Whether it’s a dark and stormy night or a bright and sunny day, readers love to play armchair detective and follow a fictional hero’s attempts to solve all manner of skullduggery. The secret of a good mystery is to provide them with just the right balance of clues and red herrings to make them feel smart and yet keep them off balance.
- Once you determine what type of mystery you want to write–historic, contemporary, YA, police procedural, courtroom drama, espionage, or amateur sleuth–decide who you’re going to put center stage to solve the crime. This character needs to be someone the readers can admire for his intellect, initiative, and resourcefulness and yet still relate to on an empathic level for the flaws, foibles, and personal demons he needs to overcome. Whatever your sleuth is most afraid of–heights, snakes, clowns–needs to figure prominently as an obstacle to unmasking the villain. Ask yourself what terrifies you the most as well as what risks you’d take to protect and/or prove the innocence of someone you loved. Identify how a villain might learn of your phobia(s) and use them against you.
- The best villains in mysteries are often those closest to the person trying to solve the crime–the partner, the spouse, the best friend. Their motives for performing bad deeds need to be just as compelling and plausible as the hero’s determination to bring them to justice. When readers exclaim in surprise, “I never suspected her at all,” it’s because fictional murderers, thieves, and kidnappers are often depicted as kind, upstanding citizens with a zealous moral center that belies a dark vendetta. Make a list of ten people you personally know who could get away with the perfect crime, what that perfect crime would be, and what factor(s) could potentially trip them up. Try this same exercise with cartoon characters, celebrities, TV sitcom families, and fairy tale personae.
- While most mystery novels unfold in linear fashion, with the objective being to figure out from the clues who the wrongdoer is, there’s a lot of latitude in this genre for experimentation. One method is to intercut investigation scenes in the present with flashbacks of events leading up to the crime. Another is to write the entire mystery in first person; this can be from the perspective of the either person solving the crimes or the person committing them and whose identity won’t be revealed until the end. Yet another method is to assign separate chapters to each of the main characters and have them tell their respective versions of events; the reader’s challenge is then to determine which one is lying. Within these different approaches, there’s also the question of whether readers are privy to information being withheld from the characters. For example, they may witness the crime being committed in the first chapter and know exactly who did it but stay riveted through the whole book to watch how the detective or amateur sleuth puts the pieces together. Whatever plot you come up with, play with these variations to see which one yields the most suspense.
- There are a number of recurring themes in mystery novels that are always popular with readers. These include shameful family secrets, cases of mistaken identity, inheritances that garner discontent, reunions that stir old rivalries, blackmail schemes, infidelity, boarded-up houses, creepy prophecies/curses that come true, locked rooms, and isolated environments. In addition to culling plot ideas from newspaper stories, overheard conversations, or playing the “what if” game with known historical events, good mystery writing relies heavily on staying attuned to your surroundings and observing things that seem odd or out of place. It could be a co-worker who looks startled when you find him in an unexpected setting, a lawnmower that’s left out in the rain by a neighbor who’s always conscientious, or a new acquaintance whose pushiness sets off your radar. Use every opportunity to ask yourself “why” and see where your mystery muse takes you.