Daniel Sellers' guest post #2: 'Twists - what makes a twist work?'

Today, Daniel Sellers returns to the blog with a second guest post about his thoughts on plot twists: 
'For me,twists are most effective — and impressive — when they’re both ingenious andcredible.
Thereare plenty of twists that don’t meet my ‘gold standard’. I’d argue that anumber of well-known crime stories have ingenious but utterly incredibletwists: Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) and Murder onthe Orient Express (1934), for example (though I do love aspects ofboth books, not least their settings). I’d call these overly ingenious twists ‘eyerollers’, and I’m afraid I’d dump a good few Dickson Carrs in with them too. (Apologiesto any fans . . .)
Thenthere are nicely credible twists that are low on ingenuity, but which arestill satisfying. Ruth Rendell was an expert at this kind of utterly compelling,quiet switcheroo, never more so than when she was writing as Barbara Vine. See ADark-Adapted Eye (1986) and the wonderful Asta’s Book (1993). Seealso Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs (1943), and P D James’s shortstory, A Very Commonplace Murder (1969). I call these twists ‘quietlysatisfying’.

 

Then wehave twists that are low in both ingenuity and credibility, and seem to bethere purely for the sake of another surprise. See the bizarre ‘Pip and Emma’reveals in A Murder is Announced (1950). These I call ‘so what?’ twists.

 

So,which crime stories meet my gold standard by being both ingenious andcredible? I commend three to you, though there are plenty more:

 

·        AgathaChristie’s Witness for the Prosecution (play: 1953), where the twist is gobsmackingand utterly believable as a lot suddenly makes sense;

 

·        DennisLeHane’s Shutter Island (2003), where the twist is ‘extrinsic’,according to the classification I proposed in an earlier post. It’s a stormerof a reveal, not only for the main character but for the reader too. It’s alsovery poignant; and

 

·        DaphneDu Maurier’s Rebecca (1938), where the key twist (two-thirds ofthe way in) is immediately believable and changes everything. Rebecca alsohappens to be one of my favourite novels in any genre.'

 

 

Daniel Sellers is author of theLola Harris Glasgow-based mystery series,
publishedby Joffe Books.