It’s really a simple matter. I maintain that at this point […] you have all the facts in your possession essential to a clear solution of the mystery.
The mystery writing team Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee (writing under the pseudonym Ellery Queen) used to include the above statement toward the end of their books. The idea was to give the reader time to consider the story’s clues and come up with a solution before moving on to the reveal in the final pages.
The gimmick was so popular that it spawned an anthology (pictured at left), published in 1938 by the Frederick A. Stokes Company.
You’ll find something similar in our Mystery Theatre episodes, where each segment ends with a challenge to evaluate the available clues before moving on to the following week’s installment.
Thus, after listening to today’s episode, you should be able to determine how to decipher the strange tapping sounds introduced in our previous week’s installment. The answer, as mystery writer August LaFleur says, is all there in the details.
Last weekend, a group of theatergoers and mystery fans accepted the challenge by stopping by the Mystery Theatre display on opening night of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. We’ll be sharing some of their insights at the beginning of Act III (which drops next week).
Theatergoers work at cracking the Mystery Theatre code in the lobby of the New Hazlett Theatre. >>>
In the meantime, after listening to today’s installment, if you have any observations or suggestions about how the story should proceed, drop us a note in the comment box below or at primestage.com/contact.
Click the player. I’ll meet you there!
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