Intro

=Why Should I Care?=

Unless you plan on being involved in a murder, the events of this novel will not directly apply to your life. However, several aspects of the whodunit teach valuable lessons.

First of all, whodunits are a major exercise in critical thinking skills. A goal for most readers is to crack the case before it is actually revealed. To do this, a reader must compile a huge amount of data presented in the story and sift through it to determine what is important. The reader also occasionally sees windows into the critical thinking strategies of certain characters, detective or not. These fragments of thought are combined at the end of the novel into the major revelation.

Also, whodunits frequently rely heavily on interpersonal relationships to make the plot work. An understanding of how people view those around them, from their closest relatives to total strangers, can be very interesting. There are also very often incentives present for characters--a common one is money, in the form of an inheritance or prize. The study of incentives, and how people react to them, is both fascinating and largely applicable to real life.

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