In 1930s mysteries, all sorts of motives were credible which aren't credible today, especially motives of preventing guilty sexual secrets from coming out. Nowadays, people sell their guilty sexual secrets.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
You know the thing that interests me about 'Unsolved Mysteries?' It's because there are people out there, people who know something, who may have the one final clue.
What's the use of making mysteries? It only makes people want to nose 'em out.
It's kind of part of human nature to want to know the truth or want to be in on the secret. For stories that focus in on that - like whodunits - it's easy to get drawn into.
In a mystery, the sleuth must be believably involved and emotionally invested in solving the crime.
In terms of publicity and interviews, well, it's really hard in this modern world to keep a sense of mystery.
If you lift the romantic element out of my plots, you still have fully formed mysteries. In the same fashion, if you pull the mystery out of a historical romance, you are left with a perfectly satisfying story.
You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people think of a secret as a shared relation between two people.
The idea of withholding a massive secret is obviously quite exciting to some people. It is also the basis of much classic drama, of course, from Sophocles onwards.
For decades, the men at Area 51 thought they'd take their secrets to the grave. At the height of the Cold War, they cultivated anonymity while pursuing some of the country's most covert projects. Conspiracy theories were left to popular imagination.
The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.