: Re: Why aren't detective stories written in the protagonist's POV? I've noticed that successful detective stories are, nearly always, not written in the point of view of the detective himself. The

@Kaufman555

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Another example is the series of Encyclopedia Brown children's detective novels. These are typically third person roving camera because of the nature of the stories' set-up. The titular detective is more of a framing device to provide a series of the facts about the case and the reader is invited to solve the case. Each story would cut right before Brown revealed who-done-it and would give a page number at the end of the book for a single page solution. Every case was designed as a riddle or logic puzzle and the victim, the perp, and the detective were framing devices for the puzzle to be given to the reader. Some were solid logical conclusions (in one, a knife embedded in a watermelon during a grocery store robbery was linked to one perp because he claimed his knife was longer... despite not being able to see the length of the blade.). Others not so much (one relied on knowledge of Hot Dog topping arrangement that was way too much of a "No True Scotsman" and others relied on motions that were possible, but not probable).

Either way, everything presented to Brown was given to the reader and the challenge was to get the right answer that solved the puzzle. Brown knowing it was more framing device.

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