Dupin vs. Lenski

Like Murder in the Rue Morgue, Unknown Attacker features a detective dedicated to getting their man. The difference between Lenski and Dupin abound but the most important one is the difference in motivation. Auguste Dupin was not a detective by trade, he didn’t have any remote connection to law enforcement what so ever. For him solving a crime was an intellectual pursuit (and a moral one in the name of clearing an innocent man’s name). Lenski does not solve crime for her own personal amusement. She has quite literally dedicated her life to the pursuit of justice by becoming police officer. We are told that the reason for this comes from bearing witness to an escalation in the level in crime in her neighborhood throughout out her childhood. The mission for her is personal not merely a curiosity.

Because of this their techniques are also different. Murder is the prototypical detective story in so many ways because in many ways you expect a “detective story” to feature one man or woman operating either by themselves of with the aid of slightly less-equipped partner and solving crime through highly sharpened mental acumen. Unknown plays more like what we call a “procedural” cop show. A member of a police department is given a crime and uses all the skills they’ve developed in their years on the force to bring down a criminal by the book. Its what we’re more likely to see on NYPD Blue or Law & Order than say Monk or Nero Wolfe. The odd thing is that though serendipitous discovery of clues is more often found in detective fiction, the first big clue Lenski finds is accidental in the form of a set of keys. Still that item is filtered through her role as a trained officer who understands how Law Enforcement would deal with finding such a thing.