All of the old mystery writers — Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rex Stout, J.B. Fletcher (okay, she herself was fictitious, but you had to love her) — had a way of ensuring that, despite a good bit of mayhem along the way, the good guys always triumphed in the end.

They all seemed to adhere to the belief — perhaps too optimistically — that “what goes around comes around,” “you reap what you sow,” and the ever-popular “karma is a bitch.” Perhaps it was best summed up in the words of the venerable Sherlock Holmes:

“Violence does, in truth recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”

– Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3)”

If only real life were as simple and as fair as that. But these days, I’m afraid there wouldn’t be a pit deep enough for all of the schemers.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/6/26