It’s a mystery to me…

The world’s oldest detective trope: You’re probably wondering why I’ve gathered you here…
[image credit: IndyWeek] 
NOTE: This blast-from-the-past is from a few years back. But since I think only my mother and a few others read it, I hope you don’t mind the repeat…)

Ever since 1841 when Edgar Allen Poe penned “The Murders in the Rue Morgue“—arguably the first modern detective story—readers have loved detectives. And we especially love amateur ones. Because, let’s face it: there are relatively few amateur brain surgeons or nuclear physicists, but who doesn’t believe they could tell a roomful of suspects, “You’re probably wondering why I’ve gathered you all here?”

[Check out the clip below from The Mirror Crack’d, the 1980 Agatha Christie adaptation that provides a seamless transition from the traditional (male) detective summation to the archetypal cozy mystery trope. Miss Marple becomes…