Fiction writers find they have to change with the times. Unless your mystery story, play or movie is set in an earlier age your detective will not be able to rely on the same clues that were such a help to Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple. Handwritten notes used to be of utmost importance for identifying evil doers.
“Is this your brother’s handwriting?” the sleuth would ask. That was all very well when people wrote everything from wedding invitations to laundry lists by hand. Nowadays even close relatives might not see each other’s handwriting for years on end.
Even people who live in the same house send each other Email. Some uncles and aunts would get no communication at all from the next generation if it were not for Facebook. Modern writers need to know about texting and tweeting and finding files that supposedly have been deleted from computers, iGizmos and smart gadgets submit free telegram channel.
And forget that business about every typewriter being unique and finding the one with the misaligned E. About the best a modern shamus can hope for is to distinguish between a laser printer and an inkjet. A really eccentric crook might use an ancient daisy wheel but the audience would be reluctant to believe it.
There was a time when you could predict what a criminal or victim might do depending on what advice he had received from his psychic advisor. The investigator would just go to the incense-filled place of business and interrogate the exotic and mysterious dispenser of wisdom. Modern seekers of insight get free email psychic readings or readings by phone.
Gone are the days when new information arrived in the form of telegrams or hand-delivered messages. It was a happy day when the messenger could describe the sinister looking man or manly looking woman who had given him the message to deliver. Even if the finder of evil doers has to travel to a distant village where the telegram originated to find someone who can identify the sender it’s just a short train trip and an opportunity to share some plot exposition with a fellow traveler.
When the sender of the telegram is finally identified he or she is sure to have the easily recognizable features. It may be a scar, twisted lip or facial mole that matches that of a known and notorious criminal. No longer can a writer count on scars or other disfigurements to identify a bad guy. This is the age of plastic surgery.
