Riffing off a Review of James Nicoll's...

[jsburbidge]

 ...regarding Addison's The Witness For the Dead, but a little too long to go in as a comment.

The Witness For The Dead has three themes; one is resolved entirely; one is resolved for practical purposes; one has a level of resolution which I can best describe as a removal of difficulties. They interact in each others' solutions, giving an ultimate unity to the story which looks like three separate strands until very close to the end.

The first strand is the mystery strand, the one which follows standard conventions of the mystery novel, posed as a problem to be solved: the perpetrator is identified, and it is established that there will be no more crimes from that source.

The second strand is what I may call the feuding family strand. It is not posed as a problem to be solved, and its main dynamic is actually outside the scope of the story; Thera keeps getting dragged into it and having problems put in his way as a result of his role - it forces the temporary assignment with the ghouls and the vigil confronting the ghosts of the past, but it looks entirely unconnected until it provides a key for the resolution of the mystery plot to Thera. It passes out if his life; although it presumably remains an issue for the participants it will have no further impact in Thera.

The third strand is the problem of Thera's personal situation: dealing with a hostile hierarchy, socially isolated. This has no final resolution as such, but events driven by both the other plots combine to improve his professional situation and provide what looks like a more positive future for his social situation.

(This is somewhat reminiscent of an analysis Sayers did, well after writing the novel, of Gaudy Night. She identified three different types of problem with different types and degrees of resolution there as well, with (similarly) the detective problem being the one with the neat solution. It may be worth remembering that Addison aka Monette aka Truepenny did an extended critical analysis of the Wimsey books some years ago on Livejournal and is presumably aware of the Sayers self-analysis.)

For the record, I thought it well done and not difficult to follow and would recommend it to anyone looking at the intersection of the fantasy novel and the detective novel.