In her previous post, Kay DiBianca provided us with the history and plot of the first mystery novel, Wilkie Collins Victorian masterpiece The Woman in White.
Count Fosco, accompanying himself on the concertina while singing “The Barber of Seville.”
Today’s second part will look at the major characters of the novel, and show some of the connections between them, which is a vital aspect of this story.
Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White is a big novel, with a large cast. In this second part, I will discuss the most. Collins’ narrative style is epistolatory, with each POV providing a written account that bears on the events of the novel and the unraveling of several intertwined mysteries at the heart of the story.
Several of these characters provide points of view, and I’ll note the ones who do. As much as I can, I’m discussing the characters in the order in which Collins’ introduces them into the storyline.
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Walter Hartright: Our first point of view is also one of our main characters. Hartright is a young drawing-master unemployed at the start of the story. His late father had been a highly successful drawing-master who had been able to earn enough income that Walter’s mother and sister would be financially secure, while Walter had “succeeded to his connection,” meaning inheriting his father’s reputation as a drawing-master.
Walter is kind and curious, but also a bit naïve in the ways of the world and love at the start. He proves willing to help a stranger, the mysterious woman in white. He falls in love with his pupil Laura Fairlie, and has a significant character arc which demonstrates his considerable courage.
Professor Pesca: A teacher of Italian saved from drowning by Hartright when both were vacationing at the sea shore. Highly intelligent, passionate, and gregarious, as well as very loyal, Pesca has embraced the customs and dress of his adopted homeland, England, and vowed to repay his new, dear friend for saving his life. He finds Walter the drawing-instructor position at Limmeridge House.
Anne Catherick: The night before Hartright is to leave London for Cumberland to take up his new position as drawing-instructor at Limmeridge House, he takes an evening walk out of the great city, and encounters mysterious and distressed young woman in white, who, he later learns, had escaped from an asylum.
She questions Hartright, and is relieved when he says he does not a certain baronet. She asks his help in reaching London, which he gives, and assists her into a taxi. She refuses to tell him her name, but is very grateful for his aid. Anne is suffers ongoing distress and anxiety, typically dressing all in white, and believes she knows a great secret about Laura’s betrothed, Sir Percival Glyde.
Marian Halcombe: One of Hartright’s new students is the half-sister of Laurie Fairlie, his other pupil at Limmeridge. She the first person (aside from servants) Walter meets after arriving at Limmeridge House. Tall with a lovely form Hartright finds at odds with her mannish face, Marian has piercing eyes and a keen intelligence, Marian is fiercely protective of her beloved half-sister, and becomes friends with Hartright, to the point of considering him to be like a brother to her. Marian tell Hartright the name of the woman in white.
She is our third point of view, and the most significant one after Hartright’s. When she realizes Hartright and Laura have fallen in love, she convinces Hartright to leave his position and Limmeridge for Laura’s matrimonial benefit, asking the family attorney to help him find employment, which leads to Hartright joining an expedition to Honduras. On more than one occasion, she laments being unable to act in the fashion of a man in order to protect her sister. She’s daring, and at a crucial moment, puts herself at great risk to discover what the villains are up to.
Frederick Fairlie: Laura Fairlie’s uncle, and the man who hired Hartright to tutor his niece and her half-sister in the art of drawing. Fairlie is a supreme hypochondriac who is also extremely noise adverse, and wants nothing more than to be left alone with his precious collections of coins and Rembrandt etchings. He uses his valet as a human etching stand without concern for the fellow’s wellbeing.
Fairlie refuses to become involved when Sir Percival demands Fairlie’s niece Laura (now Lady Glyde) give him control her fortune, rather than just receiving the income from that fortune as stipulated in the marriage agreement. His refusal is a master class in deflection and passive-aggression, and he falls back on his proclaimed invalid status repeatedly, claiming the stress of all of this is too much for him. The man who should be the guardian of Laura is anything but. He will be another point of view character.
Laura Fairlie: the beautiful half-sister of Marian Halcombe, heiress of Limmeridge and the Fairlie family fortune. Hartright realizes Laura looks remarkedly like Anne Catherick.
Sensitive and intelligent, Laura is very honor and duty bound, no matter her love for Hartright. Despite misgivings about her impending marriage, she persists in upholding the arrangement. She cares deeply for her beloved half-sister Marian, and wants to see provisions for Marian made, which Sir Percival will not allow.
Vincent Gilmore: the knowledgeable and dedicated family attorney, representing Laura’s interests in her marriage with Sir Percival. Summoned by Marian to aid her sister, he does his utmost to uphold the marriage agreement concerned Lady Glyde’s fortune.
Sir Percival Glyde, Baronet: Laura Fairlie’s fiancée and then husband. Described as handsome, thanks in part to his distinguished baldness on the front half of the top of his head. He initially is charming and attentive, but as the narrative progresses, his short temper, utter lack of empathy, and abrasiveness come increasingly to the fore.
At a crucial moment, Percival insists on his wife signing a document, the nature of which he refuses to disclose. There is a mysterious connection between Glyde and Anne Catherick. He illustrates the old maxim, “appearances can be deceiving.”
Count Fosco: An Italian nobleman and close friend of Sir Percival, and married to Laura Fairlie’s aunt. Physically large and corpulent, Fosco is highly educated, fluent in English, urbane yet quirky in his tastes. He has a knowledge of science and a love for music. He dotes on his pet mice and canaries, letting the mice roam over his vast person.
At one point when Laura refuses to sign the mysterious document, Fosco intervenes, calling for a pause, and then proceeds to play “The Barber of Seville” on his concertina. He is instantly attracted to the unconventional Marian Halcombe. He can be gentle, yet also possesses a powerful personality not to be thwarted.
A telling conversation occurs between Fosco and Laura and Marian, when Percival observes that a sandy, melancholy lakeside would make a perfect location for a murder. Laura says “the crime will cause its own solution.” Fosco replies:
“The fool’s crime is the crime that is found out; and the wise man’s crime is the crime that is not found out. If I could give you an instance, it would not be the instance of a wise man.”
Fosco is another point of view character.
Countess Fosco: The wife of Count Fosco, and Laura Fairley’s aunt. Before her marriage the Countess was unconventional, loud, ‘unlady-like’ in brashly offering observations, but since her marriage, has become an exemplary wife, loyal, seen more often than heard, and Fosco himself refers to her in very loving terms. She is a ready helper when needed in her husband’s endevors
Mrs. Catherick: The mother of Anne Catherlick, we learn no love is lost between her and her unfortunate, distressed daughter. She is connected in someway to Sir Percival Glyde and a secret he possesses. She is also a point of view character at one point in the novel.
There many other, more minor characters, but these are the ones I see as major.
This first mystery is well worth reading, or listening to in audio. Accomplished actors Ian Holm and Tim McInnery have both narrated the book.
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Have you read The Woman in White? If you have, do you have a favorite character? If not, are you interested now in doing so?
Note: I greatly enjoyed putting this together, which was good because I managed to catch COVID for the first time at the start of this week, after returning from a writer’s retreat. I did my best to proof this post–fingers crossed no typos slipped past my slightly fogged brain.
Image of Count Fosco from The Victorian Web.
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” —Francis Bacon
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Kris Montee wrote a post last week about mystery novels and authors. Today, Dale Ivan Smith and I begin a two-part post on the first mystery novel, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. In this post, I’ll explore the background of the novel and give a summary of the plot. In his upcoming post, Dale will take a look at the characters in the book.
BACKGROUND
Wilkie Collins was born in England in 1824. His father was the well-known artist William Collins. Authors will be interested to know that it was Wilkie’s experience at Cole’s boarding school where he first found an incentive for telling stories. According to a Collins biography website:
It was here that he began his career as a storyteller to appease the dormitory bully, later recalling that ‘it was this brute who first awakened in me, his poor little victim, a power of which but for him I might never have been aware.’
Attorneys (and I know there are some that read these posts) will be interested to know Collins was a law student and was called to the bar in 1851. Although he never practiced law, his tendency to describe events in some of his books through the eyes of different characters, reminds one of witness testimonies.
Collins’ friendship with Charles Dickens began around 1850. The first of Collins’ four major novels, The Woman in White, was published in serial form in Dickens’ All the Year Round periodical from November 1859 to August 1860 and became a roaring success. Again, from the Collins biography website:
It was received with great popular acclaim and ran to seven editions in 1860, alone. All kinds of commodities such as cloaks, bonnets, perfumes were called after it; there were Woman in White Waltzes and Quadrilles; it was parodied in Punch; Gladstone found the story so absorbing that he missed a visit to the theatre; and Thackeray was engrossed from morning to sunset.
Perhaps the extraordinary popularity of the novel was why Collins left instructions for his tombstone to be inscribed with the words “In memory of Wilkie Collins, author of ‘The Woman in White’ and other works of fiction.”
A NEW GENRE
You would think the first effort at a new genre would be a clumsy one, but I didn’t find that when I read the book. Although it’s long (248K words according to howlongtoread.com), the story is captivating, and it is considered by many to be one of the best novels ever written. This from Wikipedia:
In 2003, Robert McCrum writing for The Observer listed The Woman in White number 23 in “the top 100 greatest novels of all time,” and the novel was listed at number 77 on the BBC’s survey The Big Read.
At its heart, TWIW is a love story. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. But the story is wrapped within a mysterious “secret” that the main character pursues and it’s this that keeps the reader turning pages.
PLOT AND STRUCTURE
The book is divided into three “epochs” which are narrated by different characters.
In Epoch One, Collins immediately employs The Hook. The protagonist, a young art instructor by the name of Walter Hartright, is approached while alone on a dark road by a mysterious woman in distress who is dressed all in white.
The woman, Anne Catherick, asks for directions, and Hartright helps her find a cab to take her to her destination. In the next few paragraphs, Hartright witnesses a man in a carriage tell a policeman that a woman escaped from his asylum. She was dressed all in white! Now the reader is hooked for sure.
Hartright continues to his new position at Limmeridge House where he meets his students, half-sisters Marian Halcombe and Laura Fairlie. They live in the estate home of Laura’s uncle and guardian, the hilarious curmudgeon, Mr. Fairlie. Hartright notices Laura bears a striking resemblance to the woman in white, and he tells them the story of his meeting with Anne Catherick.
Walter and Laura fall in love, but Laura, who will receive a large sum of money upon marriage, is engaged to be married to Sir Percival Glyde, a man she does not love. Hartright is forced into a heartbreaking withdrawal.
When Glyde arrives at the estate prior to the marriage, he seems genial enough, but there’s something edgy and uncomfortable about him. The young women discover he was responsible for committing Anne Catherick to a mental institution.
Percival Glyde and Laura Fairlie marry, and it soon becomes apparent that he wants her to sign over her inheritance to him. Tension builds between Laura and Percival. The stakes are further raised when Anne Catherick appears again and indicates she has a secret about Percival Glyde that will destroy him, but she doesn’t reveal it.
By the time Walter Hartright reenters the story, he is told Laura is dead and Anne Catherick has been sent back to a mental institution. Marian Halcombe is convinced foul play was involved in Laura’s death, and she and Hartright begin an amateur sleuth investigation into the situation. They are especially interested in the “secret” Anne Catherick had. They track Anne to an asylum where they make a shocking discovery.
I’ll stop there so I don’t give away the ending.
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I mentioned several of the major characters above, but there are ten characters that offer first person accounts at different points in the story. Although we sometimes think we need to limit the number of POV characters, I think the “witness” narratives are effective here. In my opinion, having the story emerge through the eyes of various characters is an effective way to put the puzzle together one piece at a time until the reader finally gets to see the whole picture.
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There are several movies of The Woman in White. The one we have is the Masterpiece Theatre version, and I recommend it. The acting is very good. Although the movie changes some of the story and shortens it considerably, it’s a great introduction to TWIW.
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So TKZers: Have you read The Woman in White or seen any of the various movies? What are your thoughts? Have you used the method of telling a story through the eyes of different characters? What’s your favorite mystery novel?
Cassie Deakin investigates a forty-year-old murder mystery and comes face-to-face with a killer who will stop at nothing to keep his secret.
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.
by Debbie Burke
Photo credit: Flickr CC by 2.0
As a kid, I played the Clue board game, but otherwise I don’t know much about gaming. When mystery dinner parties recently crossed my radar, I became curious. A game night with drinks, dinner, and a crime to solve sounded intriguing. As a writer, I wondered:
Who writes the scripts?
Where do you find them?
How do mystery dinners work?
Is script writing a worthwhile option for authors to try?
To answer these questions, I snooped around a Florida snowbird community where a mystery dinner party had been held a couple of weeks ago.
The party hosts are Suzanne and Michael Fitzsimmons, originally from Colorado where they planned social events at a club they owned. After snow-birding for several years, they moved to Florida permanently and host frequent mystery dinners with varied themes. Suzanne says, “It’s a good way for casual acquaintances to become friends and bring the community closer together.”
Before sending invitations, Suzanne talks with residents to match personalities with roles.
That led to my interviews with four party guests.
Judie and Dru Gilliland are retired farmers from Ohio. Judie describes herself as being on the shy side although she’s not shy about her alma mater Ohio State (“Go Buckeyes!”). Their daughter describes Dru’s personality: “Dad could be in the middle of China and he’d find someone he knew.”
Kristen and Joe MacLellan live on Prince Edward Island, Canada and spend winters in Florida. Before retirement, Kristen owned a day care and Joe was a bank manager. Initially Kristen was reluctant to accept the party invitation because of shyness but said, “Joe was all over it like a dirty shirt.” Their nine grandkids call him the “Silly Grandad.”
Parties are built around themes and holidays like a Halloween haunted house, Scrooge’s Christmas murder, a cruise ship, and even a Hillbilly Wedding. Suzanne buys mystery game sets that include scripts, character roles, and descriptions.
She caps the guest list at eight to 10 people. Then she sends invitations that assign each person to play a character and suggests costumes. According to Judie, thrift shops are excellent places to shop for those outfits.
The setting for this party is a Napa Valley vineyard during a wine festival. Five years before, the vineyard’s owner Barry Underwood disappeared and the body had been buried under the wood floor in the wine cellar (humorous names are mandatory). When an earthquake destroys the floor, the body is revealed, and party guests must solve the crime.
Suspects include:
Ralph Rottingrape, the victim’s cousin who took over running the vineyard after Underwood’s disappearance.
Otto Von Schapps, played by Dru. He’s a loud, boisterous German wine merchant who wears lederhosen and suspenders and flashes lots of cash. “Perfect part for him,” Judie says. “Except I don’t flash cash,” Dru adds.
Kristen MacLellan as Marilyn Merlot
Kristen plays Marilyn Merlot whose costume is a billowy white dress, platinum wig, and long gloves. In this photo, Kristen’s shyness is forgotten as she recreates the famous scene from Seven Year Itch. “Too bad the fan wasn’t up to the task,” she laments.
Two characters are assigned to play the sleuths:
Joe is Bud Wizer, an FBI agent with beer logos on his t-shirt and cap. He’s armed with a six-pack.
Bud Wizer and Marilyn Merlot
Judie is Bonnie Lass, a Scottish mystery author, making her ideally suited to solve crimes. She wears a tartan skirt, knee socks, and a narrow brim fedora.
During cocktail hour, host Michael bartends while Suzanne hands out booklets for guests to read that outline the plot.
Over salad, characters introduce themselves and read their part of the script. Each receives an envelope containing a clue that’s unique to that character. All have motives for murder, but only the killer knows his or her identity and that person reads from a different script.
While dinner goes on in a light-hearted atmosphere, characters warm to their roles with accents, flamboyant gestures, and ad libs. Joe improvised by adding a blackmail subplot that wasn’t in the script.
After dessert, everyone tries to guess the killer’s identity. At this party, only Dru and Judie guessed correctly. The identity was revealed to me but, sorry, I’m sworn to secrecy.
The evening is hailed as an entertaining success and Suzanne and Michael are on to planning the next party in March with a different theme and a new guest list.
Researching more game details, I found party kits range from $25 to $200+, depending on complexity and sophistication. Basic sets usually include invitation forms, name tags, scripts, and menu suggestions to fit the theme. Higher-end sets offer those options plus decorations, props, costumes, party souvenirs, and prizes.
Kits are tailored to different age groups from young children to teens to adults. Selections are mostly G-rated, without onstage violence.
Scripts can be similar to the Clue board game where victim, weapon, and murderer vary each time. Others feature set scripts that are not changeable.
If a murder dinner party is for profit where admission is charged or tickets are sold, a commercial license must be purchased (usually $200-250).
Variations offer options where all guests, even the host, can be suspects. For those, each person is assigned a number beforehand. At the beginning of the party, guests draw slips with corresponding numbers from a bowl. People are instructed to keep a straight face when they open slips. Most say “innocent” but one says “guilty.” Only the “guilty” player knows who they are.
Two scripts are provided to players—one to be followed if they’re innocent, a different one if they’re guilty.
Can you earn income by writing mystery party scripts? I found one site that accepts submissions but doesn’t mention compensation. Mastersofmystery.com‘s application outlines qualifications:
Exceptional storytelling skills with a passion for creating captivating narratives.
Strong writing and editing abilities, with a keen eye for detail.
Creativity and the ability to think critically to construct intricate murder mystery plots.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team.
Previous experience in game writing, scriptwriting, or a related field is a plus.
I also found one successful business built around mystery party games. Dr. Bon Blossman is a physiologist with a passion for gaming, party planning, and writing. She combined all three into Mymysteryparty.com.
Blossman recalls:
“When I launched My Mystery Party in 2006, I handled everything—from game development and web design to customer service and shipping.”
The enterprise grew quickly. By 2009, Blossman was teaching as a post-doc and adjunct professor when realization hit her:
“My games and mystery novels had surpassed my academic income, leading me to become a full-time mystery party game developer and YA author.”
Her website showcases more than 100 games she’s written, with titles like the “Nancy Crew Mystery Series,” “Game of Crowns,” and “Twas the Night Before Murder.” The site includes videos, how-to articles, and an extensive storefront with related merchandise.
After almost 20 years in business, Blossman remains committed and hands-on:
“While I now have an amazing team assisting with party packs, phones, social media, and customer inquiries, I still develop every game and co-manage the websites, among other things.”
Her creativity, entrepreneurship, and hard work paid off.
“They say to turn your hobby into a career—and that’s exactly what I did!”
Encouraging words for all of us struggling authors.
During my interview with Suzanne, she mentioned, “I’d like to host an all-girl party,” for women who want to play the game, but their husbands resist.
That prompted an idea. Could I write the mystery dinner party script she wants? I’m always game (sorry) for a new challenge. Hmmm.
What if a guy who’d been married eight times is murdered and the ex-wives are all suspects…?
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TKZers: Have you ever attended a mystery dinner party? Have you hosted one? To stretch writing muscles, would you try creating a script?
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Looking for a cheap thrill? For a limited time, Deep Fake Double Down is on sale for only $.99.
Winner of the 2023 BookList Award for Best Mystery.
By Elaine Viets
Last year, I started a new mystery series. It’s been a long road to publication, including five rewrites.
My editor liked my Angela Richman, death investigator series. But I longed to write another series set in south Florida.
Here’s the new cover.
In Sex and Death on the Beach, Norah McCarthy owns the Florodora apartments. Plumbers repairing the pool discover the body of porn star Sammie Lant, notorious for having sex on the beach with a college football star. When more bones are uncovered, Norah is shocked to her core.
When I start a new series, I have to answer five questions: who, what, where, when and why.
Who is my main character? She’s Norah McCarthy, age 41. Norah owns the most exclusive apartment building in Peerless Point, Florida. The Florodora is more than a hundred years old, the first apartment building in this south Florida beach town between Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
You don’t need money or social status to rent an apartment at the Florodora. You must be a member of a more exclusive group. You have to be a genuine Florida Man or Woman. You’ve seen the headlines: “Florida Man Busted with Meth, Guns and Baby Gator in Truck.” Or: “Florida Woman Bathes in Mountain Dew in Attempt to Erase DNA after Committing Murder.”
Yes, those are real headlines.
Norah is descended from an early Florida Woman, her grandmother, Eleanor Harriman.
Grandma always had a soft spot for scapegraces, since she was one herself. She was a Florodora Girl, a superstar chorus girl a century ago. Grandma was in the 1920 Broadway production of Florodora, before she eloped with handsome Johnny Harriman, a millionaire, back when a million was real money. She was married at sixteen and madly in love.
When Norah was old enough, Grandma told her about poor Johnny’s accidental death, which involved a champagne bottle and a chandelier.
“I loved that man,” Grandma said. “I’m glad he died happy.”
Johnny’s death made Grandma a rich widow at seventeen. She moved to south Florida and built an apartment building right on the ocean in 1923, on a narrow barrier island.
What am I writing? A funny cozy mystery.
You’d be surprised how many mystery authors aren’t sure if they’re writing a cozy, a thriller, or a traditional mystery. Answering this question will set the tone and pace for your novel.
Where is it set? This Florida Beach series is set in mythical Peerless Park, a beach town between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, which has much in common with Hollywood, Florida, where I currently live.
When is it set? Right now in the present day, with occasional trips back in time when Norah’s grandmother was still alive.
Why write a new series?
Let me tell you about my latest walk on Hollywood beach, near my home. I was on the Broadwalk. That’s not a typo, that’s what the city calls the wide walkway of pink pavers along the beach.
It was close to sunset on a sparkling bright day. The light was soft, the air was brisk, and the sky was smeared shades of flamingo pink and purple.
Against this colorful background, I heard German, English and Spanish. I saw a smiling shirtless man wearing earbuds dance the mambo on the Broadwalk. He followed the steps perfectly: Step. Pause. Other foot. Pause. And repeat.
Right after the mambo dancer, another man was loading a stunning macaw with long indigo tailfeathers into his van. A third man was rocking gently in a rainbow-colored hammock.
And last, but not least, four people were setting up for a beach wedding, assembling a five-feet tall rose petal heart as the backdrop for the couple’s seaside ceremony.
I wanted to write about Florida’s life and color. That’s how my Florida Beach series was born. Yes, I know there’s much to dislike about Florida, from the humidity to the hurricanes and more. Look at any news site, and you’ll find at least one story proving some residents of the Sunshine State are a little dim.
But Florida has its own brand of wackiness that appeals to someone with a slightly skewed sense of humor.
Like me.
Preorder your copy of Sex and Death on the Beach here: bit.ly/3W6Y2Rp
Clue – noun — anything that serves to guide or direct in the solution of a problem, mystery, etc.
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According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary
‘The word clue was originally a variant spelling of clew, meaning “ball of thread or yarn.” Our modern sense of clue, “guide to the solution of a mystery,” grows out of a motif in myth and folklore, the ball of thread that helps in finding one’s way out of a maze. ‘
The “ball of thread” mentioned in the M-W etymology refers to one of my favorite stories in Greek mythology.
The Clue of Ariadne
It all started when there was a war between Crete and Athens. Crete won the war, and the rather sadistic King Minos of Crete exacted a horrible punishment on the Athenians. He required that the king of Athens periodically send seven young men and seven young women to the Isle of Crete to become dinner for the horrible monster, the Minotaur.
The Big M was housed inside a labyrinth constructed by none other than the ingenious Daedalus. The labyrinth was so large and complex that it served as a prison for the Minotaur. When the poor Athenian sacrifices arrived, they would be forced into the maze. At some point in their wanderings, they’d encounter the Minotaur, and things wouldn’t go well for them.
After this horrific nonsense went on for a few years, a young man named Theseus, the son of the Athenian king, decided enough was enough. He vowed to put a stop to the awful goings-on by sailing to Crete, entering the labyrinth, and killing the Minotaur. That was a noble plan, but it had one problem: the labyrinth was so complicated, he probably wouldn’t find his way out.
That’s when our heroine, Ariadne, entered the picture. Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos, and she fell in love with the dashing Theseus. He promised to marry her if she could figure out a way to get him back out of the labyrinth after he offed Mr. M. (At this point, I feel compelled to say that without Ariadne, Theseus was clueless.)
I truly love simple solutions to complicated problems, and I especially admire people who come up with them. That Ariadne was a problem-solver for the ages. She handed her true love a ball of thread, known as a clew, and told him to unwind it as he wandered around in the labyrinth. Then after he killed the Minotaur, he could just rewind it as he followed it out. Brilliant. And it worked!
Sounds like a Happy Ever After kind of ending, eh? Unfortunately, that scumbag Theseus broke his promise and didn’t marry the beautiful Ariadne, but I think she won out in the end. She got to go down in history as the very first mystery solver, and that’s endeared her to millions of readers through the years, whether they knew her name or not.
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Clues in a modern mystery are a little more sophisticated than a simple ball of thread, and detectives do more (at least we hope they do) than just wander around until they find the culprit.
However, there is one major similarity in our mysteries to the story of Theseus: the detective and the readers are led into a labyrinth. Only this one is constructed by the author. The answer to the mystery is within the maze, but the detective needs to know which clues to follow and which are red herrings.
I liked some of the clue categories listed on zaraaltair.com:
Physical clues: A gun or knife left at the scene of the murder. Maybe a button torn off. Of course, the villain can plant a clue at the scene to misdirect the detective.
Biological clues: Strands of hair, DNA, fingerprints.
Psychological clues: Profilers try to identify the type of person likely to commit a murder, but the detective uses his/her own knowledge of human nature to decide on suspects.
Timing clues: This is one of my favorites. Alibis are established based on the time of death, but clever villains might be able to manipulate that piece of evidence. A smashed watch is always a good clue that might be a red herring.
Clues of Omission: Another favorite. Something should be evident, but it isn’t. There’s a famous example from the Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Adventure of Silver Blaze” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes (naturally) notices something everyone else has missed.
Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
Holmes: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Gregory: The dog did nothing in the night-time.
Holmes: That was the curious incident.
I don’t know about you, but if I can include clues in such a way the reader finishes the story and slaps him/herself on the side of the head, thinking, “I should have seen it,” then I’ll be happy.
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So TKZers: How do you decide what clues to have in your mystery novels? What clues have inspired you?
In Lacey’s Star, there’s only one clue to the murder, but it’s just a child’s note. It couldn’t be important. Could it?
Lacey’s Star is a Silver Falchion Award Top Pick (Cozy Mystery) at Killer Nashville.
On sale now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.
In lieu of my usual Words of Wisdom post today I have a theory to share about mystery fiction.
Namely, that mystery fiction can also be considered suspicion fiction.
Mystery is often considered a highly intellectual genre, given that it focuses on solving the puzzle of a baffling murder. Any discussion of mystery plotting will hone in on clues, red herrings, misdirecting the reader, and laying out the pieces of the puzzle for the sleuth and reader to put together. Mystery writers are like stage magicians, practicing misdirection while setting up the reveal. The puzzle can be deep, intricate and twisty.
The goal is for the solution to be surprising, and if we readers figure it out beforehand, we do it in a way that makes us feel satisfied for having figured out the identity of the killer. The satisfaction we feel can be part of the emotional payoff at the end of a mystery.
But mystery is also about another emotion.
Suspicion.
Suspicion defined: 1. The act of suspecting, especially something wrong or evil. 2. The state of mind of someone who suspects; doubts; misgiving.
The Emotion Thesaurus defines suspicion as “intuitively suspecting that something is wrong,” and goes on to list external and internal manifestations of this emotion. Your body language, such as darting glances or furtive looks or movements, might indicate your suspicion. Or, perhaps your stomach is roiled, your heart is beating faster, your palms are sweating, or your chest feels tight.
In a mystery novel, who does the sleuth suspect? Who do the police suspect? Most of all, who does the reader suspect?
How do you behave when you are feeling suspicious?
Doubt is a key part of suspicion. The sleuth begins to wonder who they can trust, and who they can’t. The reader begins wondering about the truthfulness and trustworthiness of a character, often suspecting more than one character at the same time. Doubt in the main character, or supporting characters, can lead to distrust, secrecy, and furtive behavior.
Suspicion can easily become obsession.
The sleuth can come to suspect even friends or family, and others can do the same with the sleuth. Adding to this is the often furtive nature of characters in a mystery. Suspects often have something to hide, such as a secret, or a different crime.
Suspicion can also be focused on an event or absence of something. For instance, the curious case of the dog that didn’t bark in the night.
If you suspect someone, you don’t entirely trust them, and that mistrust can deepen your suspicion as you draw conclusions about what they’ve been up to, and what you may have learned. The obsession deepens, both for the sleuth, and the reader, as they are drawn further into a web of deception, suspecting someone, only to discover they have an alibi, while learning that another character did something unusual or mysterious.
Thus suspicion has an arc. Moreover, there is synergy going on here—someone acts or acted “suspicious” which causes the sleuth to suspect them, creating a kind of feedback loop.
Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, A Shadow of a Doubt, does this superbly. It’s really a suspense movie with strong mystery elements, but it shows the progression in our heroine Charlie’s suspicions, and her behavior as her suspicion deepens about a beloved uncle. Our own James Scott Bell recommended this movie to me, and not only is it gripping entertainment (and fun, with a pair of supporting characters who love murder mysteries) it’s also a perfect example of a suspicion arc.
I’d love to see Jim do a JSB Goes to the Movies featuring it, so have refrained from saying too much here. Thanks, Jim for recommending the movie. It delivered on every level.
Suspicion goes hand in hand with another emotion, suspense, especially suspense for the reader. As our suspicion of someone or something deepens, we feel increasing suspense over what could happen, especially since we usually lack proof / evidence of guilt until the end. We feel suspense and tension over wondering if we’re right, and also if we overlooked something, which heightens our involvement in the story.
What does this mean for writing mysteries?
It means being aware of the reader’s own building suspicion and keeping that in mind as your hero investigates the mystery at the heart of your novel.
I’m outliner, both before, during and after drafting, so in my case, I include the suspicion arc in my outline(s). For a discovery writer, I think being aware of how suspicion can build and play out is still important, and something you can internalize by thinking about this aspect of a mystery before writing your story. It can also be added in revision, just like clues and red herrings.
I find possessing a kind of multi-level awareness about your characters and how they are perceiving what is going on is important in writing fiction in general of course, but also with this issue of who suspects what when. Especially for the sleuth, the police, and the murderer.
As JSB discussed in this 2015 post there is a shadow story taking place off screen from your hero with the other characters.
Suspicion is a part of that shadow story. Being aware of who the killer suspects is investigating the murder can set up the confrontation with the hero. This confrontation is a crucial part of many modern mysteries.
Also, how will others react when they realize the hero suspects them? Do they become more forthcoming? Or do they clam up? Even become angry?
In a mystery featuring an amateur sleuth or a P.I. if the police begin to suspect that the hero is investigating, they’ll likely have words with the investigator, so knowing when they might suspect that and how much is important.
There you have it, my possibly crackpot theory on mysteries also being suspicion fiction.
I’ll give the King the last word on suspicious minds
What do you think of this “mystery is also suspicion fiction” theory of mine? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest. –Agatha Christie
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Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her sales are exceeded only by the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. According to her website at agathachristie.com, “She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. “
Agatha Christie’s books have sold over two billion copies worldwide!
Given Ms. Christie’s extraordinary success, it might be a good idea to see if we can discover some of her secrets.
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A few years ago, I watched a documentary entitled “The Agatha Christie Code” (available on Youtube) in which researchers examined various aspects of Christie’s writing. These researchers included
Dr. Richard Forsyth, Research Fellow in Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick
Dr. Pernilla Danielsson, Academic Champion of Communications at the University of Birmingham
Dr. Marcus Dahl, Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study – London University
They used computer technology to analyze Christie’s work, and they found interesting patterns in her stories that may give us a clue as to why she’s so popular.
Word Choices
Christie used simple language in her books, so readers were free to focus on the plot rather than the language. For example, the researchers found she used “said” often in an attribution rather than other words like “responded” or “answered.”
Christie also often repeated words within a short section of prose – something I’ve been warned against. Here’s an example from the novel Sad Cypress that was used in the video. (My notations in red.)
The researchers thought the repetition cemented the information in the reader’s mind. My editor would probably faint if I sent something like that to her, but maybe we should rethink the multiple uses of a word in a short section of prose.
Verbal Structure
The most interesting part of the video for me was when one of the researchers evaluated Christie’s works on the three criteria of
Dr. Danielsson plotted information about these aspects on a three-dimensional graph and plotted the same criteria from Arthur Conan Doyle’s works on the same graph. Christie’s books exhibited a consistency shown visually by her plotted points being clustered together while the points of Doyle’s stories were spread farther apart indicating his works were more dissimilar when compared to each other. This indicated that Doyle’s style had changed through the years while Christie’s had remained remarkably consistent.
Plot
Christie’s mysteries almost always create a world where
Some critics claim Christie wrote the same story over and over, but that’s not fair. For example, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, and And Then There Were None introduced novel twists to the standard murder mystery although they used a typical Christie template.
However, this general structure reassures the reader that there will be a logical puzzle that will be solved in the end, and that contributes to the sense of satisfaction.
Characters
While some famous characters appear in multiple books and are popular with the reading public (e.g., Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Captain Hastings), the number of characters in each novel may be just as important. This prompted an interesting theory by David Shephard, Master trainer in Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
Mr. Shephard pointed out that people have a limited focus and a conscious mind can only concentrate on five to nine things at a time. When presented with more information than that, a person will enter a sort of hypnotic trance.
Since Christie’s stories often have more than nine characters and several plot lines, Shephard thinks the reader’s mind can’t handle the overload of information, so he/she begins to “feel” the book rather than just think about it. This emotional connection makes readers want to return to Agatha Christie’s books again and again.
I’m not sure I can buy that explanation, but it’s very interesting and makes me think I should count the characters in my future books to see if I can put my readers into a trance.
Content & Style
As we all know, Agatha Christie’s mysteries contain no explicit sexual scenes and no explicit violence. So why do so many readers still buy her novels? Readers of Christie’s books know there will be a logical solution to the murder, the killer will be caught, and the clues are all available to solve the mystery.
David Suchet, who played the part of Hercule Poirot in the television series Agatha Christie’s Poirot, compared Christie’s books to sudoku puzzles. He believes readers enjoy the books because they’re completely absorbed in figuring out the solution to the puzzle.
Length
Although I found a site with the number of pages in each of Agatha Christie’s novels, I only found a reference to the word count on https://thewritepractice.com/word-count/. That site had an article that states Agatha Christie’s mystery novels average between 40,000 and 60,000 words. That’s a little short for most novels today, but it could explain why people found them easy to read.
Pacing
Agatha Christie controlled the speed at which her books were read by laying out more descriptive passages at the beginning, but picking up the pace of the story as it progressed. Hypnotist Paul McKenna had an interesting take on this. He felt her particular pattern of writing caused certain brain chemicals to be released, resulting in a sort of addiction in the readers. This theory goes a little beyond my pay grade, but I do think picking up the pace is a technique that works well in mystery writing.
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So there you have it. While I’m sure there are other reasons for her success, these aspects of Agatha Christie’s writing are worth considering.
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So TKZers: Have you read many of Agatha Christie’s books? Why do you think they’re so popular? Have you viewed “The Agatha Christie Code” video? Is there anything you think we can glean from the data in this post that will help with our own writing?
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“Very few of us are what we seem.” –Agatha Christie
Private pilot Cassie Deakin lands in the middle of a mystery and discovers things are not always what they seem.
Buy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.
The two previous Words of Wisdom dealt with story lengths shorter than the novel: the short story and the novella. Today’s post, though not a Words of Wisdom one, will continue with a look at the “black sheep” of the short form, the novelette. While the novelette is recognized in various science fiction awards as a discrete length, this is not true for mystery and thriller, hence the “black sheep” in this post’s title.
Length-wise, short stories are usually defined as running from 2000-7500 words, while the novella is often defined as running from 20,000-40,000 words in length. Short stories are the typical length in many online magazines, and in story anthologies. Story anthologies can include longer lengths, of course, ranging into the novella length. But, in general, there’s a divide between the two forms.
The novelette lives in that divide, running between 7500 words and 20,000.
Masterclass discusses what distinguishes a novelette from a novella:
In terms of storytelling ambition, novelettes tend to split the difference between novellas and shorter forms like short stories. Novelettes tend to have a greater focus on character development, worldbuilding, and plotting than short stories. However, the stories are generally more concise and focused than a novella-length work, as the word count is often too restrictive to tell a long story. [The full post can be found here.]
Our very own James Scott Bell has written a number of novelettes, including the Force of Habit series and Trouble is My Business, each six novelettes long. In his March 3, 2013 KZB post, Jim touches on the novelette and its value in helping you train as a writer:
Training: A novelette is short form (about 15k words) and I’ve been studying that form as the e-book revolution has taken off. All writers now should be producing short form work in addition to full length novels. He goes on to discuss other aspects of his novelette—the post is well worth reading in it’s entirety.
In the Science Fiction field a novelette is defined as running from 7500 to 17,500 words.
The late science fiction grand master James Gunn felt that the novelette was the perfect length for science fiction: long enough to allow the writer to fully explore an idea but not so long as to become caught up in a plot that might be so complex and lengthy as to overshadow the exploration of that idea:
“Although there are some great SF novels, there are far more great SF novelettes, which embody the substance of a novel without taking on its burden to solve the problem it lays out.”
I had the opportunity to talk with Jim Gunn about this when I was at the University of Kansas for a two-week novel writing workshop in 2013. As a long time anthologist, editor and writer he was passionate that this was the case.
I feel the same might be true for mystery, especially the locked room variety. The novelette length is long enough to delve into a clever mystery and explore it without having to go to even the extent of plotting and number of characters a novella does. At the same time, there’s more room for characterization and world building then in a true short story.
In mystery or thriller, neither the novelette or the novella are mentioned in awards categories. The Edgar Awards short story category covers stories that run from 1,000 to 22,000 words. The International Thriller Writer Awards simply says that to be considered a short story it must be less than 35,000 words.
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Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense film, The Birds, is based on Daphne Du Maurier’s 1952 novelette of the same name. In the novelette, the story is centered on Nat Hocken, a disabled WW2 veteran who works for a local farmer. Set on the windswept Cornish coast during a bleak autumn, Nat soon finds evidence of birds acting strangely, pecking at his bedroom window, and when he opens it, attacking him. At the same time, the autumn has turned a bitter, dry cold. Soon Nat notices gargantuan flocks of gulls riding the waves at sea, seemingly biding their time. What follows is a building horror as Nat realizes his family, and his community is under threat, and he takes steps to warn others and protect his family.
The POV is kept on Nat, and the focus on coordinated actions of the birds. The novelette takes place over three days. Radio broadcasts let Nat and the reader both know that the bird attacks are widespread, throughout the U.K., and perhaps the world, but we stay with Nat the whole time. The arc of the novelette is in Nat and his family’s evolving situation, as he becomes aware of the threat, and attempts to save his family and warn others.
I’ve published three novelettes, “Siloed,” which appeared in the Street Spells urban fantasy anthology, “Running Tangent,” co-written with K.C. Ball, which was published in the July 2015 issue of Perihelion Science Fiction, and the cozy mystery novelette, “Farewell, My Cookie,” which I published on BookFunnel last August. All three were in the range of 10-11,000 words. Both “Siloed” and “Farewell, My Cookie,” take place over the course of a single evening, while “Running Tangent” occurs over a longer span of time. I find novelette length ideal for briskly paced stories that took place over just a few hours.
For me, the novelette’s allowing more space for characterization, exploring an idea or a world and more room for plot than a short story while being more concise than a novella makes it a form worth considering.
How about you?
By Debbie Burke
Writing conferences are a mix of exhilarating and exhausting, inspiring and overwhelming, work and play.
Terry Odell and I recently attended the Flathead River Writers Conference. In today’s and tomorrow’s posts, you’ll hear about the experience from each of us. Terry also tried out her new Olympus camera and will hopefully share scenic shots tomorrow.
Meanwhile, here are a few photos from the conference taken by other guests:
Susan Purvis and Debbie Burke at the book table
No, this isn’t a stick up. Dr. Erika Putnam leads the audience in exercises to alleviate “writer’s slump” from hours bent over the computer.
Author/storyteller Chris La Tray is Montana’s Poet Laureate who starts each morning by reading the tattoo on his arm—a challenge from Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton.
It reads: “Men Wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.”
Does that sound a little like writing? 
A young writer shares her story with a friend. Isn’t this what conferences are all about?
A couple of days before the conference, Terry arrived from Colorado to check out this corner of Montana. On Thursday, we drove around Flathead Lake, while showers and sunshine played tag.
On Friday, the sun won out over showers. In Glacier National Park, snow closed the higher elevations of Going-to-the-Sun Road so we didn’t make it up to Logan Pass (6000+ feet) to see mountain goats and bighorn sheep. But we visited Lake McDonald, waterfalls, and the historic lodge. Any day at Glacier is a good day.
As a Montanan, I performed my sworn, sacred duty to introduce Terry to huckleberry-peach pie and huckleberry chocolate.
Literary agent Zach Honey
Now to the conference highlights from one of the guest agents, Zach Honey of FinePrint Literary Management.
Zach was born in Greensboro, NC and raised in Montana, leading to an affinity for both sweet tea and waist-deep snow. He specializes in thrillers in rural settings because of the potential for dark, scary adventures in remote, isolated locations.
Zach gave a talk about the elements of suspense that’s tailor-made for the crime dogs of TKZ. He kindly agreed to allow me to unpack his presentation. Thanks, Zach!
Suspense and mystery apply to all stories in all genres.
Why does the reader keep turning pages?
Why does the listener lean toward the person telling the story?
Why does the viewer keep watching the movie?
Suspense contains three elements:
When readers feel a close connection to a character, esp. the POV character, they hope for a good outcome for that character and fear the danger that threatens the character.
Villainous characters also need to connect with readers, although it’s a different type of connection. Readers are intrigued and fascinated by evildoers. That interest can be deepened and made more complex by incorporating backstory. Why is the villain willing to or driven to step over the line? Will s/he get away with it?
Suspense can be short term for the duration of a scene or long term sustained over the entire book or film.
Types of suspense:
Mysterious suspense – Info is withheld from the reader.
Horrific suspense – Something bad will happen. Often a tragic ending. Examples: Stephen King, Dean Koontz.
Romantic or comedic suspense – Something bad will happen that may also be funny/entertaining and usually leads to a happy ending.
Paradox of suspense: Suspense contains an inherent paradox because readers or film viewers often know the end beforehand. Knowledge of the end should preclude suspense, yet it doesn’t.
Readers continue to read despite knowing who the murderer/villain is.
Photo credit: Laura Loveday, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED
People who’ve watched Psycho multiple times still jump at the shower scene.
That leads to the question: Why does someone who already knows the outcome still feel suspense?
Zach offered these theories:
Moment by moment forgetting – the reader/viewer is so caught up in the present tense moment that they temporarily forget the outcome.
Desire/frustration theory of suspense – The reader/viewer feels frustrated because they want to change the outcome of an imminent event, but they can’t. That’s why the movie audience shouts, “Don’t go down in the basement!” Of course, the character inevitably does and meets their doom.
Zach cited Alfred Hitchcock as the renowned master of suspense. Hitch defined differences between mystery and suspense:
Mystery is an intellectual process.
Suspense is an emotional process.
Mystery requires withholding information from the reader/viewer.
Suspense requires giving information to the reader/viewer.
A classic example is the bomb under the table.
In mystery, only the character who placed the bomb knows it’s there. None of the other characters nor the reader is aware of it. When it explodes, it causes immediate surprise and shock.
In suspense, the reader knows the bomb is about to go off, but the characters don’t know. The reader’s knowledge leads to excited, horrified anticipation of the disaster that’s about to happen. Five minutes of suspense delivers five seconds of surprise/shock.
When the reader or audience has more information than the character does, that also causes dramatic irony.
Dramatic irony has great impact on the reader. The combination of the intellectual process (knowledge of what happens next) together with the emotional process (the fear, hope, uncertainty of what happens next) delivers an effective power punch for authors to exploit.
Additional tools:
Raise the stakes – what will be lost if the hero fails?
Lower the hope – what if the hero can’t succeed b/c their abilities or resources are reduced?
Foreshadowing – creating dread for something that may happen in the future.
A big thank you to Zach Honey for explaining the mystery of suspense.
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Stop by tomorrow to read Terry Odell’s impressions of the Flathead River Writers Conference.
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TKZers – what is your favorite technique for building suspense in your stories? Are any of the tools that Zach mentioned new to you? If so, do you want to experiment with them?
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Suspense is high but the price is low for Debbie Burke’s latest thriller Deep Fake Double Down. Only $.99 at this link.
