery == Examples of the "Country house mystery" from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction are: * ''And Then There Were None'' by Agatha Christie (set on an island) * ''Death and the Dancing Footman'' by Ngaio Marsh (in which the characters are isolated by a snowstorm; the classic ''Country House'' setting!)
More recent examples include: * "And Then There Were Fewer" (an episode from ''Family Guy'' that takes place in a manor house owned by James Woods on a remote island) * ''Knives Out'' by Rian Johnson (a film set primarily in a country manor house) * ''7 Women and a Murder'' by Alessandro Genovesi (a film which takes place in a manor house during a snowstorm) * ''Hitman 3'' (video game featuring a level, inspired by ''Knives Out'', in which the player can solve a murder in a country manor on Dartmoor)
== Other fiction featuring closed circles == * ''Murder on the Orient Express'' by Agatha Christie (set on a stalled train in a snowdrift) * ''Death on the Nile'' by Agatha Christie (set on a Nile river steamer) * ''Vintage Murder'' by Ngaio Marsh (set in a country house) * ''The Five Red Herrings'' by Dorothy L. Sayers (in which the suspects are a small number of talented artists) * ''Glass Onion'' by Rian Johnson (film set on an island) * ''The Last of Sheila'' by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins (film set on a yacht) * ''Murder on the Leviathan'' by Boris Akunin (set on the eponymous ship) * ''Death in the Clouds'' by Agatha Christie (set on an airplane) * ''Evil Under The Sun'' by Agatha Christie (set on an island hotel)
==See also== * Cluedo, a board game with a closed circle of suspects as its premise * ''Danganronpa'', a visual novel video game franchise that takes the form of a collection of closed-circle murder-mysteries * Locked-room mystery
==References== <references>
<ref name="Anderson2007">{{cite book|author=Patrick Anderson|title=The triumph of the thriller: how cops, crooks, and cannibals captured popular fiction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XVlo-engkYsC&pg=PA24|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=6 February 2007|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-0-345-48123-8|page=24}}</ref>
<ref name="Bargainnier1987">{{cite book|author=Earl F. Bargainnier|title=Comic crime|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IdjPTpPjyoIC&pg=PA119|accessdate=21 September 2011|year=1987|publisher=Popular Press|isbn=978-0-87972-384-2|page=119}}</ref>
<ref name="Carpenter1973">{{cite book|author=Luther P. Carpenter|title=G. D. H. Cole: an intellectual biography|url=https://archive.org/details/gdhcoleintellect0000carp|url-access=registration|accessdate=21 September 2011|year=1973|publisher=CUP Archive|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gdhcoleintellect0000carp/page/122 122]–123| isbn=9780521087025 |id=GGKEY:5YJTYF0EETQ}}</ref>
<ref name="Carlson1993-20-21">{{cite book|author=Marvin A. Carlson|title=Deathtraps: the postmodern comedy thriller|url=https://archive.org/details/deathtrapspostmo00carl|url-access=registration|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=November 1993|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-31305-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/deathtrapspostmo00carl/page/20 20]–21}}</ref>
<ref name="CharlesMorrison2002">{{cite book|author1=John Charles|author2=Joanna Morrison|author3=Candace Clark|title=The mystery readers' advisory: the librarian's clues to murder and mayhem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bsWM8vWJHzoC&pg=PA9|accessdate=21 September 2011|year=2002|publisher=ALA Editions|isbn=978-0-8389-0811-2|page=9}}</ref>
<ref name="Curran2010">{{cite book|author=John Curran|title=Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TPw8JAW0xAC&pg=PA37|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=23 February 2010|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-198836-3|pages=37–38}}</ref>
<ref name="DuboseThomas2000">{{cite book|author1=Martha Hailey Dubose|author2=Margaret C. Thomas|title=Women of mystery: the lives and works of notable women crime novelists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SY19owTDgF0C&pg=PA350|accessdate=21 September 2011|year=2000|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-20942-1|page=350}}</ref>
<ref name="Herbert2003">{{cite book|author=Rosemary Herbert|title=Whodunit: a who's who in crime & mystery writing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tyl58xl1fYYC&pg=PA201|accessdate=21 September 2011|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press US|isbn=978-0-19-515763-5|page=201}}</ref>
<ref name="James2011">{{cite book|author=P. D. James|title=Talking about Detective Fiction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLTU-IzWQaUC&pg=PA9|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=3 May 2011|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-0-307-74313-8|page=9}}</ref>
<ref name="Lehman2000">{{cite book|author=David Lehman|title=The perfect murder: a study in detection|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZbF_5nxR0MC&pg=PA107|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=February 2000|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-08585-9|page=107}}</ref>
<ref name="Levinson2002">{{cite book|author=David Levinson|title=Encyclopedia of crime and punishment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LJX3Ql7bu2YC&pg=PA1016|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=18 March 2002|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-0-7619-2258-2|page=1016}}</ref>
<ref name="Mellencamp1992">{{cite book|author=Patricia Mellencamp|title=High anxiety: catastrophe, scandal, age & comedy|url=https://archive.org/details/highanxietycatas0000mell|url-access=registration|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=September 1992|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-20735-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/highanxietycatas0000mell/page/307 307]}}</ref>
<ref name="MullenO'Beirne2000">{{cite book|author1=Anne Mullen|author2=Emer O'Beirne|title=Crime scenes: detective narratives in European culture since 1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmPWsVEA_CcC&pg=PA161|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=January 2000|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-90-420-1233-2|page=161}}</ref>
<ref name="Paul1991">{{cite book|author=Robert S. Paul|title=Whatever happened to Sherlock Holmes: detective fiction, popular theology, and society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0cXoZWdEjJwC&pg=PA89|accessdate=21 September 2011|date=20 November 1991|publisher=SIU Press|isbn=978-0-8093-1722-6|page=89}}</ref>
<ref name="paul">{{cite web|url=http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/faq.html |title=P.D. James: About the Author P.D. James |publisher=Randomhouse.com |date= |accessdate=2011-09-21}}</ref>
</references>
{{crime fiction}}
Category:Detective fiction Category:Narrative techniques Category:Puzzles