School of Hard Knox

by Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, Art Taylor

Rebels with a Cause!

Nearly 100 years ago, The Reverend Monsignor Ronald Knox of the famed Detection Club developed ten rules-a Decalogue he called them-that he felt were "necessary to the full enjoyment of a detective story." Fairness with readers seemed an author's highest calling, and-lo!-"the faculty for writing a good mystery story is rare."



Writers (those heretics!) regularly bristle at a challenge, and being told that a literary twist is forbidden makes their fingers twitch at the keyboard.

This anthology contains fourteen of today's outstanding English and American short story authors, trying their best to break one-or more!-of the good monsignor's rules. Twins, supernatural events, and sleuths not sharing their clues are all in here-transgressions in all directions.

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 31, 2023

About the author

Donna Andrews was born in Yorktown, Virginia, the setting of Murder with Peacocks and Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos, and now lives and works in Reston, Virginia. When not writing fiction, Andrews is a self-confessed nerd, rarely found away from her computer, unless she's messing in the garden

http://us.macmillan.com/author/donnaa...

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good collection of short stories, punctured by several extremely boring duds which had no detection involved. But the tales that took on Father Knox's and knocked his commandments out, were truly wonderful.
Following the delightful 'Introduction' penned by Jeffrey Marks, my favourites were~
1. 'Not Another Secret Passage Story' by Donna Andrews;
2. 'Baby Trap' by Toni LP Kelner;
3. 'The Rose City Vampire: An Accidental Alchemist Short Story' by Gigi Pandian;
4. 'Chin Yong Yun Goes to Church' by SJ Rozan;
5. 'The Island Boy Detective Agency' by Marcia Talley;
6. Last and the most obnoxiously (pardon my pun!) enjoyable saga, 'Knox Vomica' by Peter Lovesey.
Overall, this was a good collection. If only the editors had gone a little hard on themselves and the name-heavy rest, it would have been much better.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Rate

All the stories are excellent - Peter Lovesy's poem at the end is fun and repeats the rules: Not more than one secret passage, no twins, no supernatural solutions, the sleuth can't be the murderer or an Asian
etc. Enjoyed it.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A century ago Monsignor Ronald Knox published his “ten commandments for detective novelists”, his suggested rules for writers to follow to ensure fair play in crime novels. This is a collection of stories in which the writers break at least one of the commandments. A mixed bag, but the final contribution by Peter Lovesey makes it all worthwhile.

[Vallery Feldman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book of short stories using using Father Knox's rules of writing crime fiction. Fun read, with a couple of very good stories.

[Clara Smith]

Read "Not Another Secret Passage Story" by Donna Andrews