When Should I commit the Murder? Is it better to kill sooner rather than later?
I don’t like to rush into murder. I like to take a little time to get to know the people involved. Set the stage. Maybe spend some time chewing over different ways to do the deed before I … ahem … pull the trigger. I know a lot of authors like to toss the corpse onto the stage in the first page or two of the book and leap right into the action, and I think those stories are great. I am going to do that too. But in the Archie Cavendish mysteries I like to take my time – I hope that readers are wondering not just who the killer is, but who the victim might be, as we meet the players and learn how they relate to and antagonize one another.
I think both approaches have advantages. When one takes time to unveil the suspects beforehand, you are laying the foundation of the crime that gives the reader an inside view. They know a little bit about the victim and suspects and are ready to start hypothesizing as soon as someone stumbles over the body. It makes for a more measured pace, and although the murder may come later in the narrative, the story can move forward unrelentingly once the body is pulled from the pool.
Finding the unfortunate victim early in the book has the advantage of starting the book off with a bang, but it has the disadvantage that your detective needs to keep digging up things that happened before the book started during interviews with the suspects. The story needs to keep pausing and filling in blanks from events that transpired before page one.
Neither approach is objectively better. Personally, I think the former lends itself better to stories that want to delve into character and motivations, not just motives. I think stories that start with the murder can be great for mysteries where the detective and her associates are what the story is about, and the suspects and victim are just there to provide some background for her story. And while the first and (in progress) second Archie Cavendish books delve into the people in the case before the crime happens, I am sure there will be a case where he trips over a cadaver in the opening pages.
What do you think? Share your thoughts: Do you like to get to know the characters before the murder takes place? Or do you prefer a story where the killer has struck in the first five pages?
And don’t forget, you can read the first pages of A Consequence of Sin by clicking this link.
Happy Detecting!
Komentáře