writing a mystery novel

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Posted on Dec 02, 2020

How to Write a Mystery: The 6 Secret Steps Revealed

A great mystery novel will draw in readers with compelling characters, tricky twists, and a clever trail of clues. Of course, the secret to writing a hit like Gone Girl isn’t going to fall into your lap. But in this post we’ll help you strap on your deerstalker, grab your magnifying glass, and crack the code of great mystery architecture!

1. Investigate the subgenres of mystery

You may already know what sort of mystery you want to write. However, it still pays to read plenty of mystery books to get a good grasp on the mystery genre before you start ! When it comes to mystery and murder mystery subgenres, here are the usual suspects:

Cozy mysteries

Cozy mysteries often take place in small towns, frequently featuring charming bakeries and handsome mayors. Though the crime is normally murder, there’s no gore, no severed heads in boxes, and no lotion in the basket. As a result, there are rarely any traumatized witnesses or family members in these murder mysteries — making cozies perfect for a gentle fireside read .  Example : the Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie.

Recommended reads

• A Guide to Cozy Mysteries [blog post]
• And Then There Were None: The 10 Best Agatha Christie Books [blog post]

Police procedurals

Police procedurals commonly center on a police investigation (betcha didn’t see that one coming). They feature realistic law enforcement work, such as witness interrogation and forensic science, and require a great deal of research to convince seasoned readers of their authenticity.  Example : Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series.

Noir detective novels

Most associate “noir” with black-and-white films of cynical gumshoes and femme fatales — but did you know that dark, gritty noir novels came first? Their flawed characters and complex plots are renowned for leaving readers in the grey. ( Did the investigator do the right thing? Was the culprit really evil?) The crime may be solved by the end, but the mystery itself is rarely so open-and-shut.  Example : The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain.

Prefer your detectives a little more clean-cut? Check out our guide to reading the Sherlock Holmes books !

A suspense mystery is all about high stakes and unexpected twists — elements that make it nearly impossible to stop reading. The mystery builds throughout the narrative, clues are painstakingly planted to divulge just the right amount of information, and things are constantly edging towards a dramatic, often shocking climax.  Example : Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl .

• The 50 Best Suspense Books of All Time [blog post]

Which genre (or subgenre) am I writing?

Find out which genre your book belongs to. It only takes a minute!

2. Commit to a crime before you write

While some authors like to write without an outline, improvisation doesn’t lend itself well to the mystery genre. To  keep your readers engaged and in suspense , you’ll need to drip feed information bit by bit — which means you’ll need to know your crime and its culprit inside out before you put pen to paper.

Consider not only who committed the crime, but how they pulled it off, and why. Is there anything unusual about their methods, or any specific details you can include that will add texture to your story — say, the lingering smell left behind by a specific real-world poison, or the unusual wounds created by an unconventional weapon? Would anyone else have witnessed the crime — or thought they witnessed it — and if so, how might your criminal keep them silent?

By mapping out and researching your crime, you can think about telltale clues that may have been left behind, and when best to reveal these clues to your readers to keep them hooked. Just make sure you clear your browser history afterwards.

3. Research and pick your setting with purpose

Where your book is set  is the backbone of mystery; it fosters the right atmosphere and typically plays a significant role in the plot. But according to crime fiction editor Allister Thompson , far too many mysteries are set in the same old places. “The world doesn’t need another crime novel set in New York,” he says, “or in London if you're British, or in Toronto if you’re from Canada.”

Instead of an overused urban setting, why not set your murder mystery someplace unique? “Not only does it give you more interesting material, it also gives you a really good marketing angle,” Allister says. “The distinct cultural mix and geography of Albuquerque, for example, was a huge part of Breaking Bad’ s hook.”

For more tips from Allister, check out this Reedsy Live on mystery writing mistakes and how to avoid them.

This all requires research to execute well. Local news sites should give you an idea of what matters to an area’s residents, the problems they face, and what’s interesting about their community. You’ll come to understand what might actually unfold in a setting like this one, adding depth and authenticity to your mystery.

4. Carve out an intriguing cast of characters

Mysteries are largely about human intrigue, and to pull that off, you’ll need to assemble an interesting cast of characters . Dedicate time to fleshing out your victim, perpetrator, suspects, and sleuth, and you’ll have a much easier time getting readers invested in cracking the case. 

To ensure you know your characters inside out, try filling out a character profile — check out our free one below. 

FREE RESOURCE

Reedsy’s Character Profile Template

A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

Create a memorable sleuth

Your sleuth, whether they’re a nosy neighbor or a chief inspector, serves as the eyes and ears of your novel — so it’s important that the reader cares about them from the start! 

To do this, establish some baseline stakes by determining your sleuth’s motive. What’s stopping them from saying “I guess we’ll never know” and walking away? Would an innocent person be jailed? Will the killer strike again? Or is your sleuth’s motive less selfless, maybe a promotion or a cash reward?

Your sleuth doesn’t have to be a quirky mega-genius a la Sherlock Holmes, but even your “everyman” amateur detective should still be a well-rounded and unique character . Give them idiosyncrasies, interests, and a life outside of the crime, including perhaps a history or connection to the victim that makes them especially invested — “ this time, it’s personal… ”

Profile your perp

To write a killer culprit, you’ll first need to get their motive right. Your entire plot hinges on this character and their reason for committing a crime, so it has to be thoroughly believable! 

Unless you’re dealing with a serial killer (in which case their motive might be more nebulous and unhinged), figuring out your culprit’s motive should always involve the question: What does the killer stand to gain or lose ? More often than not, the answer will involve money, passion, or both — or perhaps the oft-pilfered title of “best village baker”, if you’re writing a cozy. 

Explore the dynamics between the victim and suspects

For there to even be a mystery, your culprit can’t be the only possible criminal. To keep readers hunting for the truth, try to show your other suspects having any two of the following:

• means (did they have access to a weapon?), 
• motive (how would they have benefited from the crime?), 
• and opportunity (were they close to the crime scene?). 

It’s then the job of the sleuth (and the reader in tandem) to dig out whether they have all three — and even if so, whether they actually did it. 

To muddy the waters, explore your victim’s relationship to all the suspects, not just the culprit. A morally grey victim, with a messy past and complex relationships, will allow for more intrigue in your murder mystery. Readers are presented with multiple possibilities, and will have to rule them out in turn as new information comes to light, just like a real detective.

If you want to develop amazing characters to populate your mystery, why not check out our free 10-day course on the subject?

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How to Develop Characters

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5. Build tension throughout the story

The central pillar of any good mystery is the push-and-pull between question and answer. As the author, it’s your job to draw the reader’s attention to the right things at precisely the right moment. 

The best way to ensure this is to nail your story shape ! By expertly planning your novel’s shift from the unknown to the known, you’ll produce the gripping rise in action that all great mystery novels possess. Here’s how to do just that.

Looking for inspiration for your next mystery story? Look no further than our mystery plot generator !

Hit 'em with a hook

Every story should begin  with a great first line, but mysteries are particularly fertile ground for first-rate hooks. Many authors open with the crime. The opening line of Darker than Amber , for example, is brief, unexpected, and action-focused:

“We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge.” — John D. MacDonald, Darker than Amber

There’s no one “right way” to open your mystery novel. But to make sure it’ll capture readers' attention, try to write an opening that a) jolts readers into paying attention, b) leads them to ask further questions, and c) introduces some stakes (conflict, danger, etc.).

Pull out the red string and connect your clues

You’ve successfully enticed readers with your hook! Now, to keep them engaged, you’ll need to structure your plot around the clues to your mystery’s solution. 

This moment takes place when the pivotal clue turns up, or when your sleuth realizes the significance of a forgotten lead. What happens at that point leads to your novel's ending.

Give your sleuth time to think

While you may want to make your story as action-packed as possible, it's also important to slow down at times.  As well as including those action-oriented info-finding scenes (think: examining the crime scene for physical clues, talking to suspects to glean their alibis), you'll want to include more cerebral scenes that show them thinking or talking through their theory of the case, says Reedsy mystery editor Anne Brewer .

"These types of scenes give you an opportunity to sign post to the reader where the investigation is going (you can even employ misdirection here by having the sleuth make mistakes and get things wrong sometimes), as well as show off their special skills that make them a good investigator."

Consider red herrings

Because they lead the reader down the garden path and away from the truth, you might think red herrings would cause frustration. But when done well, they’re part of the fun, and that’s why they’re a tried-and-true trope of murder mystery. 

By upping the tension and escalating the pace, even if it’s towards a dead end, red herrings conjure the signature push-and-pull of the mystery genre. (Not to mention, they keep readers from guessing the answers too soon!)

For a classic mystery bait-and-switch, you might consider:

• a character who appears complicit, but isn’t;
• an object that seems more important than it is ( cleverly subverting Chekhov’s Gun !); or
• a misleading clue that was planted by the culprit.

Finally, remember that when it comes to the ending of your mystery, it’s important to play fair. Don’t suddenly introduce an evil twin as the final twist without setting it up earlier! The ultimate conclusion should be both unexpected  and  earned if you want to satisfy readers, says Reedsy editor Alyssa Matesic . "You don't want to hint too obviously at the twist (such as who the killer is), because then the reader might put the pieces together prematurely and the reveal scene will feel lackluster and anticlimactic. At the same time, you don't want the twist to feel like it comes out of left field, because then you'll lose the reader's trust. You need to leave just enough breadcrumbs throughout the story so the reader feels like the twist has been right under their nose the whole time."

6. Revise your mystery (with the help of experts)

Once you’ve finished your first draft , you should absolutely celebrate with party poppers and champagne… but then it’s time to transform it into a truly standout mystery! After taking the time to perform a thorough self-edit , summon the courage to send your manuscript out into the world — the world of beta readers, that is. 

Beta readers

Beta readers are the invaluable people who read your draft and provide honest, third-party feedback . They can tell you which characters they connected with and which they didn’t, identify plot holes, and point out any other issues you’ve become blind to during your revisions.

As well as asking for general feedback on your story, ask your beta readers to record their working theories as they read. This way you can see whether readers will pick up on clues at the right moment, and whether they’re misled just the right amount by your red herrings.

Professional editor

An experienced mystery editor who eats, sleeps and breathes these books can offer suggestions that even the most talented beta readers will struggle to express. 

In the first stages of editing, a developmental editor will provide you with a holistic, in-depth review of your manuscript , helping you examine characterization and redistribute your clues to build to a stunning conclusion. 

After producing a second draft, Thompson recommends working with a copy editor: “It’s too competitive out there not to put your best work forward [...] without errors, bad grammar, or spelling mistakes.” So polish up that manuscript like a magnifying glass if you want it to stand a chance of success!

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So, there you have it! If you follow these six steps, you should be well on your way to giving mystery readers what they crave — a thrilling tale of bad guys, cliffhangers, and diligent sleuths. But if you want to test out your new knowledge on a smaller scale first, head over to Reedsy Prompts and investigate our archive of mysterious short story starters to kick things off.

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How to Write a Mystery Novel

by Joslyn Chase | 1 comment

Mystery stories appeal to our need to survive by figuring out the puzzles, problems, and sometimes crimes that affect our lives (or those of a character we care about).

Today we continue our series on how to write each of the nine types of stories  with how to write a mystery novel. Let's dive into how to tell a great mystery!

The best preparation for writing a mystery novel is to be a mystery reader . You need to be able to rely on reflexes developed after years of reading experience. And you’ll need the devotion of a true fan to get you through the rough spots.

I’ll be honest—there’s a heck of a lot that goes into writing a mystery novel whether it's a murder mystery or another sub-genre. However, if you put in the time and effort to make it happen, you’ll get a heck of a lot out of it on the other end. So, let’s get started.

What makes a mystery a mystery?

If you want to know how to write a mystery novel, you have to understand the conventions of the mystery genre ; you have to know what makes a mystery a mystery. Dean Wesley Smith , one of the most prolific mystery writers of our day, defines a mystery as a story that involves a crime or puzzle to be solved, and it must be resolved by story’s end.

“Do not ignore this convention,” he warns, “unless you want to piss off your readers.”

I can attest to this, from a reader’s perspective. My own fault, I’m sure, but I read Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend , thinking I was reading a mystery, and nearly flung the book against a wall when I reached the end, mystery unsolved.

People who read mysteries like to solve puzzles and anticipate a resolution at the end. But reader expectations go far beyond that. Readers want to identify with the hero, to experience the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of seeing the perpetrator punished.

Fulfilling reader expectation is of paramount importance in writing a novel in any genre, but it’s crucial to writing a mystery. The mystery genre attracts a massive following, accounting for roughly thirty-three percent of fiction sales in the English language. If you can please even a portion of that audience, you’re setting yourself up for success in the mystery field.

Which type of mystery best suits your writing style?

Many sub-genres nestle under the mystery umbrella, and different writers are suited to different types of mystery.

Cozies , for instance, require a great deal of setting and character description, maintaining a slow pace while keeping it interesting. Cozies are gentle, characterized by a bloodless crime, often featuring a victim with few emotional ties to any of the characters, and the violence takes place off-stage.

Cozy writers must be able to produce upwards of 60,000 words, without a lot of action, and still make it engaging. Focus is on the amateur sleuth (and the community), rather than the crime.

Police procedurals , as well as medical and legal mysteries, require extensive specialized knowledge. These are suited for professionals in these fields, detail-oriented writers who love the nitty gritty of procedure. Readers will chew you up and spit you out if you get it wrong, and light research is not enough to get you through.

This type of writer should also be good at building teams for their characters, as much of the clue gathering and analysis will fall to a group, each member contributing to the solution of the crime.

In Private Eye/Noir novels and detective fiction, readers expect a really interesting, believable main character. The PI will have interactions with police, and those must be realistic, so knowledge or research in this area is necessary, but not to the exacting degree required for police procedurals.

Well-known examples of this type of detective fiction include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlcok Holmes and Agatha Christie's Poirot stories.

The protagonist often makes a living solving crimes, doing background investigations, and such. Modern PI’s are crack computer experts, so a background in IT or related fields would be helpful to a writer who wants to tackle a PI novel. If the tone of the novel is dark, gritty, particularly bloody, or brazenly urban, it’s probably a noir. 

There are also historical mysteries which combine a setting from the past with the usual puzzle or murder inherent in a mystery (see Deanna Raybourne's Veronica Speedwell series). You also have paranormal mysteries, those that include some element of the supernatural (like those by Charlaine Harris). Historical settings and supernatural elements can be combined with any of the subgenera above as well. 

And then there’s suspense —but that’s a subject for another day.

Know the tropes

Mystery, like all genres, is rife with tropes, common themes or devices readers recognize and understand by implication. Some examples are “the butler did it” or “locked room mystery.” While these may strike you as trite, most of them are time-honored and beloved by mystery fans.

The trick is not to avoid them, but to innovate them, finding fresh ways to approach them so that readers get the best of both worlds—a comfortable familiarity and a rush of surprise.

Have a plan

I’ve heard there are mystery writers who write without an outline , striking boldly into the dark and trusting that all the threads that go into weaving a mystery will align in miraculous fashion. How they accomplish such a thing is the real mystery. I suspect there are more closet plotters than we’ve been led to believe or they spend an inordinate amount of time revising.

Knowing the end from the beginning is particularly important when crafting a mystery, so if you’re adept at using an outline, that’s a big step forward in completing your novel. And crafting the outline for a mystery novel can be a boatload of fun. It may even be my favorite part.

An outline should never be a confining box, but more like a scaffold to support you while you construct the story. I’ll cover outlining in more depth in another post. For now, let’s take a quick look at four suggestions from Lester Dent , creator of the Doc Savage series. Some say he was a hack, but for a hack, he sure got a lot of things right.

When writing a mystery, he suggests you consider these four areas:

• Murder method. Try to find a fresh slant on what’s been done before. I did a quick Google search for innovative murder methods and, as you might imagine, the resulting list was scary long. Explore at your own risk. Another source you might consider for generating unusual ideas is the Darwin Awards .
• The antagonist’s goal . What is the bad guy ultimately after? Dent describes it as treasure of some sort, literal or metaphorical. Even a serial killer (or maybe especially a serial killer!) has some larger goal in mind, whether it is respect, revenge, justice, restitution, or some other goal. 
• The setting for the story should be determined by the crime and the villain. Once you have those nailed down, the setting should follow.
• The hero’s motivation. Another way of looking at this is to ask, “What’s at stake?” What will the hero gain if he reaches his goal? What will he lose if he is defeated?

One more quick suggestion for outlining, this from Scott Meredith and Algis Budrys . Formulate a…

• In a setting
• With a problem
• Put your protagonist through a series of try/fail cycles while solving the crime, escalating the stakes with each cycle
• The last try/fail cycle is the most perilous and challenging of all and is followed either by the hero’s success in catching the murderer and bringing him to justice, or his ultimate failure

Remember, in a mystery, the puzzle must be solved by the end. So, if you decide to have a tragic or ironic ending with the hero’s failure, you still have to provide a solution to the puzzle and satisfy your mystery savvy readers.

If you use this type of outlining, it may be helpful to expand those try/fail cycles to include a list of clues, crime scenes, potential suspects, false clues, wrong suspects, and maybe the crucial clue that helps the sleuth put it all together.

A mystery requires cause and effect relationships. When a diligent sleuth is presented with a potential clue, they go check it out. They work from a list of suspects and try to eliminate as many as they can by establishing alibis, means, motive, and opportunity.

Make sure that as you plan or revise your mystery stories that you make those cause and effect relationships clear, as well as deepen your character development. You want your readers to be invested in the sleuth and the puzzle.

A few mystery tips

Once you've chosen your sub-genre, studied the tropes, and created your plan, you're ready to write. Here are a few more things to keep in mind when writing a mystery.

Most mysteries open with the crime. It’s a good way to grab reader interest right up front. Cozies are an exception to this rule. If you’re writing a cozy, you need to spend a couple thousand words grounding your reader in the setting, with the character, before you allow the crime to intrude on that world.

Just because you have an outline doesn’t mean you have to write from word one to the end. Writers are unstuck in time. We can move freely through the landscape of our novel, write the climactic scene first, then go back and make sure we set it up right in earlier scenes. Don’t feel like you have to plod forward on a rigid track.

You have to be fair to the reader, putting the clues in plain sight. That said, there are ways to obscure bits of information so readers don’t really see them.

One of the best ways is to use a list. Readers absorb the first three items on a list, and maybe the last one. Anything that occurs between number three and the last item blurs out and virtually disappears from the reader’s memory.

You can make the amateur sleuth focus on one clue based on what they know so far, leaving the major clue or biggest clue behind to resurface later.

It takes time for a reader to get through a full-length novel. You can practically give the reader the solution up front and by the time they reach the middle of the book, they will have forgotten it.

So don’t be afraid to lay out what the reader needs to know. As long as you don’t surround it with fanfare, it will fade out until the end when the readers thinks, “Oh yeah, I remember now.”

This is not to say that mystery readers are dumb. Not by any stretch of the imagination is that the case. My biggest challenge in writing mysteries has been to find the balance between holding back too much and giving it all away.

The award-winning mystery writer  Kristine Kathryn Rusch advises never to hold back information from the reader. Give it all away, she says, but do it skillfully. Experience has proved her right.

Keep learning

How to write a mystery novel is a huge subject, and goes far beyond the scope of this article. Read books in the mystery genre, but also read and study widely from those who have written good mysteries. For more information, here are a few good resources:

• Writing The Modern Mystery , by Barbara Norville
• How To Write A Damn Good Mystery , by James N. Frey
• Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by The Mystery Writers of America , edited by Sue Grafton
• Writing Mysteries, Online Workshop by Dean Wesley Smith

Keep studying and learning your genre. But don't let study keep you from writing. The best practice comes through writing, so if you want to write a mystery novel, give it a go!

What are your favorite types of mysteries and why? What tropes or other common elements of mysteries intrigue or repel you?  Share something about it in the comments .

Consider your writing style and choose a mystery sub-genre you think is a good fit: cozy, police/medical/legal procedural, private eye/noir, or suspense. Write the opening scene for such a mystery, making sure you respect the conventions and reader expectations .

Write for fifteen minutes . When finished, s hare your practice in the Pro Practice Workshop , and leave feedback for a few other writers. Not a member? Join us . 

Joslyn Chase

Any day where she can send readers to the edge of their seats, prickling with suspense and chewing their fingernails to the nub, is a good day for Joslyn. Pick up her latest thriller, Steadman's Blind , an explosive read that will keep you turning pages to the end. No Rest: 14 Tales of Chilling Suspense , Joslyn's latest collection of short suspense, is available for free at joslynchase.com .

What if one day you wake up and you see a dead body on the floor with a hand outstretched and grabbing your bed sheets? What if you never heard any sounds that night, but slept peacefully? What if, by the time you realize what’s going on, the police already bursts through the door and handcuffs you? Then there’s only one way out. To prove you’re innocent. But how? Those were all questions running through the mind of Dr. Brian Walker, who was now sitting at the table with two skilled detectives, trying to wrap his mind around the whole thing. Sweat trickled down his forehead, the light bulb was too bright, the room too cold. What is it with detectives and their weird settings? Can’t they discuss a murder on a cozy couch with floral wallpaper and some soft drinks fizzing on a glass table? Dr. Brian tried his best to answer the questions, but he could clearly see the conviction in their eyes, like a stamp with the words ‘’Guilty’’ imprinted in their irises. ‘’ And how you’re going to prove it?’’ One of the detectives asked, by far the most peculiar he’d ever seen. He looked like a teenage punkster and at first, he thought he was another suspect in the case, until the man placed his badge on the table. The coffee was steaming, but with no clues. Either that or he wasn’t psychic enough to read steams.

A dead body, a groggy doctor. The man in his room was stabbed only once, through the stomach. There was a pool of blood by the bed, but no sign of a struggle. Both the dead man and Dr. Brain had no bruises or any other possible marks. ‘’ I’m trying to understand what kind of man you are. Stabbing someone in your own house and then going to sleep as if nothing happened. Good thing the gardener saw the dead body through the window and called the police. ‘’ The other detective said, carefully brushing his long hair. What kind of department had hired people looking like TV Stars in their twenties? ‘’ I don’t even have a gardener.’’ The doctor remarked, furrowing his brows. ‘’ What you didn’t have was the opportunity to get rid of the body. You must be a real psycho to think you’d wake up early and get rid of the body before anyone saw it. ‘’ At that point, he didn’t know who said what. He stopped looking at the two men and focused on his feet, on the floor shaking underneath. The whole world was shaking. Everything seemed like part of a dream. It was like someone woke up one day and decided to die in his house just to spite him.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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5 April 2024

How to Write a Mystery or Crime Thriller (with Downloadable Template)

The mystery and crime thriller genre has captivated readers for centuries, drawing them into a world of suspense, intrigue, and the darker aspects of human nature. From the early days of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (widely considered to be the first modern detective story), to the bestsellers of Gillian Flynn and Michael Connelly, the genre has evolved to encompass a wide range of styles and subgenres, each with its own unique twist on the classic whodunnit formula.

At its core, the mystery/crime thriller is a puzzle; an intellectual challenge that invites the reader to solve the crime alongside the protagonist. Whether it’s a hardboiled detective novel, a cozy mystery , or a psychological thriller, the genre is defined by its central question: who committed the crime, and why? To answer this question, writers must carefully construct a plot that balances suspense, clues, and red herrings, leading the reader on a journey of discovery that culminates in a satisfying resolution.

Let’s explore the critical elements of writing a compelling mystery or crime thriller, from the initial setup to the final resolution. We’ll break down the crucial plot beats that every mystery novel should hit, and offer tips and techniques for keeping your readers engaged and guessing until the very end.

Act 1: Introduction and Setup

Act 1 should make up no more than 25% of the story and introduce the protagonist, establish your story setting, introduce other key characters (like potential allies and the antagonist), and set up an investigation.

In Act 1, you should have done the following:

• Introduce the protagonist.
• Establish your setting.
• Have a crime take place.
• Introduce the key characters.
• Begin an investigation.
• Start your protagonist’s private life subplot.

Stage 1: Setting the Scene

To begin your story, you want to hook your readers into your protagonist’s world. Start with a point of action that sets up the type of person your protagonist is. Show them caught in a moment of tension where they can show off their skill set. You want your readers to see how your protagonist works under pressure.

In this first scene, you’ll also want to establish your setting and hint at your protagonist’s internal life . What kind of world do your characters inhabit, and what place do they hold within it? Hint at your protagonist’s internal goals, motivations, and conflicts.

Stage 2: A Crime Takes Place

Crime thrillers are fast-paced, so once your readers are invested in your protagonist, you want to dive into the action as quickly as possible.

Now that your protagonist is firmly rooted in their world, a terrible event shakes their ordinary existence. For a thriller, the crime should be something out of the ordinary that captures the interest and attention of the protagonist. It could be a high-profile case, an unusual victim, an oddly staged crime, or something that holds personal meaning to the protagonist.

This is also when you can introduce potential allies and mentors who will be your protagonist’s support network throughout the story. You should also hint at any details of the crime that might become important later on, including some red herrings that you can use as a distraction or to create a conflict later on.

You should also hint at your antagonist’s psyche here. The nature of the antagonist should be a partial driver for your protagonist’s desire to solve the mystery.

Stage 3: The Investigation Begins

As the investigation begins, your protagonist will either be assigned to the case or take it upon themselves to solve it. In this stage, you’ll want to dive into the suspects, their characters, motives, means, opportunities and alibis.

This section should introduce a twist that shows that the mystery is not as simple as it first appears. It should grab your reader’s attention and foreshadow something that will be revealed later in the plot.

How the protagonist deals with this twist is where you can begin to develop and consider your subplot. For instance, your protagonist could be focused on getting the mystery solved as quickly as possible, so downplays the importance of the twist, or they could be the only one who sees its significance, and their suspicions are ignored by those around them.

How your protagonist feels about the state of the mystery at this point will lead directly into Act 2.

In Act 1, you want to introduce a subplot that will serve the essence of your story rather than progress the central plot. It should represent a theme that is universal to your readers, which will end in a personal or professional resolution for your protagonist.

The subplot in a mystery or crime thriller usually stems from a crisis in the protagonist’s private life or a moral dilemma they must confront. Common themes could be battling addiction, maintaining a work/life balance, or overcoming a past trauma or professional mistake. The subplot also offers an opportunity to introduce love interests and side characters; just make sure they’re introduced at times pertinent to your story and its pacing.

A subplot may unfold independently of or coincide with the events of the main plot; just make sure you combine them seamlessly in a way that makes sense to the way the story is developing. They must develop together so the subplot enhances rather than overpowers the main narrative.

Act 2: Unravelling the Mystery

During Act 2, the investigation should move toward a solution that proves to be false, sending the search in another direction. Act 2 raises the stakes, creates obstacles, and introduces consequences for both the community and the investigator personally to further the subplot.

A community consequence could be anything from additional victims or the revelation of secrets best kept hidden. A personal consequence could be a professional setback or a breakup of the investigator’s family.

Act 2 should include:

• Raised stakes.
• Red herrings and false leads.
• Additional clues and foreshadowing.
• A change in the suspect pool.
• Further development of the protagonist’s subplot.

Stage 4: The Wrong Conclusion

As your protagonist collects and analyses clues, it leads them to a conclusion that makes sense on the surface but is ultimately proven to be wrong. This could be because of pressures from co-workers or family, a blind spot that leads them to ignore a key piece of evidence, or even a suspect who lies about an alibi. Either way, your protagonist must re-evaluate how they approach the mystery and either widen their suspect pool to include new people or narrow it down by eliminating those who seemed most obvious.

With the first failure to solve the mystery, introduce the consequences for if the mystery is not solved. What does failure mean for the protagonist personally or professionally, and what impact will it have on the community or setting of your story?

Stage 5: The Investigation Widens

In the middle of Act 2, you can introduce fresh characters and suspects, injecting new energy into the narrative to move the pacing along. As the initial investigation hits a dead end, your protagonist must pivot their approach, uncovering fresh revelations that cast suspicion in unexpected directions.

This section serves as a platform to introduce additional characters, sow seeds of doubt among both new and established figures, and unveil information that may not seem immediately relevant but ultimately points toward the resolution. Through interrogations, physical investigations, or the discovery of new evidence, the narrative subtly hints at the ultimate solution. Importantly, also consider how this section intertwines with the subplot, potentially deepening character arcs or introducing parallel dilemmas that add layers to the overarching story.

Stage 6: A Threat of Violence

As tensions escalate and the investigation deepens, a palpable threat of violence should loom over the narrative. The once-seemingly innocuous inquiries now stir hostility among certain suspects, leaving your protagonist acutely aware of the dangers inherent in their pursuit of truth.

Within this stage, the narrative takes a darker turn, revealing the raw emotions simmering beneath the surface from suspects, friends, family, and co-workers. The stakes are raised as the protagonist grapples not only with unravelling the mystery but also with navigating personal peril.

This is where alliances are tested and allegiances questioned. Every step forward is met with resistance, and every revelation brings the protagonist closer to danger. But here, the protagonist can begin to confront not only external threats but also their own fears and vulnerabilities.

Much of the subplot in Act 2 will tie in with the narrative stages in this act. Each stage will affect the protagonist’s personal life in some way, accentuating their inner conflict and turmoil, and strain their relationships.

The subplot can also be used to provide readers with much-needed downtime in a section that is action-packed. Showing moments of calm in the protagonist’s personal life or developing their relationships is an excellent way to build story momentum while giving your readers a break from non-stop action.

Act 3: Hidden Revelations

As Act 3 begins, your story will move in a fresh direction as an unexpected event shatters the protagonist’s previous assumptions. As the story comes to a head, your protagonist will uncover new information, find hidden motives and secrets, and previous clues will finally make sense for readers.

As Act 3 draws to a close, the mystery and the protagonist’s personal subplot will be resolved.

Act 3 should include:

• A twist that changes the course of the investigation.
• A revelation of hidden motives for all remaining suspects.
• The clarification of previous red herrings and clues.
• Resolution of the protagonist’s personal subplot

Stage 7: Taking Stock

As the protagonist presents their findings, both the reader and the characters can reassess the case. At this point, the crime should seem impossible to solve. The protagonist may have misinterpreted clues, hit dead ends, or been intentionally led astray by the antagonist, and the reader should question the protagonist’s abilities to find justice.

In the face of this block in the case, the protagonist must use all their skills to reframe the crime and look for a fresh perspective. By laying out the evidence, inconsistencies can become apparent, and gaps in the protagonist’s knowledge will be revealed, leading to a shift in how they approach the crime.

Stage 8: A New Outlook

As the protagonist meticulously re-evaluates the case, a seemingly insignificant clue from a previous Act will be the key to solving the case. Previously brushed aside, this now pivotal clue will be the lynchpin on which the entire resolution rests, and the protagonist should be the first to uncover it.

The context for this reveal should have been hinted at in revelations in previous stages and can even weave into the protagonist’s personal subplot. Here, the protagonist’s journey of personal growth should parallel the unravelling of the central mystery.

Stage 9: The Solution Draws Near

As the investigation progresses, the protagonist inches closer to unravelling the mystery. As the protagonist progresses, so should the reader, as clues slowly form a clear picture.

The protagonist carefully assesses the evidence, withholding their conclusion from the other characters for now as they first wish to substantiate their theory. Drawing on information gathered from interrogations and conversations with various characters (both new and re-evaluated from previous stages of the narrative), they put the pieces of the crime together alongside the physical evidence.

Armed with this knowledge, the protagonist works to uncover additional evidence to validate their conclusion and prepare to bring this to their wider circle.

Stage 10: Climax

As the narrative intensifies, it brings readers to the story’s climax, and a tense confrontation unfolds between the protagonist and the antagonist—the tension mounts as the antagonist becomes ever more desperate as they are cornered. A unique object or signature introduced early in the narrative could be used here to tie the narrative together, full circle.

With the puzzle pieces finally falling into place, the protagonist unveils the crucial clues and the deductive process that led them to capture the antagonist. This will end in the protagonist’s ultimate victory as the truth emerges.

As the story draws to a close, you can choose a neat resolution with justice being served, or end with a tantalising hook that hints at an open ending.

Subplot Resolution

At some point in Act 3, the subplot reaches its conclusion. You can choose to have this tie in with the story’s climax or resolve it earlier to push the protagonist toward the resolution.

Throughout the narrative, the protagonist has navigated not only the complexities of the case but also their personal trials, so the resolution of their subplot should show how they have grown and changed.

The subplot can be neatly tied up, or you could leave some threads dangling for future exploration if this is part of a series. You may choose to continue this personal development across multiple books, but even so, there should be some finality to the subplot, even if this is the case. Readers want to leave the story satisfied.

Download the template

You can  download the template  below to use it for your next project and import it directly into Novlr. If you go to the  Projects  page from your Novlr dashboard and click on “Import,” the template will automatically split your project into sections for easy plotting!

Writing a mystery or crime thriller is a complex mode of story telling that requires careful planning (even if that planning comes after you’ve already finished your first draft!), skillful execution, and a deep understanding of the genre’s conventions and expectations. By mastering the key plot beats, from the initial setup to the final resolution, you can craft a story that keeps your readers engaged, guessing, and ultimately satisfied with the outcome.

Remember, the heart of any great mystery or crime thriller is the central puzzle, the question of who committed the crime and why. To keep your readers invested in this question, you must create a compelling protagonist, a richly-drawn cast of suspects and allies, and a plot that balances suspense, clues, and misdirection. You must also pay close attention to pacing, ensuring that each plot beat serves to advance the story and deepen the mystery.

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How to Write a Mystery (from the author of 16 books!)

If you’ve ever tried your hand at crafting a mystery, you’ll know it’s not the easiest thing to do. It’s not rocket science, of course, but it still takes effort, planning, and understanding what needs to happen and when. That’s probably why the mystery genre is considered a difficult one to write in.

Consider this article your crash course on how to write a mystery. After all, it would take more than one post to perfect the art of writing mysteries–by the way, point me to the person who’s done that apart from Agatha Christie or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But, there are simple things you must get right  if you want to provide a satisfying read for mystery lovers.

In this article, you will learn:

• How to pick an antagonist.
• Why motivations are important in mysteries.
• What red herrings are and how to use them.
• How to intertwine your main plot with your side plot.
• What not to do in a mystery.

Table of contents

• Your protagonist must have:
• The steps for crafting your cast of suspicious characters:
• Actionable steps:
• The basic idea is to note down the following:
• Here are a few mystery don’ts to bear in mind when writing your story.
• Conclusion: How to Write a Mystery

Disclaimer: I’m primarily a cozy mystery author, so I’ll be framing this around that genre, but the basic techniques provided here will work for other sub-genres too.

Step 1: Craft Suspicious Characters

The basics of crafting an interesting character in any story is just about the same. In learning how to write a mystery, the difference is you get to make them suspicious. And that’s fun. Mystery and suspense are based on the unknown and on potential. The kind of potential that the friendly old lady down the street has to murder her next door neighbor… and all over a recipe.

Never underestimate the ability of a human being to do the worst to get what they want. That sounds negative, sure, but that’s the type of attitude you’ll use when crafting your characters . In your mystery, you want all of your characters to have a hint of mystery and suspicion. (i.e. you want to give them traits that make them seem suspicious to the reader.)

After all, if your antagonist, the murderer, is the only suspicious-seeming character or even the only innocent-seeming character, your reader will figure out whodunit, right away. The best emails and reviews I get from readers are always ones that say something along the lines of, “I didn’t figure it out until the end!”

The only character who won’t be suspicious is your main character. And you should follow the same steps you would for character creation for any other protagonist.

• A conflict and stakes. Jessica is recently divorced and doesn’t want to trust anyone–she’s focusing on her little bakery in the new small town she’s moved to. But when one of her customers drops dead after eating a donut in her store, Jessica’s bakery might be in trouble. If Jessica doesn’t open up, she’ll never solve the murder and saved her bakery.
• A goal. Jessica now wants to overcome her internal conflict of keeping to herself as she uncovers the truth about the mystery by liaising with the other people of the town.
• A growth arc. Jessica overcomes her conflict by the end of the book. She’s starting to fit into the town. She’s also solved the murder mystery with lots of hiccups along the way.

The fun part comes next. You get to craft the cast of suspicious characters, all of whom might just have killed the victim. Or they may have had a reason to do so to get back at our protagonist, Jessica.

• Write a list of characters you want to include. Make it varied and interesting. From the granny down the street to the enemy baker across the road who’s just opened up shop.
• Give each of them a minor goal. Granny’s goal is to get the secret donut recipe from Jessica. She wants it because she’s planning on opening a shop of her own.
• Give each of them a flaw. Her flaw is she’s duplicitous. She’s a lovely woman, but she’s got a sordid history–including a rap sheet for theft. She’s lived a hard life and wants to follow her true passion for baking.
• Give each of them an enemy. Granny’s enemy is the new baker in town who wants the recipe too.

As you do this for each character, you’ll start crafting motivations for murder. It could be that Granny is the murderer, or that it’s the new baker across the street. Or it could be someone else. Don’t be shy about creating a subplot that runs alongside the main plot. Maybe, Granny’s not involved in the murder at all. But she sure seems suspicious, and she’s definitely been snooping around the bakery.

Step 2: Decide on Who’s Dying, Why and How

Probably one of the most important steps in learning how to write a mystery is deciding who’s going to kick the bucket. Or have their bucket kicked.

In cozy mysteries, the victim is usually someone who is hated by all in the small town. This serves to complicate things for your sleuth–they’ll have loads of people to suspect and investigate during the course of the unraveling mystery.

But you don’t have to stick to that. You can pick anyone in your list of characters to become the victim. You just have to have a clear idea as to why. What part of their conflict or goal makes them the perfect target?

This is where you connect your characters and their motivations. You can make the victim innocent of misdeeds or hateful and mean. Perhaps, they’ve been stalking their ex-wife or husband? The ex-wife’s new partner takes offense to this and murders them. Naturally, you’ll write down all of this information, but you won’t divulge it all upfront.

How the victim is murdered is important too. You can use the murder weapon as a clue for solving the mystery, whether it’s a gun, a poison, a knife or a blunt option. However, make sure to do your research on your chosen weapon. Readers are sticklers for certain things in mystery–you’ll get away with a sleuth who interferes in police work, but you won’t with a poison that doesn’t have the correct side-effects.

In short, you must have a reason for why the victim is killed and how they’re killed, when and where. Kind of like writing Clue. You note all of this down, and intertwine the information into your story by dropping clues to your protagonist.

• Pick your victim.
• Note down why they were killed, and connect them with several suspicious characters with reasons why those characters may have wanted to kill the victim.
• Select a murder weapon and research it.
• Give certain characters access to the murder weapon. (i.e. A chemist has access to certain medicines, but so does his assistant or the receptionist who may have broken into his private store.)

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Step 3: Pick an External Conflict

This is kind of an optional step. It depends on how long your mystery is going to be. In cozy mystery, books usually range from 20,000 words to 70,000. If you’re writing a longer story, you’ll need more intrigue, more conflict, and more plot.

This is why I’ll generally pick out an extra external conflict to include in the story. Say we use Jessica’s bakery as an external conflict–she’s being stolen from and things have been going missing in her apartment above the store. What could it mean?

The theft and the murder can be unrelated, or they can be part of the same motivation for the death of the victim. That’s up to you to decide. You can include several sub-plots for characters who Jessica is friends with too.

Perhaps, her new friend is being stalked, or has recently come into money and some of it has gone missing. Or she’s just broken up with an ex-boyfriend, who keeps threatening revenge on the bakery. All of these subplots add up to equal little clues.

The trick is to make the clues of one subplot connect with the main murder mystery. For example, Jessica is suspicious of the theft in her store, and when someone breaks in and steals her journal, she’s not sure if it’s the thief or the murderer.

Important to note: you don’t have to tie off every subplot with a neat ending as you close the book. You can leave some of them open for further exploration in the series. But, you should always give the murder mystery a satisfying conclusion, and your protagonist resolution of their current conflict or goal. Jessica has saved her bakery, she throws a party with her friends afterward to celebrate.

• Write up a list of external conflicts you want to use in your story and how they connect to each character.
• Pare the list down to one or two subplots.

Step 4: Write up a List of Clues

Another fun step!

Here, you get to write down all the clues that pertain both to your subplot and your main plot. You’ll do this by identifying the crime scene and the clues that are already present there. Since you have the inside edge–you know why your victim was killed and by whom–you can plant evidence over the course of the story that will redirect your protagonist.

You can also plant false evidence, or clues that make it seem like someone else commited the murder. These are called ‘red herrings’ — and they must be believable. All your clues and red herrings have to make sense, after all.

Motivations and clues tie in with each other. Granny wants to get into Jessica’s bakery, so it would make sense that Jessica would walk in on Granny rummaging through her things. Granny can make an excuse, but Jessica will have her suspicions–is Granny the murderer? We know Granny isn’t, but Jessica doesn’t–that’s a red herring that makes sense.

And now, because Jessica believes that Granny might have something to do with the murder, she’ll start following her and unraveling more of the mystery that is Granny’s motivation. Ultimately, she’ll hit a brick wall when she realizes that Granny can’t possibly have commited the murder… until Granny gives her another clue that leads Jessica onto the next suspect.

• Write down a list of clues that connect the characters to the crime scene or make them suspicious.
• Organize the clues in the order you want them to happen. (i.e. Jessica finding Granny in the bakery after hours. Jessica follows Granny and finds her meeting with Jessica’s enemy etc.)
• The list doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but it must make sense and tie into your murder and sub-plots.

Step 5: Outline Your Story

I’m not going to go into the outlining process in full here because that would take another article’s worth (and more) of information. However, if you’ve followed the steps above, you’re halfway there. You just need to organize your clues into an events list, and then have your protagonist take action throughout the story.

Let’s look at our example of Jessica and her bakery.

• Jessica’s conflict and goal.
• Her external conflict.
• An events list of what happens.
• A short scene or chapter-by-chapter breakdown.

We already have Jessica’s conflict and goal, as well as her external conflict. Now, we need an events list that ties in with all of the above. An events list is a short breakdown of what happens over the course of the three-act story. The events are important plot points that drive the mystery forward.

• The inciting event. This is what starts off your entire mystery. Jessica’s customer drops dead after tasting her cupcake.
• The first act climax. Here, Jessica believes she’s closer than ever to solving the mystery–thus casting her back into her comfy ‘not trusting anyone zone.’ Jessica finds a clue that leads her to believe Granny is the murderer.
• The midpoint reversal. At this point, your character’s goal is flipped. Where Jessica didn’t want to trust anyone before, now she has to. Jessica snoops in a suspect’s house and gets caught. She’s arrested and has to rely on her friend to bail her out.
• The second act climax. Things get even worse. Jessica is completely stumped. She’s been reprimanded and her bakery is no longer popular because of the suspicion that she’s murdered the victim. At the end of this period of sadness, Jessica will discover or connect two clues together that she hadn’t before. Now, she really knows who did it.
• Climax. Here comes the building action and climax of the plot as Jessica faces off against the real murderer.

There’s a denouement–a resolution–as well, where Jessica and her friends celebrate their victory. Jessica will have resolved her conflict. She now loves the town and its people, and trusts her friend. Her bakery is also doing fine again.

After deciding on your events, you’ll pepper them with your clues and find unique ways to solve the mystery and tie the subplots into it.

Bonus Step 6: Mystery Don'ts

Don’t fall into the trap of relying on easy fixes in mystery stories. The readers in this genre are voracious, and they enjoy being challenged. They want you to keep them guessing until the end.

• Don’t make it too obvious. Readers don’t want to figure out who did it in the first few chapters. They’ll stop reading the book.
• Don’t bore your reader. Don’t use too many unnecessary details or backstory elements that don’t matter. Intrigue is the key. Less is more.
• Don’t provide too much information. You want to pepper in those clues, not have two per chapter — otherwise you’ll overwhelm your reader with information, some of which doesn’t pertain to the murder mystery.
• Don’t provide too little information. You don’t want your reader to feel cheated. Give them enough clues to try to work out the mystery by themselves, but be clever about it. You don’t actually want them to solve it before you do.
• Don’t murder someone too late. Murder mysteries need to have a dead body somewhere near the beginning of the story. It doesn’t have to be in the first chapter, but you’ll need it somewhere close to the front of the book. Foreshadowing is your friend.

Follow these steps, and you’re on your way to crafting a mystery that will keep readers turning pages. Ultimately, you’ll need to read mysteries to write them–there are loads of books out there in your genre that will give you an idea of how to go about crafting the mystery element of the story. Have fun!

Rosie A. Point

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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How to Write a Mystery Novel: A Comprehensive Guide

• by Andrea Feccomandi
• May 22, 2024

Mystery novels have long fascinated readers with their blend of suspense, intrigue, and clever twists. From classic Agatha Christie mysteries to modern Gillian Flynn psychological thrillers, the genre continues evolving and captivating audiences worldwide.

The key to writing a successful mystery novel is knowing how to create suspense and intrigue , capable of dragging readers into an increasingly thick web of secrets and twists.

In this article, we will explore the essential techniques and strategies for creating a mystery novel that will captivate readers, holding their attention from beginning to end. Let’s go!

Mystery novel definition

Before analyzing how to write a mystery novel, we have to first define what a mystery novel is.

MYSTERY NOVEL DEFINITION What is a Mystery Novel? A mystery novel, often referred to as a whodunit or detective fiction , is a genre of literature characterized by its focus on solving a crime or unraveling a puzzle . Typically, these novels feature a central mystery or crime that drives the narrative, often involving a detective, amateur sleuth, or protagonist who must use their wits and investigative skills to uncover the truth. The plot of a mystery novel typically includes elements such as suspects, clues, red herrings, and plot twists, leading to a climactic reveal or resolution at the end of the story.

Let’s now analyze in detail the characteristics of a mystery novel and how to write it.

How to write a mystery novel: #1 Crafting a compelling plot

Central to any successful mystery novel is creating a compelling plot that keeps readers guessing until the final resolution. The plot has to lead readers to discover the truth through a labyrinth of clues, suspicions, and revelations.

At the heart of the plot lies the central mystery or crime that drives the narrative forward, serving as the focal point around which the story unfolds. This mystery sets the stage for the protagonist to begin a quest searching for the truth.

The key to crafting a compelling plot is finding the right balance between intrigue and revelation , keeping readers on the edge of their seats as they eagerly await the final twist.

Key stages of mystery novel’s plot

A well-structured plot typically follows a series of critical stages, each essential to the development and resolution of the mystery.

• The story begins by introducing the crime or mystery , drawing readers into the novel’s world and setting the stage for future events. This initial phase is crucial for establishing the stakes and generating intrigue, enticing readers to delve deeper into the story.
• As the plot progresses, the protagonist takes center stage. They start an investigation to uncover clues, interrogate suspects, and unravel the mystery’s secrets. This phase is characterized by tension and suspense as the protagonist encounters obstacles and challenges, testing their resolve and determination.
• Finally, as the story reaches its climax , the puzzle pieces begin to fall into place, leading to a dramatic resolution where the truth is finally revealed . This climactic moment is the culmination of the protagonist’s journey, marking the end of the mystery and providing closure for both the characters and the readers.

How to write a mystery novel: #2 Developing complex characters

By focusing on the development of complex characters , writers can create a richer, more immersive mystery novel.

Characters who are multi-dimensional and relatable add depth to the narrative, making the story more compelling and keeping readers invested in the outcome.

Protagonist

At the core of most mystery stories is the protagonist , often a detective or an amateur sleuth, whose unique skills, flaws, and personal motivations drive the investigation. Developing a memorable detective requires attention to detail, from their backstory and personality traits to their methods of solving crimes.

Equally important is the antagonist , whose actions and motivations are central to the mystery. A well-developed antagonist should have a compelling backstory and clear motives, making them more than just a villain but a fully realized character . Understanding the antagonist’s perspective can add depth to the story and create a more engaging conflict .

Supporting characters

Supporting characters also play crucial roles in a mystery novel. These can include suspects, witnesses, allies , and even secondary antagonists. Each character should have a distinct personality, background, and set of motivations that contribute to the complexity of the plot. These characters can provide red herrings, clues, and additional layers of intrigue, keeping readers guessing about their true roles in the mystery .

Character evolution

When developing characters, it’s important to balance their strengths and weaknesses , making them relatable and realistic. Characters should evolve throughout the story , responding to the challenges they face and revealing different facets of their personalities. This growth can make the characters more engaging and the story more dynamic.

Dialogue is another crucial aspect of character development. Through dialogue, characters can reveal their thoughts, emotions, and intentions. Writing realistic and engaging dialogue helps bring characters to life and can also serve as a tool for advancing the plot and uncovering clues.

How to write a mystery novel: #3 Building suspense

Suspense is the lifeblood of any mystery novel, crucial for keeping readers deeply engaged with the story . Building suspense effectively requires a combination of pacing, strategic reveals, and the careful management of information.

One of the most important elements in creating suspense is pacing. A well-paced mystery novel balances fast and slow moments , creating a rhythm that keeps readers intrigued. Rapid sequences filled with action or significant discoveries can raise tension, while slower scenes can provide necessary breathers, allowing readers to absorb information and anticipate what’s coming next. Alternating between these speeds can prevent the story from becoming predictable, maintaining a sense of urgency and momentum.

Cliffhangers

Ending chapters or sections with cliffhangers is a tried-and-true technique for maintaining suspense. By concluding with an unresolved issue or a surprising revelation , you compel readers to continue turning the pages. These cliffhangers can be as subtle as a mysterious phone call or as dramatic as a sudden confrontation, but they should always leave the reader wanting more.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is another powerful tool for building suspense. By subtly hinting at future events, you can create a sense of impending doom or excitement . This technique keeps readers on alert, making them aware that significant developments are on the horizon. Effective foreshadowing plants clues that are later revealed to be significant, rewarding attentive readers and adding depth to the story.

Timing and delayed Information

The strategic withholding of information is essential in a mystery novel. By delaying key revelations, you can build suspense and maintain intrigue. This technique involves giving readers just enough information to keep them engaged while holding back critical details that are revealed late r in the story. The timing of these revelations is crucial; too early, and you risk losing suspense; too late, and you might frustrate readers.

Unpredictability

Keeping the plot unpredictable is vital for sustaining suspense. While it’s important to lay down a trail of clues, the journey to solving the mystery should be filled with unexpected turns . Introduce red herrings to mislead readers and create false leads, but ensure that the ultimate resolution is logical and satisfying. The balance between predictability and surprise is delicate; you want to keep readers guessing without making the plot feel arbitrary or unfair.

Emotional Engagement

Lastly, emotional engagement plays a significant role in building suspense. When readers care deeply about the characters and their outcomes , every twist and turn in the plot is heightened. Develop characters that readers can empathize with , and place them in perilous situations that evoke genuine concern and anticipation.

How to write a mystery novel: #4 Choosing the right setting

The setting of your mystery novel should complement the tone and themes of your story . Whether it’s a foggy, Victorian-era London, a small, sleepy village with hidden secrets, or a bustling modern city with a dark underbelly, the setting should serve as a backdrop that enriches the narrative.

Think about locations that naturally lend themselves to mystery and suspense —places with history, secrets, and an inherent sense of intrigue.

A well-crafted setting becomes an integral part of the storytelling, adding depth and complexity to your narrative.

Creating Atmosphere

Atmosphere is the emotional tone or mood of a scene , and it plays a crucial role in building suspense. Use descriptive language to create a vivid picture of the setting, focusing on sensory details . Describe the eerie silence of an abandoned house, the oppressive heat of a tropical jungle, or the chilling wind of a coastal town at night. These details help to immerse readers and evoke the desired emotional response.

Utilizing the setting to enhance the plot

The setting can be more than just a backdrop; it can be an active element in your story . Incorporate the environment into the plot by using it to create obstacles, hide clues, or enhance character interactions. For example, a dense forest can serve as a hiding place for a crucial piece of evidence, or a maze-like mansion can heighten tension during a cat-and-mouse chase. The setting can also reflect the internal states of your characters , with stormy weather mirroring turmoil or a peaceful garden symbolizing calm.

Historical and Cultural Context

If your mystery novel is set in a specific historical period or cultural context, ensure that the details are accurate and well-researched . Authenticity in the depiction of historical settings or cultural nuances adds depth and credibility to your story. It also allows you to explore unique aspects of the era or culture that can influence the mystery , such as societal norms, available technology, and historical events.

Mood and Tone

The mood and tone of your novel should be consistent with the atmosphere you are trying to create . A dark, brooding tone can be enhanced by settings that are shadowy and filled with ominous sounds, while a lighter, more adventurous mystery might feature brighter, more dynamic environments. Use the setting to reinforce the overall mood of your story , ensuring that it resonates with the themes and emotions you wish to convey.

How to write a mystery novel: #5 Incorporating clues and red herrings

A critical element of a successful mystery novel is the strategic placement of clues and red herrings. These elements keep readers engaged, encouraging them to solve the mystery alongside the protagonist while maintaining an air of unpredictability.

By incorporating clues and red herrings, you can create a mystery that is both challenging and rewarding for readers. The balance of true clues and false leads keeps the narrative intriguing, maintaining suspense and engagement until the very end.

Placing clues strategically

Clues are the breadcrumbs that lead readers and the protagonist toward solving the mystery. These should be introduced at key points throughout the narrative to maintain interest and forward momentum. When placing clues, consider the following:

• Subtlety . Not all clues should be obvious. Some can be hidden in plain sight, requiring keen observation to identify their significance.
• Relevance . Each clue should have a purpose, contributing to the unraveling of the mystery. Irrelevant details can frustrate readers and distract them from the plot.
• Variety . Use different types of clues—physical evidence, witness testimonies, inconsistencies in alibis, or revealing conversations—to keep the narrative dynamic and engaging.

Balancing obvious and subtle clues

Achieving the right balance between obvious and subtle clues is crucial. Too many obvious clues can make the solution too predictable, while overly subtle clues can confuse readers and make the resolution feel unearned. A mix of both keeps readers on their toes, providing moments of revelation and satisfaction as they piece together the puzzle.

Using Red Herrings

Red herrings are false leads or distractions that divert attention away from the true solution. These are essential in creating suspense and maintaining the mystery’s complexity. Effective red herrings:

• Mislead without deceiving. While red herrings should mislead, they must still be plausible within the story’s context. Avoid making them feel contrived or unfair.
• Enhance the plot. Red herrings should add depth to the story, contributing to character development or subplots, rather than serving as mere distractions.
• Resolve satisfactorily . Ensure that red herrings are resolved by the end of the story, providing closure for the reader. Unresolved red herrings can leave readers feeling unsatisfied.

Ensuring Logical Resolution

As you weave clues and red herrings throughout your narrative, it’s essential to ensure that the mystery’s resolution is logical and satisfying . Every clue should fit into the final solution, and the resolution should feel both surprising and inevitable. Consider these tips.

• Plan ahead . Outline your mystery in advance, knowing where you will place each clue and red herring and how they will contribute to the resolution.
• Foreshadowing. Use foreshadowing to plant hints about the true solution, making the resolution feel earned and credible.
• Avoid excessive use of coincidences . While coincidences can occasionally drive the plot forward, relying too heavily on them can make your story feel unrealistic and damage the logic of your narrative.
• Consistency . Maintain consistency in character actions and motivations. Ensure that the behavior of the characters aligns with the final resolution.
• Avoid deus ex machina . Avoid relying on convenient or contrived plot devices ( deus ex machina ) to resolve the mystery, as this can feel unsatisfying for the readers.

Engaging the reader

Engage readers by encouraging them to solve the mystery alongside the protagonist . Pose questions, present multiple suspects, and reveal new information gradually. This interactive element can make the reading experience more immersive and enjoyable.

How to write a mystery novel: #6 Examples and case studies

Examining successful mystery novels can provide valuable insights into the genre’s techniques and conventions.

By analyzing these works, we can learn from master storytellers how to write a mystery novel.

Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”

Agatha Christie is renowned for her intricate plots and memorable characters. “ Murder on the Orient Express ” is a prime example of her skill in crafting a mystery that keeps readers guessing until the very end.

• Complex characters . Each passenger on the train has a unique background and potential motive, creating a web of suspicion. Christie’s ability to flesh out multiple characters within a confined setting adds depth and intrigue to the story.
• Clues and red herrings. Christie plants clues and red herrings throughout the novel. The resolution is surprising yet logical, demonstrating how well-crafted misdirection can enhance the mystery.
• Atmosphere. The claustrophobic setting of the train enhances the suspense, and the winter storm trapping the passengers intensifies the sense of urgency and danger.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles”

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series is a cornerstone of the mystery genre. “ The Hound of the Baskervilles ” showcases his talent for blending Gothic atmosphere with detective fiction.

• Setting and Atmosphere. The eerie moors and the legend of the supernatural hound create a chilling atmosphere. Doyle’s vivid descriptions immerse readers in a setting that feels both real and otherworldly.
• Pacing and Suspense . Doyle maintains a steady pace, balancing moments of high tension with quieter, investigative scenes. This keeps readers engaged while gradually building to the climactic reveal.
• Holmes’ Methods . Holmes’ logical and methodical approach to solving the mystery contrasts with the story’s supernatural elements, grounding the narrative and providing a satisfying resolution.

Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl”

A more contemporary example, “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn , demonstrates how modern mystery novels can incorporate psychological depth and unreliable narration.

• Character complexity . The novel delves deeply into the psyches of its two main characters, Nick and Amy. Their flawed, multi-dimensional personalities add layers of intrigue and unpredictability.
• Unreliable narrators: Flynn’s use of unreliable narration keeps readers guessing about the true nature of the characters and events. This technique adds complexity and suspense to the narrative.
• Plot twists. “Gone Girl” is renowned for its shocking plot twists , which are meticulously foreshadowed yet still manage to surprise. Flynn’s ability to subvert expectations keeps readers on edge throughout the novel.

Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep”

Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep” is a classic example of hard-boiled detective fiction, showcasing the genre’s gritty style and complex plotting.

• Dialogue and style. Chandler’s sharp, witty dialogue and vivid prose create a distinctive atmosphere. His writing style is integral to the novel’s appeal, enhancing the mood and characterization.
• Moral ambiguity . The characters in “The Big Sleep” often operate in a morally gray area, adding depth and realism to the story. This complexity makes the characters more relatable and the plot more engaging.
• Intricate plot . The novel’s plot is famously complex, with numerous twists and turns. Chandler’s ability to weave multiple storylines together creates a rich, layered narrative that rewards careful reading.

Tana French’s “In the Woods”

Tana French’s “In the Woods” exemplifies how modern psychological thrillers can combine character-driven stories with compelling mysteries.

• Character development . French’s focus on the psychological depth of her protagonists adds emotional resonance to the mystery. The characters’ personal struggles are intertwined with the investigation, making the story more engaging.
• Atmosphere . The novel’s setting—a small Irish town with a dark past—creates a haunting atmosphere. French’s evocative descriptions draw readers into the world of the story.
• Ambiguity and unresolved questions . “In the Woods” leaves some questions unanswered, which can be polarizing but also adds to the novel’s realism and depth. This ambiguity encourages readers to think critically and engage with the narrative on a deeper level.

How bibisco writing software can help you write a captivating mystery novel

bibisco is a powerful tool for writing a mystery novel, offering features that help you organize your plot, develop complex characters, and maintain suspense throughout your story.

With its detailed character sheets , you can create intricate backstories and motivations, essential for crafting believable suspects and compelling detectives. The timeline feature allows you to track key events and clues, ensuring a coherent and engaging plot.

Additionally, bibisco’s note-taking and scene management capabilities help you weave red herrings and pivotal revelations seamlessly into your narrative, making it easier to keep readers engaged.

Conclusion: how to write a mystery novel

Writing a compelling mystery novel requires a delicate balance of plot, character development, suspense, and intrigue. By mastering the techniques outlined in this guide, you’ll be well-equipped to craft a captivating mystery that keeps readers engaged and guessing until the final page.

Happy writing!

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All good novels contain some elements of tension, mystery, and surprise, but a good mystery novel follows a few unspoken rules, and you break them at your peril.

So what are the rules of the mystery genre?

If you understand these three principles, you will go far with them:

It’s a game of wits between the reader and the author

While a reader will always be drawn in by a story, and the author will keep them wanting to know what’s going to happen next, mystery novels take that to the next level.

A good mystery story is not just passive entertainment – it’s a game. The reader is actively trying to work out the solution – which is almost always who the perpetrator is.

So as a mystery writer, it’s your job to create a situation where the reader can do that guessing and to lay out just enough clues that in hindsight the answer is obvious, but not so many that the reader actually guesses it before the reveal.

It is a delicate tightrope that takes great skill to master.

The reader wins if they lose

A key thing to understand about this dynamic is that it isn’t a game where one person wins and one person loses.

If you do your job right, then you both win.

That is because while the reader may feel smug and satisfied if they do guess the perp in advance of you telling them, they will actually feel more delighted if they don’t get it more than a few moments before the reveal, but can see that it was right under their noses all the time.

If the reader guesses who the perpetrator is too early, then yes, technically they’ve won, but all suspense and thrills drain away. And this is disappointing for everyone.

The perpetrator must be under the reader’s nose

As mentioned above, a key factor of a good mystery is that the perpetrator (or other answer to the mystery) must be under the reader’s nose. Ideally, it will turn out to be a main character, but it can also be a major supporting character.

If you introduce, heaven forbid, a brand new character as the baddie at the last minute, then your reader is going to be left feeling cheated, as they never had a fair chance at guessing.

Similarly, if it’s a very minor character, then while you might be able to get away with it, it will be far less satisfying than if the character was much more prominent and still went under the radar.

Methods of achieving this often involve making the perpetrator a character so timid/weak/hopeless that it seems impossible they could ever carry out such dastardly deeds.

However, as thriller readers become more and more skilled and experienced, they will be on the lookout for this sort of trick, so mystery writers need to become ever more resourceful.

Be on the lookout for ways to make people seem harmless when secretly they are dangerous psychopaths. Techniques including:

• Having them not be who they say they are – they have changed their identity
• Having them appear physically weak – which may or may not be genuine
• Having them appear mentally simple – when actually that is a clever ruse and they are actually a genius

6 Tips for creating suspense and intrigue

1. questions.

The heart of all suspense is questions.

What’s going to happen next? Who did it? Will they escape with their lives? What is that person hiding?

Ideally, your reader will be constantly asking questions like those above, as well as ones much more specific to your story.

In a mystery or thriller, you need to keep a constant ball of questions rolling, raising new ones and answering others.

There should be some high-level questions, including the main story question, which will hang over the reader for most of the book. But there will also be smaller questions that may only be up in the air for a chapter or two.

The key is to make sure the reader always has some questions in their mind that they are hungry to know the answers to, while not being overwhelmed by too many questions. And while also continually being given some answers, in order to feel a sense of progress and satisfaction.

This is not easy, but it can be done if you’re willing to put in the effort. Here’s a technique to help with keeping track of it all.

Question analysis technique:

This technique was described by thriller writer Erin Kelly, and even (especially) if you think you’ve got your questions and answer threads woven in nicely, completing this exercise can be extremely enlightening.

Take a large piece of paper and draw a vertical line down the left-hand side from top to bottom.

Mark a dot on the line at roughly where in your story the first question is raised (so near the top of the line if it’s near the beginning, at the middle of the line if it’s near the middle, etc. This is only a rough guide, don’t worry about being exact).

Mark another dot on the line where that question is answered, then join the two lines together with a curving arc. Note next to the line what the question is.

Repeat the last two steps for all of your story questions.

When you finish, ideally you will have a lot of dots and lines evenly spaced out.

What you’re more likely to have are a bunch of dots near the beginning, a bunch of dots near the end, and a thickish curve connecting the two clusters.

Don’t believe me? Try it and see…

2. Everybody has a secret / Trust no one

A good way to keep your readers guessing is to establish the fact that nobody can be trusted and make sure everybody acts suspiciously.

Some books are fairly bullish about this and just have characters say outright that no one can be trusted. But it’s also possible to do this through more subtle means of inference and atmosphere.

When it comes to making everybody act suspiciously, if you don’t want it to come across as inauthentic then make it authentic. They should be acting suspiciously because they genuinely have something to hide. The trick is that only one of them is hiding the thing you are looking for. The others all have secrets, yes, but they turn out to be unrelated to the crime or central mystery.

Of course, you can have someone look suspicious when they are in fact completely innocent, but do this too much and it starts to feel false.

3. Master the cliffhanger

If you’re going to be a mystery writer, then you need to master the cliffhanger.

A cliffhanger is usually when something unexpected happens (a knock at the door) or a character is left in a position of peril (like, uh, hanging off the edge of a cliff).

Most people have heard of a cliffhanger, and know roughly what it means, but if you’re going to write a good one, you need to understand that every time you use a cliffhanger, you have to deliver a suitable resolution.

To borrow from Brandon Sanderson in his excellent series on writing fantasy , he puts it roughly like this:

Imagine you have a scene, where everyone is sitting around the lounge when the doorbell rings. The scene ends there, so the cliffhanger is: Who’s at the door?

You turn the page to find out.

A bad cliffhanger resolution is: it’s the pizza guy. They get the pizza and pay him and he leaves.

A good cliffhanger ending is: it was Bob’s long lost father, who he thought was dead, and he needs money. Lots of it.

Do you see the difference?

In the good cliffhanger resolution, the question is answered with something exciting which brings up more dramatic possibilities and potential for conflict.

In the bad cliffhanger resolution, the question is answered with a complete non-event. This is failing to deliver on what you promised and will leave the reader feeling disappointed.

One final thing – don’t end your novel on a cliffhanger. The contract with the reader is that you will deliver a beginning, a middle and an end. If you are writing a series or a trilogy, then it’s fine to leave some questions unanswered if they are part of the larger story arc, but you must answer the main story questions raised in a particular book. If you don’t, you haven’t delivered what you promised, and readers will not trust you enough to read future books.

Trust that readers will come back because they enjoyed your writing, don’t try to manipulate them into having to pay more just to be given the end of the story.

4. Mislead your audience

In the mystery game of cat and mouse, the author must deliberately mislead the reader, without ever actually lying.

It is normal to have an ‘obvious’ suspect, someone who is mean, cruel, and nasty. But any mystery reader worth their salt will know this person is far too obvious. However, if you’re clever, you can persuade your readers that someone else is the perfect suspect, and the reader will think they were very clever for working this out – but it turns out they were a red herring too, to distract them from the actual real perpetrator.

Likewise, there might be an object, event, or piece of information which leads to a particular conclusion – but not the right one.

Misleading your audience isn’t only about red herrings. You can also use little hints and conventions to make readers jump to conclusions which are incorrect. For example, one scene might end with a character looking at the moon, and the next scene begins with a different character also looking at the moon. From this, the reader will infer that it’s the same night without you ever actually saying so, but in fact they could be two nights ten years apart.

5. Use the ticking time bomb

Having to catch a killer is exciting.

Having to catch a killer within the next three hours before they kill their next victim… is more exciting.

Putting a ticking clock on the action is a good way to raise the tension and heighten the emotion of a mystery.

Like with your story questions, you can use a ticking time bomb on a large and on a small scale. So there may be a deadline by which the protagonist has to solve the mystery, or something terrible will happen, and you can also have much closer-in time pressures, which the main character has to deal with before the end of the chapter, or even page.

6. Foreshadow everything

It’s not that difficult to win the game of cat and mouse if you just withhold all of the important information. But that’s not really playing by the rules.

To master the game and really delight your readers, the more elements you can foreshadow, the better. The reader should be able to look back on what they’ve read and see that all the signs were there, even from the very first page.

But you must conceal these signs.

Here are a few methods for doing that:

• Distraction (something else exciting is happening at the same time)
• Sleight of hand (a false explanation for this piece of information is presented)
• By embedding key information among a lot of unimportant information, the reader thinks that’s also unimportant.

So, in summary, if you’re writing a mystery or thriller, you are playing a game with the reader, and you need to play by the rules – and make sure both you and the reader win!

Make sure you hide your perpetrator in plain sight but don’t make them obvious. Use all your skills to create suspense and tension, to keep them turning pages from the edge of their seat.

Homework Tasks

Read three of your favourite mystery or thriller novels and try to identify the techniques the author uses to create suspense and mislead you as a reader.

Further reading:

https://www.thenovelry.com/blog/suspense-writing-tips

https://www.novel-software.com/how-to-write-a-thriller/

https://www.novel-software.com/novel-outline-template/#templates (scroll down for a mystery/crime thriller plot template)

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Home » Blog » How to Write a Great Mystery Novel

How to Write a Great Mystery Novel

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A mystery novel is like a puzzle that needs solving. Many people try writing a suspense novel, but not many succeed. It’s because you must learn how to write a mystery novel first.

So, what goes into making a good book? 

If you’re struggling to write a novel yourself, good news, we have your back. This article will cover the detailed steps of writing a detective story from start to finish. We will also talk about what makes a novel so appealing for readers and other such aspects.

What is a Mystery Novel?

A mystery novel is a genre of literature that involves solving a crime or series of crimes. The reader must work alongside the protagonist to solve the puzzle and unveil the culprit behind it.

The earliest detective story was written way back in 1866 by Gaboriau. It was widely seen as one of France’s first modern authors of this type. Some of the most well-known detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes, rely on deductive reasoning from collected clues to solve a case.

Many stories feature a central character who works through problems using logical analysis or intuition. They may be written in the first or third person. Further, detective novels can occur in any setting, from a quaint village to a bustling metropolis.

These stories are gripping, dark and examine human psychology. Moreover, detective stories also explore the dark side of modern society. All these features make mystery stories one of the fascinating genres of writing.

What Makes a Good Mystery Novel? 

The audience will focus a great deal on the first pages of a book. So, it needs to be exciting and interesting. Moreover, a good mystery novel should have a likable protagonist. The hero must be smart, intelligent, and solve the puzzle for readers to enjoy it.

The characters must have interesting personalities. They must also have an authentic voice. In addition, there may be supporting characters who help the protagonist deduce the crime. On the other hand, they may also provide some comic relief for the readers.

The novel’s plot has to be gripping so that it keeps the audience on their toes page by page! You can tell the tale in the third person or use the first person where you are the detective. However, don’t be too descriptive while writing in the third person.

Finally, a great story needs well-written dialogue, enough to immerse you in the book.

An unsolved mystery also makes for great reading in a novel. The audience does not need to know who committed the crime from the beginning. But, at some point during the narrative, they become aware of it.

In the end, it must have a satisfying ending that will keep the readers coming back for more.

Five Essential Elements of a Mystery Novel

There are many types of mystery novels, but the two most popular ones are  thriller  and murder mystery. In these stories, someone is killed or murdered in some way, and it’s up to the protagonist to figure out who did it. However, the essential elements remain the same in all novels –

Let’s take a closer look at the elements of mystery writing –

The most important element of mystery writing is the plot. It is a sequence of events in the novel, usually written in the present tense.

It must have a proper beginning, a middle section, and an ending. Any mystery novel pot must be very clear and not too complex to read. Or else, the audience might lose interest in it midway.

The narrative arc must have enough interesting events to take the story forward while keeping the reader guessing! The plot will include the main problem that has to be solved.

This main narrative will introduce all the people associated with the mystery. It needs to be well written with a good flow. Many writers also scatter the hints throughout the story to make the audience try to solve the mystery themselves.

In every story, there are main characters and supporting casts. All the players involved have to be interesting enough for the audience to want them to succeed or fail! They can be the protagonist or an antagonist.

Every character should add something important to the narrative. The story will not work if there is no character development, and they are just one-dimensional. It is this  character development  that creates the narrative arc of a mystery or a detective novel.

However, there may be some people who are irrelevant to the main plot point. For instance, a butler or a servant working at the detective’s home might not add much to the narrative.

A mystery novel needs a strong protagonist. If you don’t have the main character fleshed out, use Squibler’s AI tools to create an original protagonist based on your blueprints.

It is important to set the mood for a story. For instance, in mysteries, it should provide an atmosphere of suspense or panic and make the audience want to read on! The narrative’s setting sets the tone for what is to come and what an audience can expect.

You can consider the setting as a way to hook anybody into the story quickly. This will also describe the location of where all the action is taking place. However, not all mysteries have a similar setting. Some writers offer a setting based on real-life, while others create an unusual setting for the mystery to unfold.

If the setting is very realistic, the people will connect more with it. On the other hand, settings such as a fantasy land or a dystopian future also spark interest. However, go easy on the setting and try to keep it realistic.

Same as with the main character, you can create bone-chilling settings with Squibler. Try it out!

This is the main plot point of the entire detective novel. The mystery defines the crime or problem, the criminal, and his/her motive. Usually, writers give subtle clues within the book so the audience can also think along with the detective.

Various plot twists and incidents also affect the main mystery. A mystery novel is usually solved by a detective, but the protagonist’s role also affects how the mystery unfolds.

Some writers give irrelevant clues to throw the audience off the radar and surprise them later with something new!

A conflict is a struggle between two opposing forces. Conflict can be used to create tension, drama, or suspense in a tale. There are many types of conflicts that authors use in their stories, including character vs. self-conflict, person vs. light/darkness, and protagonist vs. antagonist (villain).

Since a mystery novel can’t go without conflicts, you can use Squibler’s AI Smart Writer to create conflicts, add conflicts to existing dialogues, and make an existing scene more alive by adding descriptions of smell, sounds, and touch. Perfect for a mystery!

Finally, if you want to add visuals, Squibler allows you to highlight the desired text and generate original visuals based on the text, both images and short videos.

What is a Novel Synopsis?

A novel synopsis is an outline of the plot and major plot points in a novel. Usually, these are sent along with a query letter to literary agents in the publishing industry. It should be no more than two pages long or a single page short synopsis.

Writing a synopsis helps writers visualize what their story may look like as a book. Writers apply their writing process to mention an inciting incident, plot twist, rising action, or a central conflict in the synopsis.

Whether a writer drafts a one page synopsis or makes the synopsis longer, it acts as their sales copy. Literary agents pay attention to the word count, spelling mistakes, use of present tense, inciting incident, and the outline.

For organizing your writing, we suggest using Squibler’s Goals to prepare the writing track. Writing a full-fledged novel isn’t easy, so we suggest prepping before you type your first letter.

Writing a Novel Synopsis 

The best approach to write a novel synopsis is to be clear, and without a doubt, intriguing. The perfect synopsis has a beginning that intrigues your audience and your potential agents.

This novel synopsis includes information about the protagonist and his goals or ambitions.

You can also write about the antagonist while writing a synopsis. Answer questions like who is the main opponent or obstacle? How does he affect the protagonist’s life and goals?

A good synopsis must include an idea of the final chapter. It should also have a message that your audience can take away or an idea about what they’ve just read. If you’re unsure, you can apply your writing process to craft an example synopsis.

If you follow these steps to write a novel synopsis, your query letter and story are bound to be noticed by any literary agent.

Steps to Writing a Mystery Novel

First, good mystery stories are full of clues from start to finish but not enough so that everything gets solved too quickly. So, this gives the audience time to think through possible guesses themselves instead of being told exactly.

A thriller or a mystery  novel’s storyline  should have twists and turns just like any other genre narrative would have. Moreover, there could be two possible endings, for example.

Before you become a mystery writer, you have to read a lot of them. It will give you an idea of the structure, word count, and tonality used in such writing. You’ll notice how the author lays down the plot points, uses clues, and develops the characters. 

Moreover, you’ll also be able to develop your own plot more easily.

We’ll now take you through the various steps to write your own mystery novel!

Step 1: Write Down Plot Lines And Create An Introduction

The first step would be to write down possible plot lines. You could also do this after you’ve finished your draft if you’re not sure about the plot. Try to think of a few different or unexpected ideas that are interesting and would keep your audience hooked.

Always make sure to create a captivating introduction. This is where you introduce the setting and protagonist of your mystery novel. You can also introduce the antagonist or describe the crime in the beginning.

Step 2: Create Characters

While writing novels, it’s important for you to create characters with their own personality quirks as well as backstories. They must be believable so that the audience relates to them. In addition, the character names might be interesting.

As you might have guessed, the detective is the main character. So, make sure he or she is able to connect with the audience. Moreover, the sleuth might act as the eyes and ears for your audience, so focus more on him/her.

Make sure to include  flat characters  that could come in and out of the story. This will help your novel not feel linear or boring for the audience.

Always be careful with including too many side characters, though, because it can take away from what should be focused on–the protagonist’s journey into solving a mystery.

Step 3: Create The Antagonist Or A Suspects List

The antagonist is the villain. It can be a person, animal, or force that prevents the protagonist from achieving their goal. The antagonist is often the criminal whom the detective has to find. Moreover, this character can be similar to the protagonist or a polar opposite.

A suspect’s list is basically who has committed this crime and what they are thinking. This includes motives and opportunities for each suspect. A good list of suspects should include at least five people, but the author may decide to have more. Further, the antagonist can also be a part of this list.

Step 4: Describe The Crime In Detail

This is a very important step in any detective novel. When you’re talking about murder, theft, or any crime, make sure to delve deeper into it. The more in-depth you talk about the crime, the more realistic it will be. It will make the audience a lot more interested in figuring out the solution along with the sleuth.

So, you have to do your homework before creating your first draft. You must know everything about the crime before your detective sets out to solve it! Chart out how the crime was committed, who did it, and the motive.

Also, try not to make it too complicated for the reader to understand.

Step 5: Let The Reader Play Detective

Give your reader the opportunity to figure out who committed the crime. This will keep them more interested in reading and just might make it a personal quest for them! When writing about characters, give clues as to which character is responsible for committing the crime.

Whenever you write a mystery novel or story, remember that it is not only about the detective or the crime but also the target audience. So, give away certain clues that the sleuth might overlook, but your reader will catch. This keeps them more intrigued about what’s going to happen next.

Moreover, this approach also keeps the audience at the center of all the action.

Step 6: Explore Locales

You can try moving the plot to various locations to make things more interesting. Each of these locations might enhance the plot or generate new plot points. This adds a lot of variety and depth to the story.

You can also change the locations to unsettle the reader a little bit. This change might also give the detective a new perspective on the crime.

Step 7: Write a Memorable Ending

The climax of your story has to be perfect. By this time, your readers should have a fairly good idea of what the crime is, who committed it and why. This will allow you to come up with an ending that satisfies them or ends on a cliffhanger.

You can also end it in such a way where the sleuth does not solve the mystery, but there are enough clues for others to do so. Or you can leave some unanswered questions for your readers to ponder.

How to Get Ideas for a Mystery Story?

There are plenty of ways to get ideas for a mystery story. A writer can brainstorm, research other authors’ work, or read actual crime reports in newspapers and magazines.

Mystery novels tend to have common themes that set them apart from the rest. Common themes include deception, betrayal, murder, or theft. These themes are interrelated, and you can include more than one in your story.

You can get ideas by understanding human psychology and behavior. Read more about the world’s best true crime stories and about notorious criminals. Try to understand how they think, their approach towards the crime, and also the motive behind it.

Talk to people you know and ask them what element they like in a mystery novel. Take notes and work on them. Moreover, try placing yourself in the shoes of both the reader, detective, and the criminal.

If you still need more inspiration, start watching the best crime thriller movies ever created. Movies offer a rich source of ideas that you might not find anywhere else. You will also learn a lot about storytelling, developing a character arc, and how to use plot twists effectively.

The Bottom Line

Weaving a plot for a mystery novel is like creating a puzzle, where only you know the ultimate solution. If you want to write a story that will speak for itself, you have to look at it from their reader’s perspective.

The plot must not be too complex, or the reader might lose interest in it. On the other hand, if it’s too easy to comprehend, there won’t be much of a challenge. The balance between these two is what will keep the readers coming back for more.

To sum it up, before writing a synopsis or a novel, you have to ask yourself – will the story stay with you forever? If yes, then continue writing!

We hope the points discussed here will help you on your way to writing your masterpiece. Happy writing!

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Writing a mystery novel: 7 items your story needs

Writing a mystery novel is challenging. It demands a keen sense for plot, characterization and creating suspense. A story that actively engages readers in solving the mystery (or in trying to piece together the narrative threads) needs at least 7 elements:

• Post author By Jordan
• 23 Comments on Writing a mystery novel: 7 items your story needs

• A strong hook
• Active reader involvement in piecing together information
• Red herrings
• Suspenseful dialogue
• Effective, descriptive mood and language
• Well-structured chapters
• A satisfying conclusion

1: Writing a mystery novel? Craft a strong hook

All novels need effective hooks: the reader should be interested to uncover more from the first page or (even better), the first line. The hook is typically a line or image that creates curiosity and questions that keep readers wanting to know more.

Suspense author Cheryl Kaye Tardif recommends being guided by ‘The Four Firsts’ of writing story hooks: The first sentence, first paragraph, first page and first chapter. At each level, pay attention to detail. Ask about your story’s first sentence:

• Does it grab the reader’s interest by teasing some further discovery?
• Does it pose a question the reader will strongly want answered?
• Does it contain dramatic potential (a looming conflict, loss, discovery of something that will turn your main character’s world upside down)?

The mystery writer Elmore Leonard, according to author and journalist William Dietrich , advocated never describing weather in a first line. Dietrich goes on to share examples of great first lines that flout Leonard’s advice. For example, Dean Koontz wrote:

‘Tuesday was a fine California day, full of sunshine and promise, until Harry Lyon had to shoot someone at lunch.’ ( Dragon Tears )

Koontz’s opener uses the mundane details of the weather to create contrast with Harry Lyon’s murderous act. This makes it more shocking. So treat ‘rules’ cautiously. The important thing is that your opening line sets the mysterious tone for your story and grasps the reader’s interest.

Looking beyond the first sentence, the first paragraph should introduce a little more sense of mood and atmosphere and intriguing setting and/or character. For the first chapter, favour brevity. If a reader feels they have to wade to the end of your opener, this could deter them from continuing.

2: Make the reader your number one detective

A ‘puzzle mystery’ is the sub-genre where the reader gets to solve the unknown. In any good mystery, however, the reader should be left to piece together information. Trust in your reader’s intelligence: Many beginning writers assume that they need to hold the reader’s hand throughout and over-explain the story as it happens. To make the reader play more of an active part in solving the mystery you can:

• Leave clues throughout ( so long as they aren’t too obvious ).
• Include characters who are truthful along with those who lie, leaving it to the reader to decide whose information seems more honest.
• Have multiple possible explanations. In a murder mystery, that means having multiple suspicious characters. In a mystery adventure, it might mean having both natural and supernatural possible reasons for a character’s disappearance.

3: Something’s fishy… Use red herrings

In fiction writing, the term ‘red herring’ refers to ‘A clue or piece of information which is or is intended to be misleading or distracting:’ ( Oxford Dictionaries Online ). The term is borrowed from the custom of training dogs to hunt using the scent of dried herring, which turns red from being smoked.

Red herrings can be scattered throughout your novel to keep the reader from guessing the culprit of a crime or explanation of a disappearance too soon. They escalate tension and suspense and make a novel more riveting.

In Agatha Christie’s best-selling novel And Then There were None , ten people end up on an island and die one by one. Christie makes one of the remaining characters disappear, leading the other members of the party (and the reader) to suspect the vanished character of being the murderer, but there are further twists.

A red herring can be:

• A character who seems to be more suspicious or complicit than he actually is.
• An object that seems to have more significance than it ultimately will.
• An event that seems to be important to the narrative but turns out to be secondary.
• A clue placed by a villain (unknown to the reader and the main character) to send investigators down the wrong path of inquiry.

Suspense in a mystery novel is key. What else can increase the reader’s sense of curiosity and anticipation?

4: Write suspenseful dialogue

Dialogue that sounds convincing to the ear is hard to get right. Suspenseful dialogue moves in ellipses and omissions; says one thing but means another. In a conversation between two characters, you can create suspense by:

• Having one speaker lie, giving information that contradicts what the reader already knows to be true.
• Have a character say something bizarre or unexpected (in David Lynch’s cult classic mystery TV series Twin Peaks , a character says to the investigating detective Agent Dale Cooper, ‘The owls are not what they seem.’
• Have a character withhold information or be non-cooperative when questioned.

Because we are perplexed by unexpected behaviour, use it to throw the reader and your characters off. A character who laughs mid-conversation, apropos of nothing, is a curious one. Employ dialogue with strange turns, interruptions, menacing tones or other elements that give the reader a feeling of unpredictability.

Part of what makes a mystery novel highly engrossing is it’s mood and atmosphere:

5: Create a mysterious mood with setting and descriptive language

In a mystery novel, as in a thriller, mood is a substantial part of what throws the reader head first into your fictional world. The factors that contribute to mood in fiction are:

• Setting: An old cathedral might have a hallowed, restful feeling whereas darkening woods can be menacing or eerie.
• Descriptive language: Be thoughtful about the adjectives and verbs you choose. ‘She hastened along the narrow path’ creates a sense of urgency and spatial confinement or claustrophobia, both of which contribute to a tense and suspenseful atmosphere.
• Characterisation: What your characters say and do, how they look and what they hide all contribute to creating a mysterious, uncertain mood.

The ingredients of a good mystery include structure as well as content. Not only what happens but how it is paced or where each scene takes up or leaves off:

6: Structure your mystery novel’s chapters attentively

Because the allure and fear of the unknown are the pillars of good mystery writing, it’s important to structure each chapter around unfolding discoveries expertly. While there should be rising action throughout the novel on a macro scale, within each chapter there should be some rising action too, as well as shifts in knowns and unknowns.

In chapter openings you can:

• Open in the middle of an unknown setting
• Open your chapter in the middle of a tense situation
• Begin with the discovery that something previously thought true was false

These are just a few examples of the way you can make a chapter riveting from the outset. End chapters on new discoveries that either bring the mystery-solving character(s) closer to finding the answer or create new questions. This push and pull between question and answer lies at the heart of the great mystery novel.

7: A satisfying climax and resolution

A mystery novel is typically more teleological (‘end-focused’) than a novel in another genre (such as high fantasy). In mystery novels, everything should build up to a satisfying answer to primary questions such as ‘Who? Why? What?’

Nancy Curteman makes the crucial point that the ending of a mystery novel should come with an ‘a-ha!’ moment. The reader should be able to go back and say ‘I saw this coming’ or ‘I didn’t see this coming, but it makes complete sense given x, y, and z’. The identity of the killer, the cause for a disappearance or some other mystery explanation should not feel like a red herring itself.

When writing a mystery novel, ideally your ending will:

• Answer the pressing questions you’ve kept readers asking
• Reveal truths about characters falsely suspected
• Relate clearly to the beginning
• Leave the reader feeling inclined to read your next novel

Writing a mystery novel demands that you pay attention to the ingredients of great mystery writing: Convincing plot and mood, mysterious characters, active involvement of the reader and more. If you’re ready to get going on your mystery novel, join the Mystery/Thriller writers’ group on Now Novel.

Related Posts:

• Better mystery plots: 7 clues to writing mysteries
• Writing a cozy mystery: 10 feel-good suspense tips
• 5 mystery elements for intrigue in any genre
• Tags how to write mystery novels , mystery , red herrings , writing mystery fiction , writing story hooks

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

23 replies on “Writing a mystery novel: 7 items your story needs”

Excellent article on writing a novel. And thank you for the link to one of my articles. Best wishes!

Thanks, Cheryl! My pleasure, thanks for penning a helpful resource for writers.

very helpful,indeed

Thank you, Maxwell. Thanks for reading!

Excellent! It really helped me and your article is well detailed. Thanks a lot <3 @NowNovel:disqus

It’s a pleasure, Varalika! Thank you for reading and I’m glad you found it helpful.

Pretty explainable article! Taught me a lot. Now I can use this to write my creative writing! Thank you so much, @NowNovel

Hi Alexander, It’s a pleasure! Good luck with your writing.

I’m writing an essay for a summer assignment in order to get in an Honors English class, and I’m trying to cite the author, but I cant seem to find the author on this page by chance does anybody know who the author is?

Hi Mckalee, my apologies I didn’t see your comment sooner. I am the author but when attributing a blog or a non-traditionally published electronic source, it is generally acceptable to use the title of the publication (in this case Now Novel) with the address and the date of information retrieval.

thank you, this helped a lot!

Not a big fan of “Here are the basic rules to follow to have a successful novel” Obviously a mystery novel must have Mystery, it should have Suspense but that holds true for any good fiction novel. I am not big on the rules and regulations of writing novels. While obviously there has to be some basic fundamentals aside from following the basics such as reasonably correct punctuation and grammar, and please remember grammar has evolved due to common usage by authors, not due to invented rules by some professor or critic who never wrote a best seller in their lives for the most part. One example is “foreshadowing” I mean what top author uses it? As a reader it leaves me cold, it’s like you have a part of the story in advance and who wants that? The most interesting novel of any best selling series of any author I can think of is, I think, the first one of the series; why? because it is full of mystery and excitement. After that even the best usually go downhill. After a lifetime of being a bookworm, seeing critically canned books such as Harry Potter, that violated many of the accepted “rules” of authoring, selling millions and as a recently published author who has listened to the true experts of writing bestselling novels (the authors), I honestly believe that it is just a matter of being reasonably accurate in spelling, punctuation and grammar and being interested in your story yourself and make it interesting enough and you can have a best seller. Another datum that seems important is If You Have a Fire Within, You Can Create a Fire Without. Mark J

Thank you for sharing your contrary viewpoint, you make a good argument. Regarding ‘foreshadowing’, I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily giving part of the story in advance but rather sowing the seeds of implication (for example, introducing an object that later proves to be significant to the plot, a monument, a person, and so on). Effective foreshadowing can be quite subtle, ‘blink and you’ll miss it’, and in a certain kind of mystery (murder mystery) can be an excellent device for adding suspense.

This perhaps over-simplifying notion of foreshadowing aside, you raise good contra-points. I’d add that having a bestseller certainly isn’t only to do with the writing itself but also how well you market and promote a book, as some dreadful books do make bestseller status, as you’ve intimated. Regarding Rowling, what she did very well is build a detailed, engrossing world that was vivid in its scope and sense of wonder, and this spoke to readers of all ages, I would say. Her series, of course, isn’t ‘literary’ in style or audience.

Thank you for reading and engaging with our articles!

I realize I’m responding to a post made 9 months ago, so I hope you’re still there. I’m hoping to get some advice per remarks that you made to Mark, specifically regarding marketing and promoting a book.

I finished what I thought was a pretty good draft of one book, which is a drama/fantasy, almost two years ago. That was my first experience at seriously attempting to write a book, so I engaged a group of about 12 people to review it. Some I knew, some I didn’t know. I varied my evaluators by sex, age, interest in reading, etc. Although 11 out of the 12 said they liked the book, my best three critics (two of which were avid readers) liked the story/writing, but they wanted “more”.

I wasn’t looking for empty compliments (although I’m guessing that the original draft was “good enough” on a superficial level, per the comments I interpreted); I wanted a book that could be interesting and successful. So, I spent the next year researching the elements of how to write a good book and gave my book some critical thought of my own based on what I had learned through my research. Then, I went to work on adding “more”. My book increased from 46K words to 86K words. I added a prologue to handle some of the backstory of the older characters that contribute to the plotline, kind of like a brief mini-story to clear the muddle of some of the backstory within the main text. I more fully developed my main characters and even expanded the interaction with some select supporting characters to round-out the story. Of course, I also added better hints of twists to come (and then added those twists and a fuller storyline), made my evil characters more evil, and made my sympathetic characters more sympathetic.

My best critics have now reviewed my final draft. The conclusion was that I gave them the “more” they were looking for, and the book is ready to be published. I’m working on the book cover and I’ll be submitting the book for copyright shortly. I’ve dismissed submitting the book to publishing houses, mostly because I’ve heard that it is extremely difficult to even get them to read a book from a new author, and I understand that self-publishing is an alternative.

So, that brings me around to your remarks about how well the book is marketed and promoted. I’ve done some research into Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I don’t see a lot of information about marketing and promotion. For Amazon, I see approaches like initial 30-day half-price (or even free) offers. I’ve also read that promoting a book on Amazon or any online publisher is enhanced by the keywords you select for your book. I considered things like book-signings, perhaps at the local library, or even at the local Barnes & Noble. I researched some self publishing under Barnes & Noble simply for the fact that they support local author events; however, it seems that they will only support those author events on the condition that your book has already sold at a certain level…again, something difficult for a new author to break through without prior marketing and promotion. Do you have any suggestions regarding marketing and promotion? Or, do you have any materials (websites, etc) that you could refer to assist with marketing and promotion for new authors?

By the way, aside from the marketing and promotion question, I do have one other question with regard to the topic of this site (mystery writing). My next effort will be a mystery, but I’m wondering how it fits with the formula. I have two main characters, a husband and wife. The husband is police officer who desperately WANTS to be a detective. However, he is NOT the hero in the story. The crime occurs, but it appears to be related to the relationship between them. He gets the opportunity to be on the detective team to solve the mystery, but the more and more the story develops, the more he realized that the crime appears to be dependent on his own actions. Is it critical that the detective/mystery solver be the hero?

Any advice on the marketing/promotion or my question about the mystery hero is appreciated!

Thanks, Karen

Thank you for your detailed question. To answer in the two parts you posed it:

1) Regarding marketing and promotion for self-published authors, it is admittedly tricky to promote and market without an existing platform to leverage, as you say particularly when seeking admission to platforms with more prestige (such as having bookstore-hosted book signings). Barnes & Noble is of course a big seller; approaching an indie or other smaller bookshop may be easier.

The strategies you mentioned (initial discounting, for example) are widely used. I would recommend building a social media presence as a writer (if you haven’t already), sharing extracts, tweeting/gramming/Facebooking about writing, the books you love, the genre your work falls within, to build an audience, and engage with others’ posts (meaningfully, of course) on the same. This will help grow awareness.

Having a blog where you write about your genre, about the writing process, and/or review books in your genre is also useful as you can build an email list and market your Amazon author page to your list. A promo blog tour could also help drum up interest, as you could reach out to book bloggers in indie publishing to offer guest posts and/or other content (e.g. review copies) to further get the word out.

As a newcomer to marketing your work, it may seem daunting, so it could be helpful to take a course. We have an article specifically on marketing your work here that may be useful: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/how-to-build-a-book-audience/

2) Usually the mystery solver is the ‘hero’, even if an unlikely one. It would maybe read a little strangely for the protagonist of the story not to be the one to make the most crucial discovery. However this would be a better question for an editor perhaps once the story is written, as it’s difficult to comment on the efficacy of a plot development or character arc in summary form.

Please feel free to ask anything further, and good luck!

Thank you VERY much! Your feedback was very helpful and the link you provided was awesome! I hadn’t found your site when I was doing my initial research on “how to write”, but I’ve checked out some links from the original mystery writing article and your site has a terrific way or organizing the content to make it extremely easy to follow!

Hi Karen, it’s a pleasure! I’m glad I could help 🙂

Best of luck and please feel free to email us any questions any time at [email protected] , too.

I completely agree with what you have written. I hope this post could reach more people as this was truly an interesting post.

Ever since mystery novels existed, it has been one of the best selling genres of all time.

Please read my blog: 5 Reasons Why You Should Read Mystery Books

Have a great day!

Thanks, Patricia, you have a great day too.

This is very helpful to writing a mystery book but what should the book NOT include?

Hi J, thank you for your question. A good place to start is looking at lists of mystery tropes and deciding for yourself which seem the most hackneyed, contrived or stale. TV Tropes does a good job of listing fiction tropes in a humorous way and have a list of mystery tropes here (I would say the ‘You Wake Up in a Room’ trope is maybe one of the most played out for the genre, but you never know – you could reinvigorate a trope with new life, too).

Another way I’d recommend getting to grips with a specific genres requirements (or non-requirements, rather) is to scan reviews on Goodreads sorted by that genre and see what readers complain about most. Is it that it was easy to work out the mystery all along? Or were there certain character stereotypes? This should help. Thank you for reading our blog!

[…] In the novel-writing world, you have, on one hand, ambitious, creative trades- / craftspeople. They want to write novels, and they want to make money doing it. It’s creative, but it’s business. They typically choose their favorite genre and study the formulas, become intimately familiar with the work of other writers in the genre, analyze what sells and what doesn’t and why, evaluate their specific market, and write to their audience. They give their readers something engrossing and entertaining, if formulaic and predictable — because formulaic and predictable is a safe sell and is even encouraged. (Search “mystery genre rules,” and results will show, respectively, The “Rules” of Detective Fiction, 6 Rules for Writing Great Mystery Novels, 17 Rules of Mystery Writing, S.S. Van Dine’s 20 Rules for Writing Detective Stories, and Writing a Mystery Novel: 7 Items Your Story Needs.) […]

[…] can find these 20 exciting mystery books for middle schoolers in your local library or purchase through the affiliate links provided […]

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Blogs / Crime, Horror, and Thriller / How to Write a Mystery Novel: 5 Tips

Craft the Perfect Crime

How to write a mystery novel: 5 tips.

As a reader, you are a silent partner with the detective: experiencing the thrill of identifying the culprit with, or before, the detective. Maybe even better, you have it figured out, then, you are wrong! But as you think back over the story it was all there. Satisfaction and a quick search for another of this author’s work to read as soon as possible.

As a writer, you create a puzzle and take your reader on a ride. All your planning and preparation gives your reader a gripping page-turner that surprises and challenges. A great mystery engages both the reader’s mind and emotions.

Now, you’ve finished your draft and are ready to begin editing your mystery. You know every detail of your crime and characters. You have had your trusted beta-readers give you feedback on their connection to characters, possible plot-holes and the working theories they discovered while they read. The next step? The first stage of editing – the developmental or story edit. Here you look for ways to use plot, character and setting edits to make your story even stronger.

History of the Mystery Genre

First, let’s quickly review some background for this genre. Then, we’ll explore how to step back and see your mystery during editing by using story elements.

Simply, mysteries begin with the commitment of a crime and follow the investigation until it is solved. That is what is so satisfying for the reader, the puzzle ends and they have enjoyed the ride.

Stories of crime and investigation have been around since Ancient Greece. Sophocles’ play, Oedipus Rex begins with the people coming to King Oedipus pleading for help as the country seems under siege from plagues and loss of crops. The audience quickly learns that this is the result of a crime. Someone has murdered the former king and the punishment will continue to plague Thebes until the murderer is punished. As we know, Oedipus takes the role of detective, and the irony is that he is the murderer. The play is a cruel and cutting examination of fate, prophecy and human hubris.

Fast forward to 1841 when the detective story began with Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in Rue Morgue”. These historical examples have been followed by many great writers and characters. Whether you are writing a Cozy, Police Procedural, Caper, Detective, or other subgenre of mystery, you have a wonderful array of excellent stories to read for research and inspiration.

How to Write a Mystery

Through reading mysteries, the basic structure becomes clear: Crime, Investigation, Red Herrings and Twist, an All Is Lost moment, and then the Breakthrough and Conclusion. Following this structure is a sure-fire way to write a good mystery.

These key incidents link with the five key scenes that make a great story. In Fictionary, these are the Story Arc Scenes.

The readers are hooked with the Inciting Incident, the commitment of the crime. This scene brings the reader into the story and sets the stakes for the protagonist. Even if the detective isn’t in this scene, the reader is aware of the danger and risk if the crime isn’t solved.

The investigation connects to Plot Point 1. The investigator, whether amateur sleuth or hard-boiled detective, in drawn into the investigation.

At the Middle scene, the investigator encounters a twist or follows a red herring that takes the investigation off the rails and leads to the protagonist becoming even more proactive in the investigation.

These twist and turns lead to Plot Point 2, the darkest hour. It looks like the crime will never be solved or the investigator loses something in the process of solving the crime. This may be the death of a partner, struggles in their personal relationships or loss of a job or position.

All of this loss still leads to the breakthrough and Climax. The crime is solved, the true culprit is apprehended.

While there are variations in all these scenes, the basic structure and tropes are there so the reader leaves thrilled and satisfied.

5 Mystery Writing Tips

Grab attention with hooks.

Mystery readers want to be grabbed from the start. Read your first scene to ensure that the hook is strong. With Fictionary, you can ensure you keep them connected by examining the Scene Entry Hook element looking for variety and strength of the start of every scene. As you look there, be sure each scene is anchored in POV, location and time.

Kristina Stanley’s article on Make the Scenes in Your Novel Flow and Capture Readers includes clear details of how to use these elements to keep your reader turning pages.

Creating Strong, Compelling Characters

Whatever the subgenre, the reader’s connection to your protagonist will keep them turning pages. You can develop this emotional investment through making them relatable. In How to Edit a Cozy Mystery , Ryan Rivers notes that you can make your “protagonist more relatable by developing their backstory/emotional wound.”

Use the backstory element to review how you have included this backstory for your protagonist. While your detective may not always seem likable, your reader will follow them with a sense of understanding and sympathy once they understand the struggles they face internally as well as externally. Sherlock Holmes wasn’t always traditionally likable, but we follow him for his strengths and weaknesses.

A quick check of your Cast of Characters for distinct names that are easily remembered ensures your reader can keep track of the suspects. Then, you can look at the scenes per character element to check that all your suspects have a similar number of scenes.

All your main characters and suspects deserve a clear backstory and motive, especially your culprit. Making a relatable villain is powerful. Giving backstory and development to these characters offers the reader a sense of understanding them and offers fuller satisfaction from the climax.

When we understand the trigger and motivation for the crime, the surprising but logical discovery of the culprit enhances the experience for your reader.

Use Atmosphere to Build your Mystery

Weather and location can create a mysterious and threatening atmosphere. Use the setting elements to add tension naturally to your scenes. Your choice of location can make your story, characters and crime unique. A mystery set in an isolated cabin in the mountains will be different than one set in a hotel in a big city.

Use the setting elements in Fictionary to track locations and weather for each of your scenes. The object element gives you a quick reference to look back at any smoking guns or key objects identified in the search for the culprit.

Track the Clues

A great mystery novel is a puzzle with clues dropped at key moments to hook the reader. Use revelations and reader knowledge gained elements to follow your clues and red herrings. The best mysteries are those you can’t solve right away. Great red herrings help your reader feel that this is a difficult crime to solve.

Remember, you know the crime and characters intimately. If you are doing your own story or developmental edit, using these elements can help you see how the reader experiences the mystery.

POV knowledge gained element can clarify what is known by the characters and the reader as the story progresses. These elements can help you step back from all that you already know and make sure you are slowly, effectively revealing the clues.

Readers are aware of the key characters in your story. Obviously, your investigator will be in the most scenes. By looking at how many scenes include the culprit and the best other suspects, you can make sure that each of these characters are viable alternatives.

Finish with a Bang

Mystery readers anticipate the climax. Tie up loose ends and finish the puzzle. The ending doesn’t have to be happy, but your reader is expecting a logical conclusion to experience the satisfaction of reading a great mystery.

While doing this edit, you can also look at the Story Arc Insight to check on the pace of your story. Every scene doesn’t need to be action, but every scene should be leading to your climax.

Use Character Elements/Insight to see how many scenes include the detective, culprit, and best second option.

Writing a mystery story is a challenge. Finishing your first draft is an accomplishment. Using story elements in your developmental edit can make this first edit focused and help you step back and easily see how edits can make your mystery amaze and engage your readers. Creating fans for your next book.

20 Mystery Story Ideas

Here are 20 mystery story ideas to inspire your creativity and help you create your own mystery.

• A renowned detective discovers a series of murders linked to ancient Egyptian artifacts, revealing a cursed legacy.
• A reclusive writer becomes embroiled in a real-life murder mystery that mirrors the plot of their latest novel.
• In a parallel dimension, a detective navigates a surreal landscape to solve a crime that transcends the boundaries of reality.
• In a remote forest, a ranger investigates strange crop circles and encounters extraterrestrial visitors with a cryptic message for humanity.
• Children stumble upon a hidden cave filled with clues to a long-forgotten pirate treasure and a centuries-old mystery.
• In a post-apocalyptic world, survivors must unravel the truth behind a string of disappearances in their isolated community.
• A young psychic aids police in solving a series of disappearances, uncovering a network of underground psychics.
• A locked-room murder baffles investigators, but a brilliant child prodigy holds the key to unraveling the mystery.
• A young sleuth and their trusty dog unravel the secrets of a spooky mansion rumored to be haunted by a ghostly hound.
• A meteorologist tracking extreme weather patterns discovers they are caused by an alien device hidden deep within Earth’s atmosphere.
• On a space station, a malfunction reveals a murder, leading to suspicion and intrigue among the crew.
• In a near-future city, a detective navigates a world of augmented reality to solve a string of high-tech heists.
• An AI assistant becomes sentient and assists its human creator in solving a murder mystery in a future metropolis.
• On a remote island, a marine biologist encounters mysterious sea creatures with otherworldly origins, triggering a race to uncover their secrets.
• In a futuristic city, robotic pets hold the key to solving a series of high-tech heists.
• In a virtual reality simulation, participants must solve a murder mystery set in a fantasy realm with magical creatures.
• In a society where memories can be bought and sold, a detective hunts down a black-market dealer of stolen memories.
• In a society where emotions are regulated, a detective investigates a string of crimes targeting those who defy emotional control.
• On a terra-formed Mars colony, settlers must solve a murder in the midst of a growing rebellion against Earth’s control.
• A serial killer leaves cryptic clues inspired by famous literary works, challenging detectives to solve the literary-themed murders.

How to Write a Good Mystery Conclusion

The best way to learn how to write a book in any genre is by reading other books in the same genre. By understanding what you love about other mysteries, you can learn how to write your own.

And if you need any inspiration or help, then joining a writing community is a great option. It is free to join the Fictionary community, and you can meet like-minded writers and swap tips and help. Join today.

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How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America Hardcover – April 27, 2021

• Print length 336 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Scribner
• Publication date April 27, 2021
• Dimensions 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 1982149434
• ISBN-13 978-1982149437
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner (April 27, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982149434
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982149437
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• #1,944 in Fiction Writing Reference (Books)
• #1,955 in Cozy Craft & Hobby Mysteries

About the authors

Lee Child is one of the world’s leading thriller writers. He was born in Coventry, raised in Birmingham, and now lives in New York. It is said one of his novels featuring his hero Jack Reacher is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. His books consistently achieve the number-one slot on bestseller lists around the world and have sold over one hundred million copies. Two blockbusting Jack Reacher movies have been made so far. He is the recipient of many awards, most recently Author of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Photography © Sigrid Estrada

Hal Bodner is a Bram Stoker Award nominated author, best known for writing the best selling gay vampire novel, Bite Club and the lupine sequel, The Trouble With Hairy. He tells people that he was born in East Philadelphia because no one knows where Cherry Hill, New Jersey is. The obstetrician who delivered him was C. Everett Koop, the future US Surgeon General who put warnings on cigarette packs. Thus, from birth, Hal was destined to become a heavy smoker.

He moved to West Hollywood in the 1980s and has rarely left the city limits since. He cannot even find his way around Beverly Hills—which is the next town over.

Hal has been an entertainment lawyer, a scheduler for a 976 sex telephone line, a theater reviewer and the personal assistant to a television star. For awhile, he owned Heavy Petting, a pet boutique where all the movie stars shopped for their Pomeranians. Until recently, he owned an exotic bird shop.

He has never been a waiter.

He lives with assorted dogs, and birds, the most notable of which is an eighty year old irritable, flesh-eating military macaw named after his icon – Tallulah. He often quips he is a slave to fur and feathers and regrets only that he isn’t referring to mink and marabou. He does not have cats because he tends to sneeze on them.

Having reached middle-age ("middle" age being dependent on how many 100 years-plus people happen to be around), he remembers Nixon.

He was widowed in his early forties and can sometimes be found sunbathing at his late partner's grave while trying to avoid cemetery caretakers screaming at him to put his shirt back on.

Hal has also written a few erotic paranormal romances -- which he refers to as “supernatural smut” – most notably In Flesh and Stone and For Love of the Dead. While his salacious imagination is unbounded, he much prefers his comedic roots and he is currently pecking away at a series of bitterly humorous gay super hero novels.

He married again -- this time legally -- to a wonderful man who is young enough not to know that Liza Minnelli is Judy Garland’s daughter. As a result, Hal has recently discovered that the use of hair dye is rarely an adequate substitute for Viagra.

Hal's website is www.wehovampire.com and he encourages fans to send him email at [email protected]. It may take him a month or so, but he generally responds to almost everyone who writes to him with the sole exception of prisoners who request free copies of his books accompanied by naked pictures.

Liliana Hart

Liliana Hart is a New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher's Weekly Bestselling Author of more than 60 titles. After starting her first novel her freshman year of college, she immediately became addicted to writing and knew she'd found what she was meant to do with her life. She has no idea why she majored in music.

Since publishing in June of 2011, Liliana has appeared at #1 on lists all over the world and all three of her series have appeared on the New York Times list. Liliana is a sought after speaker, and she's given keynote speeches and workshops to standing-room-only crowds from Hawaii to New York to London.

Liliana can almost always be found at her computer writing or hanging out with her husband (her real life hero). They call a suburb of Dallas home and have five children and a French bulldog named Bacon.

Art Taylor is the author of two short story collections: The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions and The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense. His novel in stories On the Road with Del & Louise won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. He also won the 2019 Edgar Award for Best Short Story for "English 398: Fiction Workshop," originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and he has won three additional Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, four Macavity Awards, and four Derringer Awards for his short fiction. His work has also appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, and he has edited Murder Under the Oaks: Bouchercon Anthology 2015, winner of the Anthony Award for Best Anthology or Collection; California Schemin': Bouchercon Anthology 2020; and Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Warren Zevon. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University.

Bradley Harper

Jack the Ripper meets Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, in my debut novel A KNIFE IN THE FOG, a Finalist for the 2019 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and winner of the Silver Falchion Award at Killer Nashville for Best Mystery, and recently named as a Recommended Read by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate. My second novel, QUEENS GAMBIT, pits my female protagonist, Margaret Harkness, against an anarchist assassin who has both Margaret and Queen Victoria in his sights. GAMBIT was recently awarded the 2020 Silver Falchion Award both as Best Suspense and as Book of the Year. Join me at WWW.BHarperAuthor.com for my upcoming events, giveaways, and to sign up for my newsletter.

During my 37 years of active duty as a pathologist, I performed over 200 autopsies, and my clinical years are interwoven with four stints as the commanding officer of various medical units. I was an Infantry officer before medical school, worked in the Pentagon, and learned to speak five languages. Yet, I also happily play Santa each Christmas (with my loving wife as Mrs. Claus). It is this juxtaposition of exploring the body, mind, and humanity that allows me to examine the mysteries of the past. Come and join me, for the Game's afoot!

Stephen Ross

Stephen Ross is an award-winning writer who’s been crafting stories for twenty years. His short stories have been published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, several Mystery Writers of America anthologies, and many other magazines and anthologies. His work has been nominated for an Edgar Award, a Derringer Award, and a Thriller Award, and he was a winner of the Rose Trophy for Best Crime/Mystery Short Story. He has been an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award finalist and was a contributor to the Agatha Award-winning non-fiction book How To Write a Mystery, edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King. He has lived in Auckland, London, and Frankfurt, and currently resides on the beautiful Whangaparaoa Peninsula of New Zealand, where his dog Mycroft takes him for walks. Visit him on: www.StephenRoss.net

C. M. Surrisi

C. M. Surrisi writes for children and adults in several genres. She is author of middle grade mysteries and middle grade commercial fiction, young adult non-fiction, picture books, and adult mysteries. She also teaches writing and is a contributor to "How to Write a Mystery," a new craft book from Mystery Writers of America.

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How to Write the Perfect Mystery

Writing advice from the greats of crime fiction.

Writing a good crime novel is difficult, soulful work. These books we love take on some of humanity’s darkest moments, looking for answers, meaning, or just the catharsis of a full recording. Yes, there are pillars of the form—the disappearance, the sleuth, the colorful side characters and suspects, the insistent search for truth. But there’s no magic formula, no instruction guide that can take you chapter by chapter through writing a successful mystery. There is, however, the wisdom of the greats. From Christie to Chandler to the modern-day masters, many of our favorite authors have turned their attention to the craft of the mystery novel. Scouring the books, interviews, letters, and articles of these icons, we’ve assembled a handy guide to writing a great crime/mystery novel. Some of the advice is easier said than followed; other times the ideas are downright contradictory. Take the wisdom in doses, chew it all over and use what works for you. Above all, keep on writing mysteries and we’ll promise to keep on reading them.

GETTING STARTED

Don’t fret about outlines. Don’t over-plan.

“The plans for a detective novel in the making are less like blueprints than like travel notes set down as you once revisited a city. The city had changed since you saw it last. It keeps changing around you. Some of the people you knew there have changed their names. Some of them wear disguises.”

–Ross Macdonald, On Crime Writing (1973)

“At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.”

–Elmore Leonard, “ Making It Up As I Go Along, ” AARP Magazine, (2009)

Remember, you’re never too old to start, although you may be too young.

“A lot of novelists start late—Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you’re young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But novel-writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can’t be taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative-writing courses! The academics don’t know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to write is to buy him a typewriter.”

–James M. Cain, “ The Art of Fiction No. 69 ,” The Paris Review (1978)

Arrange your surroundings. Prepare for contingencies. 

“In my hotel room in Paris I only needed cigarettes, a bottle of scotch, and occasionally a good dish of meat and vegetables cooking on the burner behind me. Writing’s always whetted my appetite.”

–Chester Himes, Interview with Michel Fabre (1983)

FINDING A STORY

Look for a story that would keep a child entertained on a rainy day.

“The writer is like a person trying to entertain a listless child on a rainy afternoon. You set up a card table, and you lay out pieces of cardboard, construction paper, scissors, paste, crayons. You draw a rectangle and you construct a very colorful little fowl and stick it in the foreground, and you say, ‘This is a chicken.’ You cut out a red square and put it in the background and say, ‘This is a barn.’ You construct a bright yellow truck and put it in the background on the other side of the frame and say, ‘This is a speeding truck. Is the chicken going to get out of the way in time? Now you finish the picture.'”

–John D. MacDonald, The Writer (1974)

Collision is good, and retribution is even better.

“The cat sat on the mat is not a story; the cat sat on the dog’s mat is the beginning of an exciting story, and out of that collision, perhaps, there comes a sense of retribution. Now you may call that God, or you may call it the presence of fatalistic forces in society, or you may call it man’s inhumanity to man. But, in the immortal words of P.G. Wodehouse, what it boils down to is that if your character does something wrong, sooner or later if he walks down a dark street, fate will slip out with a stuffed eel-skin and get him.”

–John Le Carré, “ The Writer Who Came in from the Cold ,” BBC/Michael Dean (1974)  

THE CHARACTERS  

Make your characters worth saving, whether you save them or not.

“The more passionately alive the victim, the more glorious indignation I have on his behalf, and am full of delighted triumph when I have delivered a near-victim out of the valley of the shadow of death.”

–Agatha Christie, An Autobiography (1977, posthumous)

Give every character a dose of humanity.

“A man once asked me … how I managed in my books to write such natural conversation between men when they were by themselves. Was I, by any chance, a member of a large, mixed family with a lot of male friends?…I replied that I had coped with this difficult problem by making my men talk, as far as possible, like ordinary human beings. This aspect of the matter seemed to surprise the other speaker; he said no more, but took it away to chew it over. One of these days it may quite likely occur to him that women, as well as men, when left to themselves, talk very much like human beings also.”

–Dorothy L. Sayers,  Are Women Human? Astute and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society

THE SETTING

A good setting may be the spark your story needs

“Something always sparks off a novel, of course. With me, it’s always the setting. I think I have a strong response to what I think of as the ‘spirit of a place.’ I remember I was looking for an idea in East Anglia and standing on a very lonely stretch of beach. I shut my eyes and listened to the sound of the waves breaking over the pebble shore. Then I opened them and turned from looking at the dangerous and cold North Sea to look up and there, overshadowing this lonely stretch of beach was the great, empty, huge white outline of Sizewell nuclear power station. In that moment I knew I had a novel.”

–PD James, “ PD James’ 10 Tips for Writing Novels ,” BBC (2013)  

Hold onto the mood with as little as possible.

“To say little and convey much, to break the mood of the scene with some completely irrelevant wisecrack without entirely losing the mood—these small things for me stand in lieu of accomplishment. My theory of fiction writing … is that the objective method has hardly been scratched, that if you know how to use it you can tell more in a paragraph than the probing writers can tell in a chapter.”

–Raymond Chandler, June 1949 letter to his UK publisher, Hamish Hamilton

Forget set pieces and focus on dialogue and concrete description.

“I may satisfy myself with Richard II or a crime novel and tell all the fancy boys to go to hell, all the subtle-subtle ones that they did us a service by exposing the truth that subtlety is only a technique, and a weak technique at that…all the editorial novelists that they should go back to school and stay there until they can make a story come alive with nothing but dialogue and concrete description: oh, we’ll allow them one chapter of set-piece writing per book, even two, but no more; and finally all the clever-clever darlings with the fluty voices that cleverness, like perhaps strawberries, is a perishable commodity…The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.”

–Raymond Chandler, September 1947 letter to his agent, Helga Greene

Forget about good taste and focus on what the world is really like.

“Many times I’ve been told by people I respect, ‘There’s too much emphasis on race in this book,’ or ‘The government and the police aren’t really like that.’ I am asked not to stand down but to stand back—behind the line of good taste. ‘Books are entertainments,’ I am told. ‘No one wants to hear your ideas about how the world works or what’s wrong with America.’ Of course they don’t. The job of the writer is to take a close and uncomfortable look at the world they inhabit, the world we all inhabit, and the job of the novel is to make the corpse stink.”

–Walter Mosley, “ The Writing Life ,” Washington Post (2005)

REVISION AND EDITING

Cut everything you possibly can, then cut four pages more.

“For all your cutting, there is usually more to come. Cutting becomes more and more painful, more and more difficult. At last you don’t see a single sentence anywhere that can be cut, and then you must say, “Four more whole pages have got to come out of this thing,” and begin again on page one with perhaps a different colored pencil or crayon in hand to make the recounting easier, and be as ruthless as if you were throwing excess baggage, even fuel, out of an overloaded airplane.”

–Patricia Highsmith, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1966)

Identify your favorite sentences and then cut them.

“Just one piece of general advice from a writer has been very useful to me. It was from Colette. I was writing short stories for Le Matin , and Colette was literary editor at that time. I remember I gave her two short stories and she returned them and I tried again and tried again. Finally she said, ‘Look, it is too literary, always too literary.’ So I followed her advice. It’s what I do when I write, the main job when I rewrite…Adjectives, adverbs, and every word which is there just to make an effect. Every sentence which is there just for the sentence. You know, you have a beautiful sentence—cut it. Every time I find such a thing in one of my novels it is to be cut.”

–Georges Simenon, “ The Art of Fiction No. 9 ,” The Paris Review (1955)

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

–Elmore Leonard, “ Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle ,” New York Times (2001)

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6 Rules for Writing Great Mystery Novels

If you love sci-fi thrillers or space murder mysteries, you’ll love reading Mur Lafferty’s  Six Wakes , a genre mash-up that will have you on the edge of your seat. If you’re a writer yourself, Lafferty has six tips that will help you write a great mystery novel, too—and she keeps it interesting by making all of her rules contradictory.

Rule #1: Know your murderer before you start writing.

If you know who your ultimate criminal is, you can write the whole book while posting clues and red herrings throughout because you know exactly where you’re going.

Rule #2: Don’t know your murderer before you start writing.

Take an ensemble cast, give them all a motive for committing the murder(s). Make sure they all have opportunities to interact with the victim(s). When you get to your climax and you can see that everyone still would have had the chance to be the murderer, then you choose someone.

Rule #3: Your hero should have some flaws.

While the alcoholic detective who is terrible with women is somewhat of a cliche, the truth is you do need to have a character who has their own internal demons to fight as they solve the murders externally. It makes them much more relatable and adds layers of conflict to your story.

Rule #4: Your hero should be infallible.

Before you tell me that this won’t work, let me go and fetch the sales numbers for Agatha Christie,  the world’s bestselling author of all time.  Murder on the Orient Express  sold 3 million copies— in 1974 alone . Anyway, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot can be said to have flaws like, um, Poirot is full of himself—but it’s not hubris because he’s  right  when he says he’s the world’s greatest detective.

Rule #5: Mysteries have a formula; follow it.

Lay the suspects, make your detective be the one to solve the case, kill the victim in the first third of the story. If you break these rules, the reader won’t trust you.

Rule #6: Break all the rules.

One book title for you:  The Murder of Roger Akroyd . The narrator—the first person POV watching Poirot investigate Ackroyd’s murder—is revealed to be the murderer.

Mur Lafferty is a writer, podcast producer, gamer, runner, and geek. She is the host of the podcast I Should Be Writing and the co-host of Ditch Diggers . She is the winner of the 2013 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She is addicted to computer games, Zombies, Run!, and Star Wars LEGO. She lives in Durham, NC with her husband and daughter.

Mur Lafferty

In this Hugo nominated science fiction thriller by Mur Lafferty, a crew of clones awakens aboard a space ship to find they’re being hunted-and any one of them could be the killer. Maria Arena awakens in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood. She has no memory of how she died. This is new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died. Maria’s vat is one of seven, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship  Dormire , each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so it can awaken. And Maria isn’t the only one to die recently. . . Unlock the bold new science fiction thriller that Corey Doctorow calls Mur’s “breakout book”.

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 31, 2017. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

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How to Write a Mystery or Crime Novel: 8 Tips for Writing Crime Fiction

Krystal N. Craiker

Crime fiction is a leading genre, and readers love the intrigue and suspense of a good mystery.

But writing crime fiction can be daunting. You must leave clues, create captivating characters, build tension, and have a believable villain and crime.

Today, we're giving you our top eight tips on how to write a crime novel.

What Is Crime Writing?

What is mystery writing, 8 tips for writing mystery or crime fiction.

Crime writing is a genre of fiction in which the main plot conflict revolves around a crime.

Crime fiction encompasses many subgenres, including police procedurals, psychological thrillers, and cozy mysteries.

The difference between subgenres depends on the level of violence described, setting, and types of characters, but they all have crime as the driving force.

There are three types of mysteries within the crime genre:

• Whodunits are traditional mysteries in which the perpetrator is hidden until the end. Think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.
• Howdunits focus on the "how" of the crime. These are police procedurals and detective stories where the protagonist tracks down the perpetrator. Famous writers in this subgenre are Joseph Wambaugh and Michael Connelly.
• Whydunits focus on the motivation of the perpetrator. This genre shifts the focus from law enforcement to the criminal, who functions as the protagonist. Examples are Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and many of Elmore Leonard’s criminal novel depictions.

The mystery genre is, for all intents and purposes, synonymous with crime fiction. Mystery is a major component of any crime story.

It is possible to have a mystery novel that does not involve a crime, such as uncovering a secret identity, but these are very rare.

Other genres may include a mystery as a secondary plot, but that doesn't make them part of the crime genre. The mystery must be the main plotline in order to be classified as a mystery or crime novel.

There are many elements to consider when writing crime fiction, so we've broken down the most important steps into eight easy tips.

1. Choose Your Crime

Crime novels feature a variety of crimes, which keeps the genre fresh and exciting.

You could go with a classic murder mystery or serial-killer story. There are heists, organized crime, kidnappings, blackmail, extortion, trafficking, and more.

First, choose your crime. As this is the primary source of conflict in your book, it's important to have the crime first and foremost in your planning.

Once you decide what type of crime your novel is about, plan more of the details. Where did the crime take place? Who was the victim?

You should consider whether it's a locked-room mystery, where the crime seemed impossible to commit, or whether there are multiple leads for your protagonist to follow.

2. Profile Your Villain

Police and other agencies often have criminal profilers. They create a profile for likely demographics, upbringings, and motivations. For your novel, you must become the profiler.

It's important to plan your villain(s) in a crime novel well. The mystery is only as interesting as the character committing the crime. But you must do so in a way that makes sense.

If your villain is pure evil, it can be hard to "humanize" them and make them feel real. If you go down the route of the twisted psychopath, they must have intriguing features to draw readers in.

Maybe there's an extra disturbing element to the crime scene, or maybe they play mind games with the detective.

But most criminals aren't evil, they are human. In fiction, this makes them just as interesting because readers like to see relatable elements, even in a villain.

Start with your villain's motives, then work backward. Ask yourself, why did they commit this particular crime? Give them a solid backstory and plenty of character flaws and character strengths.

3. Know Your Characters Inside and Out

Crime stories must have interesting characters besides the villain, too. In a mystery, the protagonist is the main character in the investigation.

They might be in law enforcement, a private investigator, or even an amateur detective.

The protagonist must have a strong motivation for wanting to solve the case. They will also need some internal conflict that holds them back or causes them to slip up during the story. Overcoming this internal conflict is important for a good character arc .

There should also be a cast of compelling characters who support the protagonist. Understanding how each of them connects to the mystery will help guide you as you plan conflicts and subplots.

Some subgenres have expected character archetypes. For example, cozy mysteries feature amateur sleuths and quirky side characters.

Most hard-boiled mysteries with a law enforcement protagonist feature a demanding superior officer and a nerdy scientist.

4. Research for a Realistic Crime

The details of criminal activity fascinate readers who love crime novels. They expect a crime novel to feel realistic. Researching the type of crime in the story is especially important for mystery writers.

The internet is a great starting point, but there are many other ways to find answers to those hard-to-search questions. Here are some other places you can find research material:

• Detective memoirs
• Specialty social media groups or accounts, like "Trauma Fiction" on Facebook
• News stories of similar crimes
• Interviews with experts
• True-crime documentaries

You can also find a research librarian at your local library to help you find great sources.

The more details you know about the crime in your novel, the more realistic your writing will be, even if they don't all make it into the final draft.

5. Decide on Your Sub-Plots

Mysteries are exciting, but they are just one external conflict in a story. A crime novel should have subplots that help drive the story along.

Romance is a common subplot in crime fiction. Family issues, career turning points, or a nemesis colleague can also form smaller conflicts and subplots.

Get creative and find subplots that match your genre but also feel fresh and exciting.

You'll also need a strong internal conflict , as we mentioned previously. Your protagonist needs to undergo character growth in the story so readers feel connected.

Your external conflicts do not necessarily need to be tied to the crime, but the mystery should drive your protagonist's character arc .

The case should teach them something or force them to overcome something.

6. Plan Your Clues

No mystery is complete without really great clues. But throwing in random clues as you write can feel inauthentic and trite.

It's a good idea to spend some time planning your clues before you start writing—even if you aren't much of a plotter .

Once you have researched the crime and know everything about how it happens in your book, you will have plenty of fodder for clues.

Start at the beginning. What clues will be immediately revealed to the detective or sleuth?

These are clues that are present at the scene of the crime, like suspects, blood splatter, broken locks, and dropped belongings.

Then plan the clues your protagonist will discover as the story goes on. They might come from forensic analysis or lab information.

Clues will also appear as your protagonist interviews witnesses and suspects, or as they dig into the victim's back story.

You should also plan a final clue that makes everything "click" for the protagonist. This is the last piece of the puzzle to discover the who/why/how of the crime.

7. Build Tension with Plot Twists

One of the best parts of crime fiction is the plot twist. Plot twists keep readers guessing. It can feel disappointing if the story unfolds in a way that is too easy to figure out.

Plot twists also build tension. Sometimes this tension will come in the form of your protagonist being certain of a lead, only to have it result in a dead end.

Other times, the usual suspects are ruled out, only to be brought back in as suspects at the end.

Red herrings are a common but exciting way to add tension to a mystery.

A red herring is a clue that is placed in a story to mislead or distract the readers. Adding multiple red herrings will make readers even more surprised when the truth comes out.

Avoid the deus ex machina , however.

This is an easy solution to the crime that appears out of nowhere. It does the opposite of building tension and feels clichéd.

8. Outline Your Story

It's a good idea to have a basic outline before you start writing because there are so many important details in a crime novel.

One outline method you can use is to modify the Hero's Journey . Here are what the stages of your story would look like:

• Establish the detective and crime.
• Set up the story.
• Show reluctance of the protagonist.
• First attempt to solve the case.
• Establish facts and create urgency.
• Broaden the scope of the crime and investigation.
• Deepen the detective’s backstory.
• Establish the big change where the detective realizes they're on the wrong track.
• Reveal the criminal’s motive.
• Find the mistake or missing piece of the investigation.
• Solve the crime.

You can also use other plotting methods like a Save the Cat! beat sheet, a Story Circle, or the snowflake method.

Be sure to include the clues that you planned in your outline. This will help them feel logical to the story and serve the overall mystery.

Writing crime fiction doesn't have to be overwhelming. With solid research and deliberate planning, you can write the next great mystery novel.

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Krystal N. Craiker is the Writing Pirate, an indie romance author and blog manager at ProWritingAid. She sails the seven internet seas, breaking tropes and bending genres. She has a background in anthropology and education, which brings fresh perspectives to her romance novels. When she’s not daydreaming about her next book or article, you can find her cooking gourmet gluten-free cuisine, laughing at memes, and playing board games. Krystal lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, child, and basset hound.

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How to Write Mystery Novels

Last Updated: January 26, 2022

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 16 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 47,257 times.

Mystery stories have been spooking children and adults alike for many years! Haunted houses, crimes, ghosts...it's all mystery in the end! If you've always been into mystery, you might be considering writing a mystery novel yourself. This can take time and a lot of effort though! So think about your schedule before you buckle down to write!

• Name, Age, Height, Weight, Role in Story, Eye color, Hair color, Skin tone, Habits, Identifying feature, Past, Present, Future, and Theme Song.

• If you get stuck on finding a plot, read some of your favorite mystery novels to get ideas. Also, keep your eyes and ears open for new ideas and topics to write about.
• Use a system of ten scenes to map out your plot. Write each scene separately and connect them with pages in between. Scene one should be an opening scene. Two through four should be complications, and five should be point of no return complication. Six through ten should be solutions and wrap ups.

Sample Mysteries

Community Q&A

• Set a time each day aside for just writing, not surfing the web or checking email, just writing. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Take your time and don't rush through it! Some of the best novels take a year to write at least ! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Things You'll Need

• Imagination
• Pen and paper/Computer

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