The Mystery Suspect Craft You Need for a Professional Novel

When you begin your mystery, you set up a puzzle for your detective and the reader to solve. Every suspect is a clue in your mystery. And, like any evidence or clue you have the power to control how the reader perceives them.

The mystery writer’s craft relies on your ability to present suspects that raise questions.

• Is he as innocent as he appears?
• Is she as malevolent as she appears?
• Is he lying?
• What is she leaving out?
• Why is she diverting the conversation?
• Is this action a possible clue?
• Is her proclamation a red herring?
• Is this one the murderer?

The more questions you raise about each suspect, the more puzzling your mystery. That question creation is the base of the mystery writer’s craft.

Thriller writer Jeff Elkins, discovered how much planning a mystery required.

When I tackled writing my first mystery two years ago, I was shocked at how different the process was from writing a general thriller. Even though I’d already published six novels, I was surprised at how much preparation and planning writing a detective story took. (Source: thewritepractice.com)

So, practicing your puzzle creation mystery writing craft will help you keep your reader guessing.

Suspects and Clues

Good characters feel like real people, possibly people your reader has met. They are three-dimensional and hard to fathom.

Use your suspects as clues. Create suspects that create clues as part of their “natural” action in your mystery. Because your suspect’s actions are tied to their personality, their actions create stronger clues than just evidence like fingerprints, hidden letters, or a bloody knife.

These suspect clues automatically raise questions for your reader.

For example:

• What your suspect says points to another suspect
• Your suspect’s demeanor with the sleuth can be a clue or a red herring
• A suspect inadvertently reveals a clue
• A suspect deliberately misdirects your sleuth
• A suspect collaborates with another suspect
• A suspect commits a crime that seems related to the murder
• A suspect avoids your sleuth
• The suspect lies about their relationship to the victim
• Their relationship to the victim was negative

Lead your reader to believe in each suspect’s personality. Share their outer goals.

Certain writers are adept at creating suspects as clues. Anne Cleeves, Elizabeth George, P.D. James, all keep the reader involved with deep characters who aren’t what they seem.

Reading these authors will give you insight into how character development can build tension in a mystery puzzle.

These characters add to the suspense because of the questions they raise.

Character First and Then Clues

As you plan your mystery, work in character to development with notes on how each suspect character provides clues and hides clues.

Jeff Elkin, makes a spreadsheet for each clue. He notes which suspect is attached to the clue and when the clue appears in the story.

You can go either way. I create those clue notes in the character bible because I am spreadsheet averse. But a spreadsheet might be just the answer you need.

If you use Plottr, you can create a separate line for clues in the outline, so you know when each clue appears and in what scene.

Which measure you choose is up to you. But planning where you plant clues will help you spread them out throughout your mystery.

And, connecting a clue with a suspect will feel organic to your reader.

Readers will build an emotional connection to the suspect. They may love or hate them. You can play with that emotional response to highlight or hide clues to the main story.

Your Mystery Novel Depends on Suspect Clues

Planning ahead will help you develop strong suspects and assure that you plant clues evenly throughout your mystery novel.

Write A Killer Mystery is the course designed to help writers develop their mystery-writing craft.

Photo by Sam Moqadam on Unsplash

Originally published at https://zaraaltair.com on August 23, 2021.