Murderous Schemes by Donald E. Westlake

Author:Donald E. Westlake [Westlake, Donald E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0195103211
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1996-10-30T21:00:00+00:00

COME INTO MY PARLOR

“COME INTO MY PARLOR” IS AMONG THE MANY FORMULAS SHARED by the mystery and horror genres. While horror fiction assumes that the supernatural exists and is central to understanding the world, in the mystery genre the supernatural does not exist, or, if it does, it does not actively interfere in the physical world. When Sherlock Holmes confronts the hound of the Baskervilles, he battles not a demon spirit but a hoax. Many detectives expose similar fake spectres. Ratiocination, the process of logically examining evidence, would be impossible if the laws of nature were suspended. However, a come into my parlor story comes close to the primary premise of horror fiction in that concealed human evil is revealed, sometimes motiveless, but nonetheless lurking like a hungry spider, ready to consume the unwary fly. Characters are drawn into attractive situations only to discover that they have badly misjudged and will be destroyed for their error. An early exemplar is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” in which the narrator draws Fortunato to his entombment, exploiting both the oenophile’s pride in his palate and his disdain for the man who will kill him. In most come into my parlor stories, we are not told initially of the evildoer’s intention and we fully identify with the naivete of the victim. As we begin to sense that something is subtly wrong, we face the unhappy realization that we, too, would be likely to fall unwarily into a similar trap. The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman, Shakespeare warns us, and the Devil can quote Scripture. Furthermore, many of these stories suggest the victims own responsibility in being attracted into the “spiders web.” The victims are prideful, gluttonous, lecherous, greedy, or, more ironically, looking for a kindness that they should not expect. With this element, a come into my parlor story becomes a moral tale, reminiscent of early Renaissance dramas featuring the vice figure, who weakens and destroys people by exploiting their own longings and desires. The come into my parlor formula offers a cautionary warning about temptation, repeating the old saw that something too good to be true probably is.

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