周末随手翻看了一本香港推理作家陈浩基的小说，挺好看的，基本一口气看完，感觉像看香港版的东野圭吾。
推理小说的好看重在情节离奇，考验作者的构思逻辑和铺陈技巧。陈浩基是近几年香港年轻推理作家的代表，成绩斐然。
推理小说英文怎么说？这个问题可不好回答。
“推理小说”其实就是英语中的Detective fiction，二战后由日本人引入东方，但因为1946年日本颁布了一个“當用漢字”规定，“侦”这个汉字不允许使用，所以就把 detective fiction翻译成了“推理小说”。（“當用漢字”制度 略，请读者自行研究）
但严格说来，推理小说又不完全等于侦探小说，因为推理小说的主角不一定非是侦探或警察，重在通过推理和逻辑解开谜案，这才是重点。
有些推理小说更接近“神秘小说”或“悬疑小说”（mystery fiction）或奇幻小说（fantasy fiction），有时候又归在“犯罪小说”（crime fiction）这个大类下。
怎么区别呢？众说纷纭。以我对推理小说浅薄的认识，推理小说的底线是不能搞怪力乱神那一套，每个悬念必须有符合科学原理的解释，不能归结为神鬼和超自然现象。
20世纪初英国有个著名的天主教牧师推理小说家Ronald Knox于1928年提出了一个著名的推理小说10条戒律（10 Commandments of Detective Fiction），在很多年里被各国推理小说家奉行，作为推理小说区别于其他几个类似小说文体的特点。
Ronald Knox’s 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction
1. The criminal must be 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 himself must not commit the crime.
8. The detective is bound to declare any clues upon which he may happen to light.
9. The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader 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.
为避免不必要的麻烦，这十条的中文翻译 略，有兴趣的读者可自行翻译或研究。
Goodreads上有个英文推理小说书单，有兴趣的读者可以参考。
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/322.Detective_Fiction
推理小说很消磨时间，但看完后感觉空虚一片，大概不适合我这种老派读者吧。
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Thank you for reading:)
