Crime and punishment

A perfect crime is one that is never discovered, and will never need to be solved. Robberies are hard to miss. Eventually, the item/s being salted away will be noticed or the sum of money discovered. Murder, however, may go unnoticed. Only the loss of someone's presence would lead others to ask and perhaps investigate the cause of their disappearance.

In European news, a Polish writer has been thrown in jail for murder. He was found out based on a book he wrote, which was close enough to the actual events of the murder leading the investigators to the author's door. What egotism on the writer to indulge in a crime and then profit from it by writing and selling the story.

My morbid streak is partly fed by a steady stream of mystery novels, which began in my childhood with Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and any young adult series that centered around detection and mystery (Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey twins, etc). As a twelfth birthday present, my father gave me the complete Sherlock Holmes collection, a book I still keep, albeit taped together after years or reading again and again. I've read a good number of European mystery writers' work, and a fair share of American ones. I haven't found a cache of Asian mysteries yet, and should probably do my bit for the local literary economy by trying out a pinoy detective series (do they exist?). All I want is a sound plot, dead body or two, ambience that is gothic worthy and either a plucky detective or someone who is full of angst and humanity.