Month: April 2016

Clue, Clue, Who’s Got the Clue, or How to Sneak Your Way to a Good Mystery

~ janispattersonmysteries ~ 6 Comments

by Janis Patterson

Writing a mystery means walking a very fine line.

You want to play fair with the reader and give him the chance to solve the mystery. Sort of.

Readers love to play along and see if they can match/beat your sleuth to the correct solution. In almost every case (so said because there is an exception to everything) nothing makes readers angrier than the solution just coming out of the blue with nothing leading up to it. Worse than that, it’s lazy writing.

So how do you do play fair and still mystify the reader?

Be sneaky.

Put your clues out there, but make them appear to be inconsequential, throw-away things that have no relation to the case. Also put out fake clues leading to a different conclusion (some call them red herrings, but I don’t like fish), but put them out in two ways – some as inconsequentials and some as great big whacking things that might as well have CLUE in blinking neon above them.

No one said you had to play completely fair, did they?

There’s also a traditional ploy called a MacGuffin. Sounds sort of like it should be some kind of fast food, but it’s real – trust me. The MacGuffin is a lovely tool of misdirection. That’s the word I’ve been looking for – misdirection! Just like a magician, you direct the reader’s attention in one direction with one hand while the other hand – in semi-plain view – is actually doing the trick, but no one is really looking at it.

Anyway, the MacGuffin is what everyone in the book seems to want – such as everyone believes the vicar was murdered in a foiled robbery attempt to steal an ancient chalice. All the characters go rushing around trying to figure out who wanted to steal the chalice and why, while the vicar was really murdered because his tulips were certain to win the annual flower show away from the Grande Dame of the village who dislikes losing. The chalice is only a MacGuffin. Now that’s an extremely simplistic example, but in reality the MacGuffin is one of the best tools in the mystery writer’s arsenal.

MacGuffins and misdirection – use them well, and you will keep your reader happily amused and hopefully confused. Or is it the other way around?

(For those with very good memories, you know I wrote this blog several years ago. I am reposting it now because (1) it is still true and relevant and (2) for several days before this appears and for several days after I am up to my earlobes in a very intense professional conference. It seemed better to share a ‘golden oldie’ than to just cobble together something or skip posting entirely. Hope you understand. Also, because I will not have my computer available, please forgive if I am not able to okay comments until this madness is over. I promise I will then!)

A Gun in the Hands of a Woman by Paty Jager

~ patyjag ~ 3 Comments

revolverI’ve had to research what type of revolver would be best for a woman to use for my murder mystery series. While Shandra knows how to handle a rifle from growing up on a large ranch, she’s never felt the need for a handgun for protection.

My male protagonist believes Shandra needs a weapon for protection and gives her one of his hand guns and lessons. When the need to arm Shandra came up I went to law enforcement professionals and asked them what would be a good revolver for a woman. These are their answers.

The main thing they all said was she would have to train often with the weapon. It was wholeheartedly stated that if a person doesn’t train with a weapon, especially a handgun, they won’t be ready to use it if necessary. Also by practicing and using the gun often, they can tell by the weight if the weapon is loaded or not and know how to take it off safety without thinking about it. I agree with this. By the end of the summer when I’ve been shooting the sage rats on our property, I can take the .22 off the safety without thinking about it. But each spring when I start shooting, I fumble with the button trying to remember which is safe and which isn’t. I agree with the shoot often to get comfortable with the weapon.

Another common comment was if the person is untrained in loading and shooting there is more chance of accidents happening.

By using the weapon often the shooter also develops habits. These habits will let the person know if they left the revolver loaded or if it’s empty.

By looking at a revolver you can’t tell if it is loaded or not. Because they don’t eject the empty shells automatically. And only an experienced shooter knows to open the cylinder and inspect for dimples on the ends of the shells.

Another thing to think about when putting a revolver in the hands of a woman is how large are her hands. Some weapons have stock grips that can change out for smaller or larger grips to fit the hands better.  Some don’t. It’s not just the size of the grip that needs to be checked. Can her fingers reach the trigger while holding the pistol/revolver correctly. The index finger must be able to bend  and pull the trigger.  It is essential that a person handles several guns and finds the one that is most comfortable for their hands.

These are models that were suggested if the woman has small hands:

Smith & Wesson (S&W) J-Frames (Model-36 Chief’s Special and Model-36 LadySmith, 442, 638, 642, 60LS, 640LS, etc.)

Taurus models 650, 850, 651, 605, 85

Charter Arms Undercover, Undercoverette

Ruger SP-101, LCR

If she has larger hands, she could use something like:

S&W model 10, 64, 66, 67, 686

Taurus model 65, 66, 82

Charter Arms Bulldog, Pug

Ruger GP-100
In the end after doing all my research, I didn’t name what type of revolver Ryan gave Shandra to protect herself.

I’ve only shot a pistol before and rely on that experience when writing scenes involving my character shooting. That and gleaning all the information I can from people who know more about weapons.

The fifth book of the Shandra Higheagle Mystery Series is available in ebook and print.

Killer DescentKiller Descent

Book five in the Shandra Higheagle Mysteries

Abuse…Power…Murder

Once again Shandra Higheagle finds herself a suspect in a murder investigation when an ex-lover is found murdered on a Huckleberry ski run. A past she’d planned to never divulge now must be shared with the first man she’s trusted, Detective Ryan Greer.

Ryan puts his job in jeopardy when he’s booted from the case and uses all resources plus a few extra to prove Shandra is innocent. The information leads them down a road of blackmail and betrayal of the ugliest kind.

http://www.patyjager.net/mystery.html

paty shadow (1)Award-winning author Paty Jager and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon.All Paty’s work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Her Shandra Higheagle Mystery series, set in a fictional ski resort in Idaho, is full of quirky characters, twists, turns, and a bit of mysticism.

You can learn more about Paty at:

blog / website /  Facebook / Paty’s Posse / Goodreads / Twitter

 

Where the bodies are buried

~ sandyfairfax ~ 10 Comments

By Sally Carpenter

On the day of Nancy Reagan’s funeral at the presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., I opened a second screen on my computer at work and during the service peeked in from time to time to check out the proceedings.

At the end of the lengthy service, the honor guard carried the casket outside and placed it on a pedestal. In my experience attending funerals in the Midwest, I was expecting the casket to be lowered into the ground next to the president’s resting place. Instead, the broadcast coverage ended with the casket still sitting outside in the rain.

How odd, I thought. Did the network run out of airtime or was the casket going to be buried later? In my research, I found the same situation happened at Ronald Reagan’s service as well—the internment of his casket was not shown to the public.

As a mystery writer, such things intrigue me.

Turns out, showing the actual entombment of Mr. Reagan’s casket would not be practical. First, the casket was placed in a bronze-lined vault inside a crypt. The casket and vault together weighed 4,000 pounds, and heavy machinery was needed to move both. The noise and sight of such a machine would hardly inspire a reverent atmosphere. Then workers replaced the earth over the crypt and installed a concrete walkway, not the stuff most people would care to watch.

 Mr. Reagan’s crypt was sealed at 3 a.m. with only some Secret Service agents along with library and mortuary personnel on hand. The Reagan family had left hours before.

 Mrs. Reagan’s casket, also no doubt placed in a heavy vault, was entombed in the crypt alongside her husband’s. A friend told me that Nancy’s casket was taken back inside the library, placed on an elevator, and transported several levels down to the crypt, which apparently has an underground entrance. That made sense. Lowering in the casket from topside would involve tearing up the concrete flooring on which Mr. Reagan’s headstone sits.

 While this sounds like much ado, vaults and a crypt are good from a security standpoint to protect the bodies from vandals attempting to dig or blow up the gravesite.

 Simi Valley has another interesting burial story. A few years ago the El Rancho Pioneer Cemetery came under fire when a family discovered a loved one had been buried in the wrong grave, and that the site management may have been double- or triple-booking plots to families.

 Other cities have tales of coffins floating away during heavy rains. Or an earthquake uprooting bodies. And I recall reading of a plan in a particular city to move bodies from a cemetery to make way for a development project.

 A mystery writer doesn’t let the dead rest in peace. Interesting burials and missing bodies are the stuff of a good story.