Van Dine's Commandments
- Rule #1
It is forbidden to have a crime without all clues presented.
- Rule #2
It is forbidden for there to be tricks other than those played legitimately by the criminal on the detective himself.
- Rule #3
It is forbidden for there to be a love interest of the Detective.
- Rule #4
It is forbidden for the Detective to be the culprit.
- Rule #5
It is forbidden for the crime to be solved by accident or intuition.
- Rule #6
It is forbidden for there to be no Detective.
- Rule #7
It is forbidden to have a crime without a corpse.
- Rule #8
It is forbidden for there to be supernatural methods involved in deduction.
- Rule #9
It is forbidden for there to be more than one Detective.
- Rule #10
It is forbidden for the culprit to be someone not previously mentioned.
- Rule #11
It is forbidden for a servant to be the criminal.
- Rule #12
It is forbidden for there to be more than one culprit. There may be assistants, but only one culprit.
- Rule #13
It is forbidden for there to be secret societies for the culprit to fall back on.
- Rule #14
It is forbidden for there to be a crime that cannot be solved with natural means.
- Rule #15
It is forbidden for the Truth to be hidden, or never available for an outsider to solve themselves.
- Rule #16
It is forbidden for there to be unneeded details that have nothing to do with deduction.
- Rule #17
It is forbidden for the culprit to have guilt or regret.
- Rule #18
It is forbidden for there to be deaths caused by an accident or suicide.
- Rule #19
It is forbidden for the culprit’s motive to be any more than personal.
- Rule #20
It is forbidden for there to be overused devices in a novel.
