A short time ago I had the great luck to obtain a rare book published in 1899 – The Domestic Cyclopedia: An Instructor on Nursing, Housekeeping and Home Adornments.
That’s quite the combination of topics and it is a fascinating research tool, filled with information otherwise lost to posterity. At that time it was found that cigarettes often contained opium “physicians and chemists were surprised to find how much” or “Havana flavoring … made from the tonka bean, which contains a deadly poison” and that the appropriate wrapping of rice paper was commonly found to be “filthy scrapings of ragpickers bleached white with arsenic”.
Whhhooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaa. Things have ‘come a long way, baby.’
Some rare sentences are like photographs; revealing a thousand word story in an amazingly brief format. Although I am no where near that accomplished yet, many writers are and I am captured by their skill like an elite addict is captured by an exquisite wine; tasting the flavour over and over; reluctant to move on because this heavenly morsel demands all of my attention.
“What we expect is a central mysterious death, a closed circle of suspects with motive, means and opportunity for the crime, a detective, either amateur or professional, who comes in like an avenging deity to solve it and by the end of the book a solution which the reader should be able to arrive at by logical deduction from clues inserted in the novel with deceptive cunning but essential fairness.” PD James
“What you have to account for is if one person did see something why didn’t that person say so? … Possibility one.