Mary Rosenblum, your web editor, has published four cozy mysteries as Mary Freeman,  as well as four SF novels and more than 60 short stories in multiple genres, as well as nonfiction. She also teaches writing, and is a Long Ridge instructor.  

 

 

 

Mystery Basics

By Mary Rosenblum

 

            You want to write mystery.  It’s a great genre with loyal readers and the publishers love series.  What’s not to love about mystery?  But then… ‘mystery’ is not just any mystery.  The genre has sorted itself into a host of ‘sub genres’ and each one of those sub genres is quite distinct.   So what are you looking at, when you think of ‘mystery’? 

 

Basic Elements: 

            All mysteries do contain a trio basic elements.  First, you have a crime.  Usually this is a murder – human life is the highest stake after all – but it can be a case of robbery, theft of state secrets, espionage, what have you.  Secondly you need a motivation.   What is important enough to kill for?  Sex, money, power, revenge, love, and hatred have motivated many crimes over the centuries. Finally, you need characters.  You’re going to have a victim, the murderer (or criminal if you’re not killing anybody off) and finally, your sleuth to put the puzzle pieces together and solve the crime. 

            These same basic elements are part of the sub-genres of mystery, but each of these mysteries offers a distinct ‘twist’ on the basic mystery elements. 

 

Play fair!

            Readers are in a race with you to see if they can figure out ‘whodunnit’ before you reveal the evil doer at the end of the book.  They expect you to play fair!  Plant clues ahead of time (and hide them!) so that readers can look back at the end and think Of course! If only I had noticed that!  Introduce the criminal before the end (and make him/her seem innocent).  Don’t be tempted to use a  deus ex machina murderer…a person who pops up from left field at the very end of the book and admits that he/she did the deed, but has no connection to the preceeding story.  Do make it possible for the reader to figure out who dunnit, but make it darned HARD to do!

 

Bonus Feature

           Mystery is a competitive field, and readers want more than a mere murder and interesting sleuth.  Give your readers an interesting setting to enjoy as the police do their work, or give your  amateur sleuth an interesting career.  Dick Frances’s sleuth is a steeplechase jockey when he’s not chasing killers.  Dana Stabenow sets her mysteries in the Alaskan outback, while Kathy Reichs takes us into the world of the forensic laboratory.  Van der Wettering’s police hunt crooks in Amsterdam and Henning Mankell takes us to Sweden as we follow his harried Inspector.    

 

Mystery Sub Genres

 

 

 Police Procedural 

          Your sleuth is a professional with law enforcement.  He or she might be a forensic investigator, cop, arson investigator, or other law enforcement professional.  The crime is solved using the rules of the police department and forensic rules of evidence.  Some examples of the Police Procedurals include:

Ed McBain (87th Precinct novels)

Tony Hillerman (Leaphorn &Chee)

Van Der Wettering: (Amstedam homicide detectives)

Henning Mankell:  (Swedish investigators)

 

 

 

Amateur Sleuth:

          The amateur sleuth mysteries are solved by non-professionals, the more interesting the better!  It is a very good idea to give your amateur detective an interesting and engaging profession and/or set your mystery in an interesting and unusual locale.  They add interest (and marketability) to your mystery. 

Amateur Sleuth mysteries include:

Nevada Barr: (Park Ranger)

Dick Frances: (Steeplechase jockey)

Ellis Peters: (Brother Cadfael – monastery)

  

  

Cozies:

            The cozies are set in a single locale – a town, village, or countryside.  The sleuth is a local as is the victim and the murderer.  Violence and sex happen off stage. 

Agatha Christi:  Miss Marple

Elizabeth Georges: Lord Peter Whimsey

 

Hard Boiled: 

            These are the ‘noir’ detective novels, with the tough Private Eye who gets knocked around as he pursues his client’s interests.   These are generally written in first person and the main character tends to be a tough and often less than savory character. 

 Hammett: Sam Spade

Raymond Chandler: Phillip Marlowe

Mickey Spillane:  Mike Hammer

 

PI:

           The sleuth in these stories is a private eye or an ex-cop, either employed by a large agency, or a loner striking out on his or her own.  They lack the tough, dark tone of the ‘Hardboiled’ and are often in third person rather than first.  

 Sara Paretsky (V.I. Warshawski)

 Walter Mosley (Easy Rawlins)

 James Lee Burke (Dave Robicheaux)

Robert Parker (Spenser)

 Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe).