"Now, Markham, just what are the universally recognized features of a sordid crime of robbery and murder? Brutality, disorder, haste, ransacked drawers, cluttered desks, broken jewel cases, rings stripped from the victim's fingers, severed pendant chains, torn clothing, tripped-over chairs, upset lamps, broken vases, twisted draperies, strewn floors, and so forth. Such are the accepted immemorial indications - eh, what? But, consider a moment, old chap. Outside of fiction and the drama, in how many crimes do they all appear - all in perfect ordination, and without a single element to contradict the general effect? That is to say, how many actual crimes are technically perfect in their setting? None! And why? Simply because nothing actual in this life - nothing that is spontaneous and genuine - runs to accept form in every detail. The law of chance and fallibility invariably steps in."
(from The "Canary" Murder Case, by S. S. Van Dine)
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