Okay, it’s not easy to write mysteries.
You have to have a compelling lead character. You have to set the scene. You have to plant clues all over the place.
And you have to have a satisfying solution.
This seems to be a problem.
I recall once reading a mystery by a very famous author, a best-selling author from “The Golden Age.” Her detective stumbles around for 200 pages trying to solve the murder of a young man. Nothing seems to work.
Then, ten pages from the end of the novel, the young man’s mother comes in to confess to the murder. She’d barely been mentioned in the book.
I threw the book against the wall.
I’ve just finished reading two novels by an author I met at Killer Nashville, a very nice lady who was conversant with authors from the Golden Age.
She writes charming characters, usually giving them a dog of some sort. Her peripheral characters are well drawn. The prose moves quickly. A fun read.
Except…well, in both books, the amateur sleuths solve nothing. The killer is caught when the killer comes after the main character in the main character’s house. Up to that time, there’s no indication the killer is even a suspect.
Then a long and confusing explanation is given.
I like reading mysteries, fun mysteries with fun detectives. But I am a bit old-fashioned, I’m afraid. I want to smack my hand against my head and say “Why didn’t I figure that out?”
Agatha Christie was the master in giving you the unexpected but inevitable killer. She will plant little clues where you don’t notice them. When the killer is finally revealed, and you hear that something that killer said earlier in the book revealed their killer-ness, you shake your head. Dame Agatha fooled you again, but she did it honestly.
Really. If you’re not going to play the game, you might as well have the Butler Did It in every book you write, even if there isn’t a butler in the book. “Mr. Smith was killed with a Texan bowie knife at midnight at the downtown coffee shop. The Butler did it. Didn’t see that coming, did you?”
Mark Bruce, Writer 