So you want to write a crime novel. Part 2: First Thoughts

How do ideas come for a crime story – or any story, come to that? Some people read a piece in a newspaper and that turns their imagination on. In fact, some famous crime writers have based their novels on real life events. Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d was one such, which relied heavily – some might say too heavily – on the life events of film star Gene Tierney.

Sometimes the first thought will be What-if? My own Dearly Ransomed Soul was born while sitting in the chorus at the Three Choirs Festival’s opening performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and wondering what-if the soloist was murdered just after the performance?

What-If? can be born anytime, anywhere. From seeing two people talking on the bus to someone overtaking you on a dangerous corner, to finding a single red rose on your doorstep. The only limit to What-if? is your imagination.

Sometimes your first thought will be the method of murder. It was my mother who suggested a hatpin through the eye and into the victim’s brain as an imaginative way to dispose of an enemy. I winced at the immediate mental vision but used it all the same.

 Of course, with the method, will come research. If your killer has used a gun, you need some knowledge of ballistics and gunshot residue. Ditto a knife wound – blood spatter etc - especially if you are writing a police procedural which will include details of the post-mortem. If you poison your victim, you need to know how long it will take to kill him/her. Will it be something you find in the garden or the garden shed? The method of murder and the method of investigation will also be dependent on the time in which your novel is set. They didn’t have DNA in medieval times. That may affect your choice of detective, if you are writing a historical crime. I will mention Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael novels here. Although he is a monk, he spent 40 years in the world, went on crusade and learned about herbs and poisons en route. Dorothy Sayers novel Unnatural Death used an innovative murder method that had the police and Lord Peter Wimsey stumped for quite a while.

 So, who is going to be your Main Character (MC)? Some authors, for example, Janet Lawrence and Ann Granger had their MC married to or involved with a police officer. If your MC is a police officer, you must be conversant with the procedures in place at the time your novel is set. Your MC must also fit the time in which the novel is set. Police attitudes and procedures in the 21^st century are completely different to those of, say, the 1970s or 1950s. You couldn’t have the politically incorrect, corrupt DCI Gene Hunt (Life on Mars) working successfully in 2021.

 Where are you going to set your novel? Setting can play a huge part in the tone of the novel and also affect how you seed your clues. If your setting is 12^th century York, for example, the clues will need to be in harmony with the setting. Again, do your research and make sure everything was present then. Your MC cannot rely on technology, so must watch the other characters’ behaviour and be alert to things that appear out of kilter. Candace Robb’s Owen Archer is an excellent people watcher. Make your setting vibrant, not by huge paragraphs of description, but by passing comments that highlight it. Paul Doherty’s Hugh Corbett books perfectly capture the reality of 14^th century London. But the same would hold if you set your book on a space station. Or, like J D Robb’s Eve Dallas, you could set it in a real place in the future, and play what-if? with the technology.  

 How are you going to present your murder? Locked room murders were very popular in the golden age of fiction – Carter Dickson’s Sir Henry Merrivale is a good example. Where will your body be found? On a beach? Or a space station? All this will affect how you present the body to your reader. Will the victim be sprawled up the steps of the Town Hall or hanging from a lamppost? Will the murderer have tried to present the killing as suicide and, if so, how will the detective discover it was murder?

Another popular way of writing crime novels is that of the pastiche. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels. When I studied for my first degree, I made my dissertation - tongue in cheek - about the change of metaphor in the pre and post Reichenbach stories of Sherlock Holmes. My tutor was so amused, she made me promise to write a Sherlock Holmes story at some point. It took 30 years to honour the promise. If you decide to do this, please make sure you are not infringing copyright.

 Now we come to the fun bit. The suspects and clues. Make sure you have enough characters to confuse the reader. But, as I have stressed before, you must seed your true clues very carefully and present plenty of red herrings that are believable – more in a later post. And make sure you know what was available to the detective at the time. Fingerprints, for example, were first accepted in British courts in 1901.

 And the most difficult question. How will your detective catch the killer? If you make the clues abstruse, then you must also make them believable and form a link that leads to the murderer. That’s another fun bit. I find the best way is to think up the clues, then turn them on their heads so they are not obvious and seed them amongst the red herrings.

 Still want to write a crime novel? Excellent!

 Join me next month when I will be talking about effective research, possibly the most important component of ensuring that your novel is believable.

 

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