The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing the Modern Whodunit Read Online Free

little community had uncovered his true identity? And what if he didn’t want to be brought to justice? What if he committed murder to protect his secret?
    This struck me as a promising idea for a mystery novel. I stated it for myself in the form of a premise: “A former ’60s radical, wanted by the FBI and living under an assumed identity, commits murder to protect her secret.” I then bombarded the premise with more what-if questions. What if the murder appeared to be a suicide? What if the victim’s elderly mother refused to believe her son would take his own life? What if she engaged the family lawyer to investigate? What if the murderer committed more murders? What if she targeted the lawyer for death?
    Asking those “what if” questions often felt random and unproductive. For every useful answer, dozens led nowhere. But I kept asking them until I believed I had a coherent story. Then I created and revised outlines, wrote character sketches, and explored possible settings.
    The source of my idea had been televised nationally. But as far as I know, no one else used it as the basis for a mystery novel. It worked for me because it merged with that unique entity that is my imagination, which is the product of my peculiar history, personality, and life experiences.
    And if it had happened to inspire someone else, their novel would without doubt have been unrecognizably different from mine.
    The formula that generally works for me is: character + problem = story idea. The character is usually either a murderer or the victim of a murderer. That character’s story becomes the basis for the novel. But it’s not the novel itself.
    The two stories of the mystery
     
    Mystery fiction, remember, tells a tale of detection. It’s a puzzle. It raises the “whodunit” question and sets the sleuth off on her quest. Along the way she encounters clues until she—and the reader—have learned enough to solve the puzzle.
    Before you write this story of detection, you must first write the story of the murder itself . It’s a chronological tale. It begins with the relationship between the victim and the murderer, explains the murderer’s motive, and develops through the planning and execution of the deed.
    What clues will you scatter along the way? What other innocent characters are associated with the victim? Might they, too, have motive, means, and opportunity to commit murder? How has the culprit covered his tracks? What are the relationships among all of these characters? Where does the story take place? How do elements in the setting contribute to the story’s events?
    Answering all of these questions will give you a story of murder.
    Write a narrative sketch of this straightforward tale. Tell it chronologically. Populate it with husbands and wives, lovers and ex-spouses, business acquaintances and estranged friends. Compose the life story of your victim. Be sure he has plenty of potential enemies. Then do the same for your murderer.
    This sketch could itself be the plot for a novel. With fascinating multidimensional characters, complex relationships, a powerful underlying moral question, a touch of irony, and intense conflicts, it might even make a very good suspense novel or thriller.
    But because this is the story of the villain and his victim, it’s not yet a mystery. The mystery story belongs to the sleuth.
    To create a mystery, you must convert the linear murderer-victim story into a puzzle and create a puzzle-solving hero. This is the specific challenge for the mystery writer. You must invent two stories for every one you write. First you must think up the story of the crime. Only then can you write your mystery novel, which is the story of that crime’s detection .
    Book-length mysteries are, in all respects, novels . A mystery novel, just like a “literary novel,” should be populated with fascinating multidimensional characters. It should ask important moral questions. Mystery fiction, every bit as much as the