Umineko Knox’s DECALOGUE
Knox’s 1st
It is forbidden for the culprit to be anyone not mentioned in the early part of the story.
Knox’s 2nd
It is forbidden for supernatural agencies to be employed as a detective technique.
Knox’s 3rd
It is forbidden for hidden passages to exist.
Knox’s 4th
It is forbidden for unknown drugs or hard to understand scientific devices to be used.
Knox’s 5th
(not included)
Knox’s 6th
It is forbidden for accident or intuition to be employed as a detective technique.
Knox’s 7th
It is forbidden for the detective to be the culprit.
Knox’s 8th
It is forbidden for the case to be resolved with clues that are not presented.
Knox’s 9th
It is permitted for observers to let their own conclusions and interpretations be heard.
Knox’s 10th
It is forbidden for a character to disguise themselves as another without any clues.
The Original Decalogue (not the one being used)
1. The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.
2. All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
5. No Chinaman must figure in the story.
6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
7. The detective must not himself commit the crime.
8. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.
9. The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.
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