The Magic in Murder Mystery Fiction:
Is whether you can conjure up a really good twist
I’ve always been fascinated by the fiction of “whodunit”mystery style story. From Encyclopedia Brown to Nancy Drew to Agatha Christie, over the years I’ve read quite a few. I’ve even attended a murder mystery party or two and enthusiastically played Cluedo until I was the first to decipher the killer - triumphantly exclaiming that it was Professor Plum in the billiards room with a lead pipe! If you, like me, love a mystery then why not flip the script and have a go at writing one?
Mystery fiction is a somewhat nebulous term used to describe any stories that involve some sort of puzzle, deception or 'whodunnit'. Most mysteries involve the reader following a sleuth to learn who committed a crime, but this sleuth can be a detective, amateur or organisation, so it has quite a broad scope. The crime itself is usually a murder, but sometimes it can be a theft or even a kidnapping. Lies and red-herrings make it difficult for the sleuth to find the truth and also make it tough for the reader to guess who the culprit is until the protagonist is on the scent - adding to the fun of the genre.
Since mystery fiction is such a broad category of literature, encompassing everything from romantic suspense to paranormal activity, we’ll be picking it apart over two blogs - to help inspire you to write your own mysterious story...
Lets first introduce you to some of our favourite sub-genres that might spark some ideas within you - as mystery has a bewildering myriad of categories. Here's just a few to ignite your inspiration...
Did you know that Mystery Fiction has many sub-genres?
When you think of mystery, do you think of Agatha Christie or Raymond Chandler? While both of them write about a crime these two types of mystery novels actually sit within different sub-genres!
Here is an excerpt from Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’:
Suddenly with a rush, his footsteps echoing up the aisle the man came. He knocked at a door not far from Poirot’s own.
Then came voices – the conductor’s, deferential, apologetic, and a woman’s – insistent and voluble.
Mrs. Hubbard.
Poirot smiled to himself.
The altercation – if it was one- went on for some time. It’s proportions were ninety per cent of Mrs. Hubbard’s to a soothing ten percent of the conductor’s. Finally the matter seemed to be adjusted. Poirot heard distinctly:
“bonne Nuit, Madame,” and a closing door.
He pressed his own finger on the bell.
The conductor arrived promptly. He looked hot and worried.
As you can see, the altercation happens ‘off-stage’ so to speak and we only get a subtle idea of violence rather than a full-blown description of a killing. It also takes place in a fairly domestic scene - a sleeper train - therefore keeping the action fairly enclosed, rather than sprawling across many different settings. ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, as with most of Agatha Christie’s novels, can therefore be considered a ‘Cozy Mystery’.
Now here’s an excerpt from Raymond Chandler’s ‘The Big Sleep’:
I was still staring at the hot black eyes when a door opened far back under the stairs. It wasn't the butler coming back. It was a girl.
She was twenty or so, small and delicately put together, but she looked durable. She wore pale blue slacks and they looked well on her. She walked as if she were floating. Her hair was a fine tawny wave cut much shorter than the current fashion of pageboy tresses curled in at the bottom. Her eyes were slate-gray, and had almost no expression when they looked at me. She came over near me and smiled with her mouth and she had little sharp predatory teeth, as white as fresh orange pith and as shiny as porcelain. They glistened between her thin too taut lips. Her face lacked color and didn't look too healthy.
"Tall, aren't you?" she said.
"I didn't mean to be."
Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her.
"Handsome too," she said. "And I bet you know it."
I grunted.
"What's your name?"
"Reilly," I said. "Doghouse Reilly."
"That's a funny name." She bit her lip and turned her head a little and looked at me along her eyes. Then she lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and slowly raised them again, like a theater curtain. I was to get to know that trick. That was supposed to make me roll over on my back with all four paws in the air.
"Are you a prizefighter?" she asked, when I didn't.
"Not exactly. I'm a sleuth."
The sleuth in this scene seems positively uninterested in the girl. His descriptions are practical and purposeful but completely disillusioned. You can see that the tone is very different to Christie - it's slightly darker and more cutting. ‘The Big Sleep’ would therefore be considered a ‘Hard-Boiled’ mystery.
As you can see, choosing a sub-genre for your mystery can help you to narrow your focus and decide what tone you will be taking. Will it be light, creating a game-like narrative for the reader? Or will your detective be hard-nosed and disillusioned with the world? These are the types of decisions that it pays to make early on in the planning stages, so that you have consistency throughout and know who to market our work to. Fans of Agatha Christie might not be fans of Raymond Chandler, for example, so it’s important to know your Caper from your Cozy!
Hard-Boiled Mystery?... grip your seat hard...
In a Hard-Boiled Mystery, like that of Raymond Chandler, the typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence of organised crime during and shortly after Prohibition (1920–1933), whilst also navigating the corrupt legal system. Rendered cynical by this cycle of violence and lack of justice, the detectives of hardboiled fiction are often antiheroes. Some Hard-Boiled novels present a femme fatale - a dame with a past, pitted against the sleuth who can get caught within her web of mischievous intrigues. The only way out for the detective is to suppress the sexual desire for the woman and hold true to his professional code of conduct. The femme fatale’s desire is deadly and dangerous for those who succumb to her lure, but the detective’s desire for truth can be fatal for the dark lady too.
Choose this genre for your story if… you, like me, enjoy the complexities of antiheroes and femme fatals and relish the challenge of creating many morally ambiguous characters.
Curl up with a Cozy Mystery?
The Cozy lesson is that everyone loves to solve a crime. It doesn’t matter if the protagonist is a knitter, a librarian, or a gardener—that reader enjoys becoming the sleuth with your protagonist, unravelling a gripping, twisting riddle of a well constructed murder mystery. Miss Marple springs to my mind - how about you?
Unlike grittier mystery genres, Cozies don't have swearing, violence, or sex, or if they do, it is simply alluded to “off-stage” rather than being explicitly described, like in the excerpt above. Cozy Fiction tends to be light (sometimes even humorous). There is also a strong notion of fair play in a Cozy Thriller which is not present in Hard-Boiled novels. Clues are often woven into the plot so that readers can detect and decipher the clues to solve the mystery as they read the story. Mystery readers are smart people and love a puzzle or two to resolve!
If you enjoy making up a puzzle, working out how a plot can twist and turn then you could be the next Cozy Mystery writer! We would all love to read and share your stories so grab your note book and start to become an ameteur sleuth yourself! Just check that your detective has a moral compass that most definitely points north and is a good and kind hero in your story - you want to live up to your reader's expectations!
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Now back to uncovering the mystery of mysteries..
What is a Procedural Mystery?
It is not surprising that the police procedural is one of the most enduring forms of crime fiction. The process by which a crime is solved, and the relationships between members of the police, and those they have with family and friends, continue to fascinate. As Michael Connelly says, it’s not just about the way they work the case, but the way the case works them. The defining element of a procedural is accurately depicting the profession of law enforcement, including forensic science, autopsies, search warrants, interrogation and legal procedure.
Choose to write a Police Procedural Mystery if… you have a genuine interest or professional experience in police affairs. This is a genre that requires a lot of research since it delves deeper into the intricacies of the justice system, so it’s perfect for people who have a passion for law and order. Joseph Wambaugh, for example, was himself an ex-policeman and therefore could provide accurate and compelling accounts of cops being cops - sometimes they were as stupid, craven and violent as the criminals they were chasing!
What is a Locked-Room Mystery?
The locked-room mystery (sometimes referred to as the ‘impossible crime’) is a subgenre of detective fiction in which a crime is committed under seemingly impossible circumstances. An example is a dead man found inside a windowless room that’s been sealed from the inside, dead from a gunshot wound that people outside the room heard fired, yet inside the room there’s no gun and no way for the culprit to have escaped. See how intriguing they can be?! The reader is normally then presented with the puzzle and all of the clues and is encouraged to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed, much like a Cozy Mystery just with a laser-like focus.
Why should I write a Locked-Room Mystery? If you love escape rooms and are a natural puzzler, then this could be just the mystery genre for you. Locked-Room Mysteries take the ‘whodunnit’ to a whole new level, asking not only who, but how on earth could they have done it?! This type of mystery is seeing a resurgence thanks to a combination of publishers reissuing older books, foreign-language novels being translated into English for the first time, and closed circle mysteries appealing to people more generally based on the current state of the world (where we are more trapped behind closed doors than ever!).
What is a Caper?
No, we’re not talking about the small green flower bud that you put in your pasta! We’re talking about the humorous and down-right audacious mystery sub-genre! Caper stories are distinguished from straight-up crime stories by the preposterous nature of the crimes. For example, in the Dortmunder stories of Donald E. Westlake the gang steals the same gem several times, steals an entire branch bank, and kidnaps someone from an asylum by driving a stolen train onto the property - heists that are so ‘out-there’ that you can’t help but laugh at the arrogance of the characters!
Choose this sub-genre if... you love classic comedy, slapstick humour and black and white films. Capers provide the reader a similar sense of cinematic fun and escapism, so flex your funny bone and pen some big, bold heist scenes!
But what if I want to mix genres?
Apart from singular sub-genres there is also the possibility of bringing together multiple genres in a bit of a mash-up! By melding multiple categories of fiction together, you as a writer have the ability to take your mystery in a whole new direction and create something incredibly unique.
Here are some ideas for mysterious genre mash-ups:
- Historic Mysteries: Blending much-loved historical fiction with mystery can allow you to rewrite the past.
- Romantic Suspense: A genre mash-up that is currently gaining huge popularity, romantic suspense brings together tales of murder and love to create a dangerous and steamy story.
- Supernatural/Paranormal Mystery: For the fantasy fans out there, setting a classic detective mystery plot within a mystical world full of ghosts, ghouls and witches can add some extra magic.
- Mystery Flash Fiction: Is it possible to set up and solve a mystery in just 1000 words? Crime Thriller short stories are few and far between, which is why it is the perfect new challenge for writers! Get to the action quickly, lay the clues and red herrings and end with a bang. We’d recommend a tightly focused setting like a locked-room mystery or domestic mystery here as you don’t have enough words for a sprawling plot.
...and there are so many more factions of Mystery Fiction that we haven’t named! The popularity of any one of these sub-genre may ebb and flow on the strength of the marketplace so if you’re a mystery writer or a writer looking to pen your first mystery, it doesn't hurt to keep up to date on current trends. For example, translated Scandinavian mysteries developed into a popular trend after Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo became a runaway bestseller - so keep your finger on the pulse if you can!
We hope we’ve inspired you to explore the genre more and maybe pen your own piece of Mystery Fiction. See you next week for the next instalment where we tell you the tips and tricks of writing mystery stories and let you know our favourite authors or inspiration…
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