Crime novel - Multiperspectivity/unreliable narration

[quirrlyqually]

Hey guys!

I need to write a term paper on British and American crime fiction. Does anybody know one or two good crime/detective novels that deal with multiperspectivity and/or unreliable narration?

Cheers!

[kiki1982]

I would certainly include Wilkie Collins's Moonstone in this. It is one of the first crime novels in its kind and uses an epistolary format to try and solve the problem of multiperspectivity in one novel. Unlike with Poirot, you do not get a single person investigating. It's you yourself. The conclusion is a little weird (typically a bit occult and mysterious; Victorians eh), but it's certainly worth reading from a technical point of view.

There is some unreliable narration in it, although not pertaining to the crime itself.

[kasie]

This fits your requirements to a T: An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears (1997).

Four narrators - four versions of the events, each narrator moving the story forward a few steps. Only trouble is that each of the narrators has a flaw or a private agenda which means he does not always tell the whole truth. The clues (the 'fingerposts' - ie something pointing you in the right direction) are all there right from the beginning - if you realise what the characters are really saying. A huge cast of mostly historical figures (set in Restoration England) and a long read (nearly 700 pages) but well worth it, imo.

[Aylinn]

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie