In “The Guilty Vicarage,” an essay on detective fiction, W.H. Auden argues that the most successful detective novels take place in an apparent Eden (the cozy village, the ivied college, the country house at Christmastime) that’s tainted by a hidden thread of evil, and “the job of the detective is to restore the state of grace.”
In “Wake Up Dead Man,” the latest installment in Rian Johnson’s series of “Knives Out” whodunit movies, Auden’s religious analysis is literalized: The setting is a rural Catholic parish, the key action revolves around the confessional, and the climax of the story sees the skeptical detective deferring to a youthful Catholic priest, who induces a confession that both resolves the mystery and — more important — delivers absolution to the repentant killer.
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