Thursday, June 19: Femme Fatale
TWISTS AND TURNS
by Deborah Elliott-Upton
Last weekend, I traveled the open road. As expected along the way we witnessed road kill in the form of a snake and a coyote. They didn’t make it across the highway, but just as we passed him, a turtle did. I was surprised how many RV’s shared the highway – so much for people staying home this summer due to stratospheric gasoline prices. We drove by interesting and not-so-interesting scenery, but one sight that stopped me mid-sentence was a huge herd on the west side of the road … not of cattle, horses or (shudder) even sheep, but of camels.
What a surprise in the middle of nowhere on the map to find something so unlikely. The whole thing reminded me of twist endings, coming out of nowhere and yet, why not? We were in the midst of triple digit weather where one might think she’d spot camels. Perhaps camels are normal in this part of the United States and I had just never had my eyes opened to the possibility. Isn’t that what a twist ending should be in a story?
I’m fond of twist endings and have employed them often in my stories. The clues have to be carefully placed, along with a few red herrings, but all leading to the aha! moment when the reader discovers the truth and that it’s been there all along (like Dorothy’s power to go home in The Wizard of Oz) if only we could have seen it.
Russian playwright Anton Chekhov said a writer should not have a gun on display in the story unless at sometime that gun comes into play and is important in the plot. Chekhov’s Gun must be foreshadowed in order to play fair with the reader.
SPOILER ALERT Skip this paragraph if you don’t want a clue into whodunnit in movies. If a character, potentially a minor character, is shown three times in what isn’t that important of a scene, he is important and most probably is the criminal the detective (whether amateur or official) is hunting. END OF SPOILER
A change of direction that happens at the end of the story is considered a story with a twist ending. Think of Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” broadcasts – they all employ a twist ending, sometimes in a startling manner to the radio listener.
In most short stories with twist endings, the information for the reader has been on the page, cleverly hidden between the lines like infidelity lacing truths and lies in a cheating lover’s letters. On additional readings, it was all there, we just didn’t want to see it as truth.
Novels with my favorite twist endings include Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Murder on the Orient Express although the latter would have been difficult for most readers to discern until the end.
In movies, I liked “The Sixth Sense” , “The Usual Suspects”, “Planet of the Apes”, “The Crying Game”, “Soylent Green”, “The Others”, “Dead Again”, and “Deathtrap.”
Most recently, my favorite twist ending short story was written by Criminal Brief‘s own Rob Lopresti. “The Hard Case,” was featured on the April 2008 cover of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. I knew there was something I should be catching, but the solution evaded me until Rob revealed it at the end of the story. Good job, Rob. I thoroughly enjoyed being surprised.
Like finding camels on a Texas prairie, a surprise ending places a smile on my lips. Who knows why someone is raising camels in Texas? Perhaps a diabolical plot is taking place and escape by camels will be the only resort left. Perhaps they are planning a race across the plains in a reverse “Hildago.” Perhaps the heat was getting to me and I only imagined them. Nah. They were there!
Like you, Deborah, I’ve always been attracted to stories with surprise or twist endings. The ones you mention are fantastic, but please allow me to add my all-time favorite surprise ending writer – O. Henry. Everyone is familiar with the twist in “Gift of the Magi,” but as a child, I discovered a ragged, used copy of The Complete
Works of O.Henry in a second-hand book store. I read that entire book (about three inches thick) over and over, loving the endings each time even after I knew how each story would end. I think my all-time favorite was “Mammon and the Archer.” Though O. Henry wasn’t actually a mystery author, the twists in his stories kept me mystified!
Well, that column had a nice surprise ending as far as I was concerned. Didn’t expect such a nice plug!
Brian over at Mystery Scene has a nice essay this week about stories he calls Mindblowers, which are not necessarily surprise endings, but could be. Read it http://www.mysteryscenemag.com/bookflings/2008/06/17/5-mind-blowers/
You could probably make an interesting column out of generic movie/tv spoiners like the one above. For instance, (SPOILER ALERT) in a Law and Order episode (any of their series) if a teenage child shows up in a scene when the parent is being interviewed by cops, that kid is going to turn out to be involved in the crime.
And if you recognize the actor in a small part, he/she is probably the bad guy.
Camels are a part of Texas history. In the mid-1800’s they were used by the military to transport supplies because weather, terrain, etc, appeared much as their home desert surroundings. (Same reason we share agriculture ideas and research with arid and semi-arid countries today)
There is also a modern day camel trek in Central Texas area around San Antonio or Kerrville that has become a really big deal. I’ve never done it.
Maybe I should.
The twist could be they will be our transport with gas prices like they’ve become.
Enjoyed your article.
I thought Cekhov used a moose head an an example and not a gun. (Something better be hidden in it.) But now that I write this it does sound ludicrous. Maybe it was a gun. But Chekhov did have a great sense of irony.
Re your reply to my cloumn: It takes a babe to know a babe.
I quoted Anton Pavlovich’s famous dictum back on St. Patrick’s day: “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired.”
Great column, Deborah. I also love to read (and write) twist endings, as well as plot “reversals” during the story itself.
And Rob, thanks for the Mystery Scene link. I picked up some stories I didn’t know about from Brian’s essay AND from your reply to that essay.
By the way, an interesting mystery movie (not great, but entertaining) with a LOT of twists throughout the film is “The Spanish Prisoner.” (Steve Martin, believe it or not, in a serious role.)
I work with a guy who tends to smell like a wet camel this time of year does that count?
Oh, Deborah, alisa, you’re such teases!
In that same issue as Rob’s terrific story (and James’), my own 8 Across mentions the US Army’s Arabian dromedaries.
Hey Leigh….I am a closet nerd, not a tease! Besides the modern day trek thing is near where my sisters live in Central Texas.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmphhhhhhhh!
Since we’re discussing camels, s that hmmmmmmph or hummph? (Is that Kipling? Don’t know; I’ve never kipled.
I saw The Spanish Prisoner recently (been on a Mamet kick) and recommend it. To me the weirdest part is the scene in which one character explains the meaning of the title phrase. I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s an odd choice.
And now that I have corrected a Pulitzer Prize winner I guess I’ll shut up.
It wath a rathberry with a Tethith acthent.
Thanks for the informative post on twists and wee story about the camels. Very interesting, that.
Here in Kansas I’ve driven by places that raise ostriches, llamas and, yes, camels. As for twist endings, “Mama’s Bank Account” (the basis for the play “I Remember Mama”)is as unexpected a place for a twist ending as you could find, but it’s a twist worthy of O. Henry. The Sci-Fi writer Henry Kuttner’s story “Happy Ending” probably has the twistiest of his many twist endings.