Having grown up on a diet of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, E S Gardener and Mary Higgins Clarke, the appeal of authoring a murder mystery had a potency that can be best summed up as:
can-I-do-it?
Having read the best and some of the worst in this segment (which I will not name), I felt I was considerably well-armed to create a ready-reckoner of sorts about what was desirable and what was not in a new book on the block. Here, I share some nuggets of information from my travels through the writing tryst.
So, read on!
Know your target readers:
One needs to remember that a crime thriller is to be served to readers who, by default, have a logical and analytical bent of mind; hence the inclination towards the genre. Keeping them engaged is challenging and puts great demands on the author. It would just not do to misjudge the readers’ credulity; they are discerning from the start!
The beginning:
For a crime thriller, one doesn’t write out one’s heart. The grey cells must pitch in with pragmatism and identify the following right from the word go:
- The Two W’s- The first W pertains to who the unfortunate soul is whose blood must flow to kickstart the story. The hapless victim cannot be allowed to live too long through the pages because the murder is just 10% of the story; the remaining 90% is about uncovering the trail. The other W refers to who commits the crime. Who is lusting for the former’s blood?
- The Two M’s – The first M is for motive. It is best to arm the culprit with a motive different from the usual fare of sibling rivalry, property squabbles, or convoluted love triangles. The reason should not be so obvious that the reader second-guesses it before you are ready to reveal it. And the other M is for the means employed to execute the task. It could be a gun, a knife, a fatal push, or some mysterious poison, depending on what is best suited to the story.
A Tip: As far as poisons are concerned, cyanide and arsenic have been overdone, so it had better be something newer and meaner.
- The Time-Frame - The victim’s encounters with different suspects, the incidents which lead up to the murder and the murder itself must conform to an air-tight time-line even if the incidents are not revealed in the book in a chronological order.
- The Characters- The author knows fully well who the antagonists and protagonists are, but this must not manifest in the description of the characters. It wouldn’t vibe well to paint the antagonist in obviously negative tones. Conversely, it would be a gross miscalculation to first create a holier-than -thou image for the antagonist and then present the same individual as a master criminal. All characters should be pen-painted as neutrally as possible while making each one of them distinctive, believable, and relatable. Ringing in too many characters is an absolute no-no. The idea is not to confuse but to entice.
- The Setting- Every setting, every situation and every location must be authentic. The best way of ensuring realism while transporting readers into your story is to let it evolve in a place which you are familiar with. Which is why I opted for Dalhousie, a place where I have spent a lot of time. I could visualize the murder happening and shadow the characters through every place in the town.
- The Red Herrings- Red herrings are integral to a murder-mystery. Leading the reader straight from point A to point Z simply does not work when one is trying to whip up suspense. A reader who embarks on this journey must meander along the way and get side-stepped while chasing potential suspects, before getting steered back to the main course. Mini sub-plots which later merge into the bigger picture add to the appeal, but there can be overkill with too many subsets. An excess of red herrings not only takes away from the thrill but also threatens to choke the story-line. A couple of times, I created vivid smokescreens and even though it wrenched my gut, I had to later amputate pages which I had meticulously inked into the book.
- Reeling it in- The author must tie in each feint and give adequate closure to every subterfuge that has been created. It can be a writer’s biggest faux pas and a reader’s worst nightmare to turn the last page and still have unanswered questions floating around.
- The Pace- There is a need to set a brisk pace to keep the thrill alive. Long-wound descriptions and excessive verbosity can kill the cat called curiosity.
The Narrative
Every chapter should ideally end on a note which would fire the readers’ urge to keep the meter humming while they delve straight into the next one to find resolution to the last twist in the plot. Only then will the work qualify as a page-turner and a couldn’t-put-down-till-the-last-page kind of book.
How much to reveal?
The best scenario is when all the clues and evidence have been presented to the reader at some point or the other. One can’t play the cards close to one’s chest and then spring something totally unexpected onto the reader in the concluding chapter. Reveal a little at a time, laying out one card after another and let the reader connect the dots. The trick is to season the story with a sprinkling of clues, incorporated subtly and in a casual manner.
In a Nutshell:
It is best to avoid too much gore and violence because the USP of a crime thriller is not how hair-raising the crime is but how well-knit is the suspense. To sum it up in one sentence, the author must zero down on motive and method, create credible characters, build up a narrative which can keep the adrenalin pumping and finally season it with an adequate measure of bluffs and ploys. This done, you are on the way to penning down the next who-dun-it!
The Last Word:
Finally, one comes to the most important crossroad, and that is finding a partner in crime (read a genuine publisher and a good editor). Believe me, this is even more difficult than putting the manuscript together. I am eternally grateful to Readomania and Dipankar Mukerjee for believing in my story and to Indrani Ganguly for her brilliant editing. Whatever glitches I had overlooked were caught and fished out by her expert eye. Here’s to many more murders (fictional of course) with the two!
Aneeta Sharma is an educator with more than 26 years of teaching experience with senior secondary classes and a certified Reiki healer. Aneeta hails from a family which is steeped in military tradition and has her roots in Himachal Pradesh. Presently she is based at Noida.
Last employed with Army Public School, Noida as PGT English, Aneeta sought voluntary retirement to pursue her twin passions of travelling and writing. Currently a member of the Council for Global Education, Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WICCI), she also devotes time to an NGO working for destitute children.
Click here to get a copy of her book.
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