Mystery Thrill and Suspense in the Select Novels of Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham A Comparative Study

Abstract

Denis Porter in his book, the Pursuit of Crime: Art and Ideology in newlineDetective Fiction, talks about the wide range in the genre. In the mystery newlinestory, the crime story, the problem story, the detective story, the police newlinenovel, the thriller or the spy thriller, we find a significant overlapping. In newlinespy thrillers, he says the identity of the criminal is known early. The spy s newlineproblem is too find and destroy him. The detective story, on the other hand, newlineproceeds from mystery to unravelling, crime to punishment, or at least newlinearrest. Dorothy L. Sayers feels it has a beginning, middle and an end- like newlinethe Aristotelian conception of tragic drama. The detective novel Porter newlineopines, the generic term for all novels whose principal action concerns the newlineattempt by a specialist investigator to solve a crime and to bring a criminal newlineto justice whether the crime involved be a single murder or the endeavour to newlinedestroy a civilization. Detective stories follow a certain general sequence, newlinediscovery, investigation, identification, escape, pursuit, unmasking and newlinefinally arrest. In spite of this common agenda, detective fiction has been newlinevariously described. Mystery, thrill and suspense form part and parcel of the newlinedetective fictions. Thriller is a genre of literature, film, video-gaming and newlinetelevision that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. newlineCommon methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, newlinerevenge, and kidnappings. More common in mystery thrillers are newlineinvestigations and the whodunit technique. Homer s Odyssey is one of the newlineoldest stories in the western world and is regarded as an early prototype of newlinethe thriller. A thriller is villain-driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles newlinethat the hero must overcome. As far as detective fiction is concerned it is a newlinebranch of crime fiction that centres around the investigation of a crime by a newline(iv) newlinedetective, either professional or amateur. It is the most popular form of both newlinemystery fiction and crime fiction. If we go back to the origin of this genre, newline