Mystery Stories

Reading a good mystery lets us meet interesting, engaging characters while we try to wrap our minds around the challenging clues and twists that reveal the story’s secret.  While many mystery stories focus on a detective trying to solve a crime, others explore different types of secrets.  A mystery story could follow the adventures of a detective on the trail of a serial killer, or it could tell the tale of a woman uncovering the truth about her family’s secret history.  Some mystery stories cross over into the horror or fantasy genre by adding supernatural elements, and some even tell the story from the point of view of the perpetrator.  The one thing all mystery stories have in common, however, is that they keep their readers full of suspense.

Writing Mystery Stories

1. Who is your main character?  Are they a seasoned detective who always solves the crime?  Are they a young investigator starting off on their first case?  Are they a young woman who accidentally sees a crime being committed?
2. What is the mystery?  What is the solution to the mystery?  You need to have this in mind before you start writing so that you can plant clever clues for your main character and your reader.  If you have a clear vision of what the mystery is and how the mystery should be solved, you’ll have a better idea of what hints, clues, and twists to include as you tell your story.
3. What does your character know about the mystery?  Did they see it happen, but don’t know who did it?  Do they have the fingerprints and the weapon, but no idea who they belong to?  Do they have a hunch about the crime or mystery that they just can’t explain?  Remember, your reader needs to know everything that your main character knows about the mystery so that they can try to solve the mystery, too.
4. What complicates this mystery?  Does some of the evidence go missing before it can be examined?  Does the detective have the wrong suspect?  Did the witness not see what they thought they saw?  You need to provide your reader with the same clues that the main character gets, but you can still shift or change what that evidence means as the story goes on.  You want to keep your main character – and your reader – on their toes.
5. How does the main character crack the case?  Was the answer so obvious that the main character overlooked it?  Did a surprising revelation toward the end give the main character the final hint that they needed?  Remember, you want to provide enough clues so that your reader can solve the crime too.  If the main character solves the crime by seeing the answer in a vision or by having someone confess, the reader might feel let down that they didn’t get to put the mystery together like a puzzle.

Example of a Mystery Story:

“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl - [ Click HERE for LINK ]