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Show f Savlt Uke's True Myteric j ALT LAKE CITY his one In for true detective de-tective stories within the last couple of gears. There was the June Nelson murder mystery, the fiendishness of which left the public psplnf tni shuddering. That was New Year's day of I921?. Then came the death by deadly poison of Cily Treasurer Max Beaver just as a huje shortage was discovered In city funds, and a coroner's Jury decided that he was murdered. By whom? Ah, we'll likely never be Void. But what mystery story could be more t'lfflini and curiosity provoking than the brutal murder of Mrs. Dorothy Dexter Moor-meisterf Moor-meisterf Tbe comlnr of b. O. Heinrich, world famed criminologist, to ipplyf science l tha attempted solution of the Moormeister case makes it as bizarre as the most imaginative imagina-tive of fiction thrillers. Consequently, Salt Lakers know something some-thing about real mystery. Therefore, It ought to be Interesting to us to speculate on detective detec-tive stories, which have lately grown so popular. pop-ular. Doubtlessly most of us have just enough of the caveman Instinct In our makeups to delight In an exciting- murder story. In Its recent burst of popularity, the detective story haa been reduced almost to a formula. Harry Leon Wilson, who has written some good detective stories, tells us that all that Is necessary to write a best selling mystery story b to follow certain rules. You'll enjoy his directions, as follows: "Guesj the weight of your reader's eyelids eye-lids along about midnight, lay the setting of the murders (and there must be two or three) in England and your book is sure to be a puccess." says Mr. Wilson. "It'a no use being patriotic A murder Committed In America Is always solved by the police or a daring cub reporter before the last evening edition, and where dots your mystery come in? "Dispatch your victim In Sir or Lady Anyone's library or study. A . house party of eighteen or twenty guests, all with motives for killing the deceased, should, be attendant to the murder. "All characters must have unpronounceable unpronounce-able names. Lady MertrrrWaddingham Wad-dingham, Wad-dingham, Sylvester Mackintosh Fish and forty others of the same trend are always good. "In the room adjacent to where the murder mur-der Is committed a bridge game or a round of scotch and soda must be in progress. Incidentally, In-cidentally, English scotch and soda Is never served with ice. "There should be an open book on the lounge the open pages suggestive of the victim's vic-tim's thought just before be, or she, was struck with the heavy, blunt instrument "Ladies implicated or draped with a motive mo-tive must be of a Latin or French descent, should the writer decide to snuff out the life of his mysteree with a sheath knife found beside the body with a strangely carved bandle. "It Is useless to go Into the possibilities of England as a murder setting. Who can Imagine an interesting murder being committed com-mitted In an American apartment where the only characters would be a dumb elevator boy and a Swede janitor? "Where better could the richly-clothed corpus delect! be sighted than in the Thames by a bobby wandering the foggy quays? "Do not forget your disguises. Any Scot-land Scot-land Yard man can fool his own mother with a bit of lipstick and a false beard. "Lead your Scotlard Yarder into London's night clubs, a town house, or the darkest recesses of narrow lanes bordering the water front but he must shake hands with fellow force members and give them a hearty cheerio" whenever they meet. I "One of your suspects must visit Monte Carlo, the Riviera or the Canadian Rockies to supply gendarmes or mounties. "Shake well, keeping in mind that a sleeping potion, to be sold at 12, must deaden the eyelids, and you have your book." But Author Wilson doesn't know Salt Lake. This city has already provided enough unsolved, unsolvable, clueless mysteries that the detective story writers should migrate here en masse and solve them all in the last dozen lines of their final chapters. a. |