Step 1: A Puzzle Appears

Every mystery story can be boiled down to the following four steps.

1. A Puzzle Appears
2. A Curious Sleuth begins their quest
3. Sleuth discovers Clues and Setbacks
4. Sleuth reveals the Truth

All mystery stories should open with a question, one that is important enough for the readers to keep reading to the end.

I’m going to assume you’re writing a crime mystery, so the puzzle here will be the crime itself.

Motives for Crime

The motive is key. The antagonist needs to have a good reason for committing the crime. Committing a crime (let alone murder) is extremely risky. There’s a lot at stake.

In general, people don’t simply ‘go bad’ and do evil things. For some reason, they believe it’s necessary to commit the crime in order to save themselves.

A few motives for murder

Readers want criminals (e.g., murderers) to have a good reason for committing a crime. Psychopaths and sociopaths often kill ‘just because’ or for the ‘fun of it.’ However, those aren’t satisfying reasons to readers. Similarly, ideological reasons (racists, terrorists) are one-dimensional. Give readers some complexity–give them multiple clues to unravel a complicated scheme.

Note: if you’re writing a cozy mystery, the motives are typically simpler and less dark.

Love

affair with a married person
infidelity
eliminate romantic rival
revenge for domestic abuse

Power

revenge for a perceived wrong
sabotaging others for personal gain
power struggle (executives, family, politicians)
silencing a blackmailer

Money

mugging gone wrong

cheating to win a prize
financial gain (inheritance, insurance)
eliminating a lender

Fear

covering up legally incriminating information
hiding a secret to protect one’s reputation
eliminating a whistleblower

When does the crime occur?

When does the crime occur relative to the beginning of your story? You have three choices, each with their own pros and cons.

Crime occurs in the first scene

A crime (e.g. murder) in the first scene in your story is a hook that captures your readers’ interest. Many cop shows on TV use this technique to keep viewers from flipping the channel.

Depending on how you write the murder scene, you may or may not reveal the criminal. Revealing the criminal gives the reader information the sleuth does not (and allows us to focus on their skills to learn the truth). Hiding the criminal from the reader allows the reader to play along with the sleuth to uncover the true killer.

You’ll want to be mindful of how much information you give the reader, as that might give them an advantage over the sleuth.

Crime occurs before story begins

In this case, the crime occurs “off stage.” Often these stories begin by introducing the sleuth just before they’re informed of the crime.

Here, the reader and sleuth start with exactly the same information (zero) about the case. The reader gets to participate in learning about all the clues at the same time as the sleuth.

Crime occurs after the story begins

In these stories, readers are introduced to all the characters (suspects) first, and then the crime is committed.

While this is a slower start, it allows readers (who know a crime is about to take place) to observe the suspects and their relationships with one another.

This is the classic setup of the whodunnit, where guests assemble, interact, and one of them kills another.

If the sleuth is among the group, the reader and sleuth are both privy to the interactions among the suspects. If the sleuth is called in later, they need to interview the suspects, which might bore a reader, since they are already aware of those interactions.

move on to Step 2 where the sleuth begins her investigation

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