Tell it Slant

The delicate craft of concealment in story and self

Photo by Javier Grixo on Unsplash

The truth must dazzle gradually /

Or every man be blind.

— Emily Dickinson, Tell all the truth but tell it slant

We tend to think of a whodunnit as a body on the floor and a detective with a sharp eye and a sharper wit. But a whodunnit doesn’t have to be about crime. Sometimes the mystery isn’t who did it but why we do what we do.

In many contemporary stories, the real investigation isn’t forensic. It’s psychological. The clues presented are human behavior, contradictions that are justified, and the lies with which we live oh so comfortably. It’s not about catching a thief or a killer, it’s about catching ourselves in the act.

Classic mystery writers like Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and Ellery Queen built their puzzles on a familiar structure: motive, opportunity, red herrings, revelation. But even in their work, what holds us isn’t just the logic, it’s the human machinery underneath.

Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is often remembered for its ingenious twist, but the real brilliance lies in her manipulation of point of view. She lets us trust the wrong person. Because we want to.

It's a powerful act of storytelling to align the reader’s perception with the character’s deception. It’s what transforms the reader from observer and implicates the reader as accomplice.

* * *

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!”

— Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

* * *

Biography of Deception was not conceived as a whodunnit. Instead, a reader tagged it as such, and the label made sense to other readers and moved me to thinking about whodunnits in general.

What drew me to the idea that became Biography of Deception was the quiet choreography of concealment. What we choose to show, what we withhold, and how those choices ripple through our lives. In Biography of Deception, the office becomes a stage where truth and self-protection constantly negotiate for space.

Writing that kind of story is less about plotting events and more about managing revelation. You must decide what the reader sees, when they see it, and, just as importantly, what remains obscured. Every sentence becomes a negotiation between disclosure and restraint.

* * *

Backstory is the shadow that gives the present its shape. Every character carries one, just as we do. But if you let it flood the page, it drowns the moment you’re trying to illuminate. The trick is to let it flicker at the edges, allowing it to be visible enough to feel the weight of what came before, but never enough to overpower the present.

That’s where tension lives.

* * *

“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”

“Frequently.”

“How often?”

“Well, some hundreds of times.”

“Then how many are there?”

“How many? I don’t know.”

“Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point.

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

* * *

In fiction, a character’s backstory is what shapes their choices. It is the invisible architecture of who they are. In life, we carry our own inner structures that have been built from experiences, beliefs, and memory, and we transport those into every room we enter. Biography of Deception grew from that recognition: that people bring their entire histories with them to work. Every experience, every slight, every success, every remembrance.

We like to imagine the office as a place of neutrality, a separation from our personal lives, but it never is. What’s happened to us doesn’t stay outside the building. It filters through how we lead, how we experience others, how we defend or deceive ourselves and others. The office becomes another kind of stage, one where personal backstories quietly collide under fluorescent light.

And the stories we hide from others are often the same ones that drive us.

* * *

The whodunnit has evolved — from solving what happened to uncovering what’s hidden. And often, what’s hidden isn’t evidence or motive, but fear, guilt, and self-preservation.

Because in the end, the real mystery isn’t who did it. It’s why we keep doing it.

* * *

Grab a copy here.

* * *

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

By Emily Dickinson

Tell all the truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—

* * *

If you would like to read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie find it here. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be found here. These works reside in the public domain and are free to read online and to download. Happy reading.