There is a close relationship between detective novels, let's say detectives, and the scientific method.
The search for the cause from the effects, as well as each of the stages of the investigation, are things that are present in every self-respecting detective novel.
From the definition of the problem to the formulation of hypotheses to obtain results that finally lead us to the conclusion of the case, each and every one of the steps taken in order to advance in the scientific field are identical to those taken by the detectives from detective novels to reach the murderer.
And this has been happening since Edgar Allan Poe inaugurated the genre in 1841 with his story
The Murders in the Rue Morgue,
introducing us to Auguste Dupin, an amateur detective who, following the scientific method and without abandoning the technique of deduction, will find the cause. of the mystery that the story presents.
In an apartment in a Paris neighborhood, the murder of two women, mother and daughter, occurs.
From this effect, Auguste Dupin will find the cause.
Following this scheme, the young French-Swiss author Jöel Dicker has written a novel titled
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Case
(Alfaguara), a detective story where the mystery is presented in the form of a corpse buried in the garden of Harry Quebert, a former professor. university student who lives in a small coastal town.
The person in charge of solving the mystery and proving Harry Quebert's innocence will be his former disciple, the writer Marcus Goldman who, without abandoning the scientific method, will deduce and modify hypotheses based on existing evidence.
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Does the fourth spatial dimension really exist?
There is in this novel, if the term may be used, a skillful use of Ockham's Razor, that is, of the principle that is used in science to guide theoretical models and which means that the simplest and most sufficient explanation is always the most probable, although it is not necessarily the true one.
This tool was sharpened by a Franciscan monk named William of Ockham (1285-1347) - hence his name - and applying his court is what leads Goldman to reveal the mystery surrounding the complex case of his professor. .
Although everything indicates that Harry Quebert is responsible for the crime, for Goldman the explanations are too complex and clash with his reasoning.
That's when he pulls the scientific knife.
The tendency to simplify is present in each of the actions of this absorbing story that has become an international success with thousands of people hooked on a plot where Dicker invites us to play at being detectives, to use the scientific method to clarify the causes of a crime and thereby find the culprit.
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