Whydunit

Whydunit names the author’s preferred emphasis for The Book of Mirrors: the murder mystery matters not only as a puzzle of who committed the crime, but as an inquiry into why it happened. The distinction shifts the reader’s attention from identifying a culprit to seeking a deeper account of the act.

Definition and Contrast

The author contrasts a whydunit with a whodunit. After three hundred pages, the reader should receive something beyond the revelation of who killed an arbitrary victim, even if the solution is sophisticated and surprising. The killer’s identity can resolve the puzzle, but it need not exhaust the story’s significance; motive is presented as a further question the novel should pursue.

Literary Aim

For the author, this emphasis belongs alongside a second ambition: to find a form of storytelling that joins a strong sense of mystery to a literary character. Whydunit therefore describes more than a variation in the mystery’s central question. It signals an effort to make the investigation of motive part of a broader literary design, rather than letting the surprise of the solution stand alone.