Picture the scene.

scene. A wealthy elderly person lies dead, obviously murdered.

Their sumptuous mansion is filled to the rafters with expensive assets.

Around every corner is a family member or neighbor with some financial tie to the deceased, and

seemingly no alibi for the time of the crime.

What's the first thing an intelligent sleuth has to ask? It's not who did this, nor even how was this done?

No, the first thing the detective must find out is who benefits, of course.

Welcome to She-Dunnet.

I'm Caroline Crampton. In this episode we're going to take a closer look at how inheritance operates as a motive in classic detective fiction, and why financial expectations exert such a powerful influence over supposedly good people. When you really boil it down a detective novel can stand or fall on a single point

is the reason that an apparently upstanding member of society suddenly took

to bumping people off plausible or ridiculous? All of the cunning murder methods and clever concealments can't hide a dud if the motive doesn't work.

While there are other kinds of crime fiction that function perfectly well resting only on the pathological

approach of a serial killer say, the classic whodunit needs a more substantial foundation.

During the 1920s and 30s when the golden age of Foundation. way to effect this transformation from good egg to murderer in a believable fashion.

The unique combination of greed and desperation engendered by inheritance works very

well for this and it's no surprise therefore that plenty of writers from this period used variance of it to great effect

Let's have a more detailed look at why that is

Firstly, inheritance as a concept is completely relatable.

We might not all have rich aunts with complicated wills, but every family of every kind has experienced some kind of transfer of property when a member dies,

even if the asset in question was a prized but ugly jug, rather than a sprawling country estate. If death is a universal experience

then so is the disposition of property that follows. Then there's the temptation that a substantial inheritance represents.

Other common motives like revenge, infidelity and protection

...