All-rounder Artist

The book is written by Chu Kuang. Why are you so smug? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you, Shen Jiarui, were the author of ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’.

There is resentment within the circle, but they have to admit, what Shen posted about Chu Kuang before was not wrong.

No wonder he’s the number one Chu Kuang fan.

Of course, not all of the reviews are positive. ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, as one of the most controversial works by Agatha Christie, has been getting varying reviews—

“The narrative approach is too cheeky. In order to achieve the shocking effect at the end, it sacrifices the brilliance of the case. It feels like it prioritizes trivialities over fundamentals.”

“It’s clearly fooling the readers, yet many seem happy to be fooled. While it’s indeed ingenious, I don’t like this kind of detective fiction.”

“I also don’t like this kind of storytelling. But I have to admit, it represents a new approach to detective-fiction writing. I can only hope that my favorite authors don’t pick up this bad habit.”

“The quality of a detective story should not be based solely on whether the outcome is unpredictable… This kind of unconventional writing doesn’t appeal to me. I prefer unraveling mysteries, rather than playing along with the author’s word games.”

“The ending is certainly shocking, but am I the only one who found the initial and middle parts sleep-inducing?”

“Even though it’s really great, I can’t accept this kind of narrative approach. I have this subtle feeling of being played, which feels a little terrible.”

“…”

There’s a price to pay for tricking readers!

Because not everyone can accept such trickery.

Moreover, there are different types of detective stories, and ‘Narrative Trickery’ is indeed a bugbear for some mystery fans.

When Agatha Christie released ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, many raised doubts about it, considering it unfair to the reader. Any new development is bound to face controversy.

At this point.

Not only some readers feel utterly deceived, so do some authors!

Yes, some detective novel authors, after reading ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, felt like they’ve been toyed with. They vented their anger at Chu Kuang after finishing the book.

Most of them just spouted a couple of obscenities and moved on.

But some authors just can’t help but vent their frustration, like Leng Guang, a popular detective fiction author from Qi Province.

Leng Guang started his rant on Tribe:

“Ever since last night, people have been recommending ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ to me. I read it with high expectations but ended up extremely disappointed. All I want to say is, this is foul play!”

To say that he was ‘ranting’ might be an overstatement, as his words were still somewhat polite, but Leng Guang was clearly not satisfied.

Leng Guang, known for his candid and outspoken personality, had previously proposed a ‘Five Detective Fiction Rules’.

These rules are quite popular in the circle.

Rule One: The detective cannot solve the case supernaturally.

Rule Two: The criminal must not use an unvented poison or a device that requires an esoteric scientific explanation.

Rule Three: The detective must not solve the case based on clues not hinted at in the novel.

Rule Four: The detective must not rely on so-called ‘intuition’ to solve the case.

Rule Five: The detective must not be the criminal.

There is no controversy over the first few rules; they’re generally accepted within the circle, as they would indeed make the work less interesting.

But the rule stating that the detective must not be the criminal is disregarded by some.

There are some unconventional works in the detective fiction realm that portray the detective as the criminal.

So Leng Guang put forward the ‘Five Rules of Detective Fiction’, but the circle deleted the fifth rule, thus becoming the ‘Four Principles of Detective Fiction’.

This once made Leng Guang furiously criticize many people in the circle:

How dare you simply discard the last rule from my detective fiction principles?

Although ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ doesn’t portray the detective as the criminal, the ‘I’ in the first-person perspective is the criminal, which is somewhat similar to the situation where the detective is the murderer.

That’s something Leng Guang absolutely cannot accept!

However, Leng Guang’s criticism did not elicit much response because Leng Guang is well known in the detective fiction circle as a big complainer.

Nobody really dislikes Leng Guang.

Though he tends to criticize a lot, there’s a sense of authenticity about him.

In fact, there are many detective fiction authors on Earth who also despise the narrative trickery technique and have openly expressed their distaste, such as Queen, a writer only slightly less famous than Agatha Christie (Queen is a pseudonym used by two people).

Queen wouldn’t dare to criticize Agatha Christie, but he doesn’t like this style.

However, everything has two sides.

Take the well-known Higashino Keigo for instance.

His work ‘Malice’ is a classic example of narrative trickery. He pays tribute to Agatha Christie across the ages, which shows that Higashino Keigo approves of this approach.

In a synchronous manner.

Another giant in the detective genre of the same era also recognized ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’. This person, Carter, is a monumental figure among the detective fiction authors in Chu Province!

Carter is much more renowned than Leng Guang.

He commented on ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ on Tribe, praising it abundantly:

“The scheme set with the text is a brilliant idea. When I got to the fifth-last chapter, I guessed the killer but it didn’t take away from the shock I felt when I finished reading the ending. What a brilliant plot! Chu Kuang has pioneered a new genre of detective fiction! I’m even getting the itch to try this narrative approach. Sadly, I haven’t read any of Chu Kuang’s other works, but now I want to say to him, ‘Welcome to the world of detective fiction! I’m looking forward to your future works!\'”

The words of a big shot carry a lot of weight.

Even if some of Carter’s readers didn’t like ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, seeing their idol saying such things made them start leaning towards Chu Kuang:

“Upon reflection, Carter’s words really make sense. This is a new type of detective fiction.”

“Previously, I saw many people describing this style as nauseating. But look at Carter’s broad perspective on this! We should view new things from various angles!”

“Carter is truly broad-minded. This genre will undoubtedly inspire many other works, which is good for the future development of detective fiction.”

“I didn’t expect Carter to also like this book. Hehe, my taste does match that of my idol.”

“…”

A disgruntled Leng Guang left a message in the comments section: “I beg to differ.”

Carter responded with a “^_^”.

By the way, after Leng Guang proposed his Five Laws of Detective Fiction, it was Carter who first deleted the fifth rule.

At that time, Carter praised Leng Guang’s Five Laws of Detective Fiction, applauding Xiao Guang Guang’s brilliance, and then turned around and removed the fifth rule, consolidating it into the widely known ‘Four Principles of Detective Fiction’ in the detective fiction circle…

At the time, Leng Guang was almost brought to tears by the upset.

He was originally quite fond of Carter, but that event made Leng Guang become disillusioned with him.

Today, seeing Carter praise ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, Leng Guang nearly had a heart attack.

With the emergence of some controversy, the official Weibo of Silver Blue Books spoke out and added an important focus to the detective storm:

“With ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, Chu Kuang has paved the way for the narrative trickery approach in detective fiction. Narrative trickery refers to narrative deception, which is an outstanding moment for detective fiction. In the future, more innovative works may appear, but none can overshadow the brilliance of Chu Kuang’s work!”

Of course, we will fervently support our own author!

Silver Blue Books is keen to set the narrative tone and make it a fact:

In the field of detective fiction, Chu Kuang spearheaded a new genre with narrative trickery!

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