ABSTRACT
The clue is by general consent a constituent feature of crime fiction; it is the means by which detective solves the mystery, the device that keeps the plot together, the interface that draws in the reader. This chapter aims to analyse the clue in terms of its textual functions and the theoretical discussions it has occasioned. Tying the clue to a metaphysical worldview in the way suggests that it comes with a historical end-date, not so much as a literary device, but as an advanced way of thinking about crime and detection. As an object of knowledge, the clue has significant epistemological implications. Interpreting the clue is therefore a contextual operation that links the isolated detail to suspects, biographies, psychologialibis, time schedules and other clues. The logic of the clue involves an ontology in the sense of an understanding of how the world is ordered and how its elements – people, actions, objects — interconnect to form a coherent whole.
