"About Kid Deth" Brings a Sense of Resolution

“About Kid Deth” met most of the “requirements” of the mystery story, according to Raymond Chandler. One of the aspects I especially liked about the story was the fact that it “punished the criminal in one way or another, not necessarily by operation of the law” (p. 37).

There were multiple criminals in this story, including Gil Nasser, Charlie Gay, and Lou Rands, and all of them received some sort of punishment in the end. Most of them, however, did not recieve punishment directly from the law. According to Chandler, criminals do not need to receive punishment from the law, just so long as the detective of the story “resolves the consequences of the crime” (p. 37). In this story, Kid Deth was the detective. Sarlow, an actual police detective, was following this case as well, but he was not the one to figure out the actual roles of Charlie Gay and Gil Nasser, making Kid the true detective. Kid resolved the mystery of who tried to frame him and of who killed Bess.

Neither the law, nor Kid Deth, punished Nasser, Charlie Gay, or Lou Rands. They actually murdered each other, or were murdered by other gang members (with the exception of Nasser, who was shot by Sarlow because he was about to shoot Kid Deth). Because Kid did not have to kill anyone, he was able to remain a relatively innocent character. Although he was a criminal in the lawful sense of the word, he was not a criminal who deserved to be punished in this story, and it was for this reason that I believe he was able to go free in the end.

Kid Deth, serving as the detective of the story, resolved the mysteries in “About Kid Deth”. The criminals were punished, leaving a sense of resolution to the story.