Performing Murder and Metaphor

While detective fiction works primarily focus on the process of revealing the systems of signs, i.e. clues, that effectively lead the detective (and the reader) to the criminal, there is another set of signs that often go either unremarked or out rightly unnoticed: the red herrings. Within the structure of a detective novel and, insofar as a piece of fiction ultimately re-presents the world, the world in general red herrings are seen as broken signs which only distract. This distractive quality simultaneously marks the destructive nature of these sign systems: since they mislead, they must never be paid heed to. The current paper, however, believes that red herrings as “broken” signs are equally important, if not more than the actual clues. The paper intends to show that it is because of such signs that are broken that the world in general and the one in the novels can truly be understood. Picking up Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of Baskervilles and Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the current paper intends to form a theoretical paradigm towards the comprehension of such clues and how, ultimately, such signs signify a perpetual systems of criminal (and quite theatrical) performances within the rubric of detective novels.