short detective story essays

Short Stories

Detective stories, intriguing tales of mystery & suspense….

In the tradition of the original Strand Magazine (1891-1950), The Strand features a wide array of stories reminiscent of the Golden Age of crime writing, from cozy whodunits to hard-boiled detective stories, suspenseful thrillers to humorous mysteries, set in a variety of places from Victorian England to turn of the century Prague to modern day England, and written by the leading authors of our day, including Michael Connelly , Jeffery Deaver , Ray Bradbury, Alexander McCall Smith, R.L. Stine, John Mortime r, Faye Kellerman, and Matthew Pearl. We have also published unpublished works by Mark Twain , James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Cornel Woolrich , Agatha Christie , and Graham Greene.

The Sequel by Jeffery Deaver A novella about a lost manuscript from a tortured genius and a conspiracy that leads to murder.

My Hobby by Tom Fabian Mr. George Blake is a kind, distinguished gentleman, with a very unusual hobby…he kills people.

A Guid Soldier by Charles Todd A detective story set against the backdrop of World War I, by one of the most talented writing duos active today.

Blood Lines By Dennis Palumbo An aging don can’t trust anyone, he can count on his ruthless skills to manipulate all of those around him, but there is a new wind–which signals the end of the old man’s powers.

A Favorable Favor By Brendan Dubois K.C. Dunbar uses her wits to solve a complex case in rural New Hampshire.

No Place to Park by Alexander McCall Smith What happens when a mystery writers world suddenly involves more crime and intrigue than even he can imagine?

Most Sincerely Mine by Jonathan Gash Lovejoy is on the case again in this art mystery that is one of the three Lovejoy detective stories we published in the Strand.

Possibilities by Bill Pronzini A suspicious neighbor, a hound, and a missing spouse make for a thriling-comic mystery.

Smiles by Alexander McCall Smith A thrilling tale by the best-selling author of the The Number One Ladies Detective Agency.

The Great Man by James Dorr A tale of horror set in revolutionary France…

Artistic License by Edward Marston An elderly lady tries to sell an expensive painting to a very shrewd gallery store owner in London…

The Case of the Accursed Cairene by Verbena Pastor Dr. Soloman Meisl sets to uncover a web of treachery and murder that started years before in Egypt…

The Disappearance of Daniel Question by Barrie Roberts Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson attempt once more to crack the mystery of James Philimore’s disappearance…

The Cheating Wife by Tom Pacheco A private eye gets more than he bargained for when he investigates a cheating wife…

Wisteria Lodge By H.R.F. Keating A medical student gets more than he bargains for during a visit to a ill-tempered relative…

M. Pamplemousse and the Final Rendering by Michael Bond Hotel and Restaurant guide reviewer Aristide Pamplemousse treats his colleagues to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where he looks back on a case of a culinary genius who was part of the main course!

The Perfectionist by Peter Lovesey A very fastidious man is invited to a very exclusive clubs, a club where every member has committed the perfect crime…

Second Fiddle by Edward Marston Success has always eluded the concert violinist Jeremy Bakewell, who sees murder as his only chance left…

Do You Believe in Ghosts? By H.R.F. Keating A nasty tale with a surprise ending revolves around a group of people around a fireplace discussing ghosts and other sinister things…

Uncle Auguste By Andrew Allen Leonard gets more than he bargained for when he makes a very generous offer to buy a very interesting painting.

No Sherlock Holmes? I could put that right for you!

Thank you a lot for giving everyone remarkably marvellous chance to read critical reviews from this website. It can be very ideal and also stuffed with a good time for me and my office colleagues to visit your site on the least 3 times a week to learn the latest things you have got. Of course, I’m also always motivated with the maigeficnnt creative ideas you serve. Selected 1 facts in this posting are without a doubt the most impressive I’ve ever had.

Great stories !!

they all sound so good i don’t know which one to read

Short Detective Story Essay (Critical Writing)

The detective did not look like the gumshoes from old dime-store novels.

He was a lot thinner and he wore a close-fitting bodysuit rather than a raincoat. He was, however, just as focused on getting his man and finding the facts as Sherlock Holmes ever was. However, he was always plagued by a sense of not quite knowing why he needed to find this or that man, or this or that fact. He was not, in fact, sure he was working for.

He was drawn to following perfectly ordinary men and women who appeared to have little background, and no history. Whatever their crime, it was subtle. They seemed to crop up in large cities, slightly off-kilter in dress and speech, youngish, handsome or pretty beyond the norm, and a bit credulous and naïve in their behavior at times. He had watched in horror more than once when one of these targets of investigation had turned over his or her suitcase or watch to an obvious street criminal and thereby were neatly robbed.

Clearly, these folks were not themselves pickpockets; they were just too innocent. They were also too often seized by waves of racking, hacking coughs after taking huge, enthusiastic lungs full of the city air. They seemed to have no fixed addresses, but found themselves bunking with one person after another, sometimes for a day, other times for longer, and then moving on.

He followed them assiduously, and noted their movements in his pocket computer. From time to time, he sent a report to an address through the computer with no identifying information and always felt better afterwards. Then the compulsion would return. Find the folks who look like they don’t belong, and follow them. There was nothing else in his life, and, as a matter of fact, he could not remember a life or a time before this job, this pursuit. No childhood, adolescence, no family, no loves lost or gained; just find the folks and follow them.

One late summer day, he located a small group of them in a hollow of ground in the main city park, surrounded by trees and quite out of view of passersby. If he had not been tracking one of them, he would never have found them. They shared that look of not being comfortable in their clothes, and the habit of gazing at perfectly ordinary objects such as pigeons, squirrels, trees, bushes, grass, and especially the occasional hawk or falcon with rapt appreciation. They also were all wearing sunglasses and long sleeves, in spite of the heat.

They were now directing their attention to, of all things, a pile of sticks, which they were adding to diligently. On the ground nearby were several bags of what looked like groceries, perhaps from the delicatessen that was close to the park entrance. To his astonishment, when one of the peculiar folk opened the bag, he could see that, indeed, the bag contained, of all things, some sort of sausages, nested together like pink snakes.

His surprise was so great that he made an unplanned move, and the branches around him rustled loudly. The group around the pile of sticks looked up, and he felt he needed to withdraw immediately to avoid detection. Imagine a detective being spotted – imagine the irony. He made no report, being too bemused even to conjecture at what was happening.

The next time he encountered any sizable number of them was when the autumn winds were blowing and the darkness was descending earlier and earlier. Again, it was outdoors, in a largely empty lot just on the river bank. This area had never been developed into condominiums or casinos or yacht clubs.

Only a few car carcasses blocked the wind, and he hid behind one of them. In the blowing, cloud-tossing dusk, a circle of people was gathering. In the center of the circle was a pile; again, a pile. And the circle was growing as more and more folk arrived, as if from thin air. Each one carried a handful of something, something that did not weigh them down, but something clearly treasured.

At a certain point: he could not have differentiated it from any other, there was a spark, and suddenly, a fire! The scent of burning leaves filled the air with a sharp and biting tang. He took out his hand-held computer and started describing the crowd, and the now-dancing fire in rapid, concise text.

Almost immediately, he found himself in a blindingly white room, along with the entire crowd that had last been surrounding the fire with grave and loving attention. He was standing before an authoritative looking fellow, who was inexplicable beaming at him.

“Well done! You nabbed them!”

“Who?” asked the detective.

“The time fugitives” said the other man, with a note of deep distaste. “They weren’t content with the domes, the recycled air, the recycled food, the unvarying light and temperature, and the behavioral constraints here in this century, and so they have to take their nasty perversions back in time and pollute in the past.”

“How? Why?” babbled the detective, thoroughly lost in this discussion.

“Oh, of course, you’re still in your 22 nd century persona. Here, let me switch you over to present time.” He tapped out a command on the detective’s mobile computer, which was still clutched in his sweaty hand, and suddenly, the detective’s head whirled. As though a foggy window had cleared, he recognized the other as his supervisor, Sterling, in the Temporal Special Crimes Unit. When he turned to look at the crowd of people from the empty lot, the fire-starters, he realized that many were the same as he had seen in August, preparing, he now realized, to start a fire in the park glen, and, yes, they were going to roast wieners. That was it. They were holding a – what was that term – a “barbecue”, and in a location where it was not, strictly speaking, allowed, for forest fire prevention reasons. But where else could they have staged a “barbecue”? In his 25 th century mind, the mere word gave him shudders of revulsion and terror. Polluting the domes, polluting the air, eating animal flesh; horrible ideas!

And, just a few moments ago, what had they been preparing for in that deserted, chilly lot? A – again the memory of the term came to him from an official glossary, probably in his training manual – a “bonfire”.

And again, with returning understanding, welled up the sense of horror.

He looked around him. These individuals had not been willing to accommodate themselves to the constrained life of their own century. They could not accept the limitations of their post-holocaust world. They never got used to the precious and many-times re-used air, water, and essential proteins, all sequestered in the dome and protected from the toxic human-generated nightmare outside.

No, they wanted to breathe unfiltered air, and eat animal flesh seared over a flame, and, burn things for no reason but to smell the perfume and incense of autumn.

Thinking back to the scurrying clouds and the smell of cold and the sweet smoke rising from the tiny fire, he thought maybe, just maybe, he could understand why they went to the effort of time travel and secretive burnings of meat, wood, and leaves. But he was not going to share that opinion any time soon. He grasped the returning memories that were even now washing away the artificial life history that had served him adequately back in the past as a detective in 22 nd century North America,

He straightened up, and summoning his most official voice, said, “You have the right to remain silent…” Just then, the door opened. An even more imposing fellow walked through, this one surrounded by bodyguards.

“Well done! You’ve finally returned.”

“You spotted their aberrant behavior and triggered the temporal return mechanism. It was strictly against the law to build bonfires back in the 25 th century due to the ongoing atmospheric deterioration. Luckily, that problem has been solved with today’s technology.” said one of the man’s bodyguards.

“How? Why?” asked the detective, once again thoroughly lost.

“Oh, of course, you’re still in your 25 th century mind. Allow me to brief you on what has changed in the last century.”

The detective shook his head. He was just now getting used to the idea that time travel was possible, and he was not sure how much more he could accept in the way of revelations. He had just seen his 22 nd (or was it 21 st ?) century self disappear like a bathtub ring down the drain.

The imposing fellow jabbed a finger at the screen of his mobile computer, and the image of a folder opened up in front of them and rested on his lap.

“An aircraft of unknown origin crashed into the Brooks mountain range of Alaska in 1944. Military forces rushed in to lock down the whole area and the survivors were determined to be of non-terrestrial origin. We’ve kept those we rescued in a special facility ever since.”

Several holograms of the crash site and the survivors popped up out of the virtual folder and hung between them, glimmering slightly at the edges. The apparently human figures were, to all appearances, about 24 years of age, and very attractive by the standards of 1944. And, the detective observed to himself, the standards of the 25 th century, as well.

“Over time, as we observed them in their containment facility, we started to realize they age at a much slower rate than we do. Scientists at the time of the crash had no knowledge of DNA, but as soon as the implications of Watson and Crick’s work with chromosomes dawned on them, the ETs were tested genetically.

Even by the late 1960s, we could tell that there were slight variations in their DNA composition. They look just like us and it is nearly impossible to distinguish visually between a regular human and those biological entities. Unless”, he added, “you can stare at them for 20 years or so, as their initial observers did, growing gray and wrinkled while the ETs stayed vibrantly youthful.

The ETs also seemed to be able to time travel, even without their damaged ship. We have not ever figured out the knack, but the genetic differences probably explain a great deal.”

“This is spectacular news, but what does any of this have to do with me?”

One of the imposing fellow’s assistants leaned over and poked at the computer screen, extracting an image of the detective and his immediate boss to pop up in front of them.

“In 2472, you’re part of a special operations team run by your boss, Sterling, here. You’re last seen…”

“What year am I in now?” the detective interrupted.

“The year 2572. The individuals you were asked to follow all the way back into the 22nd century weren’t just ordinary criminals or terrorists. Instead, they were extraterrestrials who managed to make their way out of the crash site before our forces could arrive. We called them the Sleepers.

They had melted into the crowded cities of that globalized era, managing to survive on the margins of society. In fact, they actually thrived, since they had the appearance of youth and beauty on their side.

They sometimes traded on their physical appeal to obtain housing, food, or travel. They made out like bandits in the 21 st century, and did decently in the 22 nd , as you witnessed, but in the subsequent centuries, the changes around them made life in this marginal niche more difficult.”

The computer responded to another fingertip prodding by issuing forth more pop-up images – this time from space. “Here is the earth in the 21 st century.” The blue marble planet hung in the blackness of space, gorgeously jeweled. “Here is the 23 rd century – note the changes at the equator”.

In this picture, the band of brown desert was massively larger, and was engulfing Europe. The next image was terrifyingly dun colored. “The ETs ran into trouble once really strict government controls were imposed. Things got really difficult for them once the domes were built to shelter the remnant of humanity in the late 2300s.

Most of them had serious problems adapting to the constraints that became necessary in the 25 th century. They clung to a lot of the customs and privileges of the 21 st century such as building bonfires and eating meat, and daily bathing. We conjecture that in their home world, they were either able to do these things freely, or had had to give them up, and were delighted to find them available here.

For the most part, they don’t want to talk to us very much, even after all this time, for perhaps understandable reasons. Additionally, few of them ever wanted to work. In a word, many were mooches, and never paid their way in life. Naturally, such behavior got them evicted from everywhere they wanted to live, whether indoors under domes, or outdoors. They were eventually branded as criminals, as resources all over the globe became tighter and tighter.

They became truly outcasts and fugitives for having broken environmental laws and laws of trespass over and over again. They had an immense advantage over any other lawbreakers, because they could flee in time, as well as space. They tended to gravitate towards the 21 st century because that was the last time that the world was both beautiful and fertile and it was relatively safe to breathe the air and drink the water and eat ‘real’ food from animal sources.

Efforts were set in motion to have local constabulary round them all up in our century. Soon after this initiative, another group from the higher-ups captured you along with most of the rest of the Sleepers. Your blood was tested along with others and as it turns out, you’re one of them.

This was a bit of a surprise, since you had always been a very dedicated worker and a credit to the Temporal Crimes Unit. You must have been an anomaly amongst your kind. We are still not quite sure what you were doing with them when that group was detained.”

In the detective’s mind there blossomed a memory – this one seemed real, and his own – of a week spent by a small, relatively unpolluted river, with days full of skinny dipping and nights full of campfires and glimpses of stars beyond the persistent scum of polluted air. Was he a time fugitive then, as well? Did he have a secret life spent with his fellow…what did they even call themselves?

“I don’t see how this can be possible… and why are they, no, we, called Sleepers? And all these centuries of life: how is this feasible…?” anxiously, the detective interrupted once again.

“Please allow me to finish. Your appearance is just as fresh as the day you were hired by Sterling, your boss for the last decades. When you showed up in the round-up, we decided to inject you with a denatured toxin known as Atroxium. It was originally designed for individuals who had troubles sleeping at night. We took the liberty of enhancing the effects of the toxin to a point where one could sleep for literally hundreds of years without ill effects. Needless to say, it was put into use on you, and some of your people.

Atroxium has the sometimes unfortunate side effect of wiping memory rather efficiently. In your case, it was exceedingly helpful. We were able to teach you a new set of only the most basic memories by hypnopaedic methods. You were awakened to help us find the whole group, since you could time-jump just as easily as your fellow sleepers. You have done so very efficiently. Now, you’re free to go. All of you.”

The man stood up and put started closing down the holographic images that still hung in air.

“After all these years, you people have decided to acknowledge and give free access to your world, and your past, to me and my people. There must be a reason for that?” asked the one who still thought of himself as a detective.

“It wasn’t my decision. The newly elected president decided that you’ve suffered enough. To be honest, I am strongly against this but I have no choice but to act accordingly. It seems extremely dangerous to me to release a race with largely unknown characteristics into our gene pool.”

The detective and his fellow aliens walked out and were never seen again.

Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, May 7). Short Detective Story. https://ivypanda.com/essays/short-story/

"Short Detective Story." IvyPanda , 7 May 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/short-story/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Short Detective Story'. 7 May.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Short Detective Story." May 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/short-story/.

1. IvyPanda . "Short Detective Story." May 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/short-story/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Short Detective Story." May 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/short-story/.

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BRYN DONOVAN

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Reading & Research

50 Intriguing Mystery Story Ideas!

Mystery story ideas often follow a similar pattern. Early on, a dead body turns up, a valuable item goes missing, or a puzzle begs to be solved. The reader knows that by the end of the book, questions will have been answered, which is a comforting element in even the most gruesome murder mysteries.

This simple structure allows for endless creative and original variations. And ten different writers could take the same writing prompt here and write ten vastly different stories! I’ve been reading a lot of mystery novels lately — mostly cozy mysteries, not gritty crime novels, although I might enjoy those, too. That inspired me to write this list of prompts for mystery story ideas.

You can also use this list as an idea generator for free-writing. Whether you stumble across a story idea you love in the process, or you just get your creative writing juices flowing again, it’s so worth it.

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Although I had mystery novels in mind, some of these could become a subplot in a different fiction genre, from fantasy and romance (especially romantic suspense), to historical fiction and thrillers. (And you might also be interested in my list of 50 thriller plot ideas !)

Be sure to save the post for future reference (or pin it on Pinterest!)

Mystery Story Ideas

1. A woman asks a writer to write the story of her life. Then she goes missing.

2. Murder victims are found buried with some of their wordly goods, Viking style.

3. Three people close to the murder victim have confessed. Each of them swears they acted alone.

4. Notes and gifts from her “Secret Santa” at work take a strange turn.

5. It’s going to be a beautiful wedding at a beautiful destination, but two people in the wedding party have been murdered.

6. The creator of a high-tech prototype that will change an industry has gone missing.

7. Her parents believe her to be their biological child, but they all learn otherwise.

8. The dead woman’s wedding ring is found in a ditch forty miles away.

9. A museum conservator is restoring an old painting, and an X-ray reveals something shocking or mysterious painted or written in the layer beneath.

10. A sorority sister who bullied prospective pledges is found dead.

11. As a man researches his genealogy, he finds that ancestors from a few different generations and a few different countries made visits to the same remote place.

12. Someone replaced the woman’s contact lens solution with a damaging liquid. (This mystery story idea brought to you courtesy of a phobia of mine!)

13. He’s always been a faithful husband, but someone has planted false evidence of his having an affair.

14. A detective is hired for a high price to find a thief who stole something that doesn’t appear to have any real value.

15. Every unmarried lady at the ball wanted to dance with the duke, so it’s too bad he was found stabbed in the garden.

16. In the middle of a wilderness, someone finds an abandoned bunker with security cameras, powered by a generator.

17. The graves of historic figures are being robbed.

18. Clues to the mystery come to him in dreams, but nobody believes him.

19. Serial murders in cities in two different countries are very similar.

20. A man she didn’t know left her a valuable and unusual item in his will.

21. A writer researching his biography of a Golden Age movie star comes across something that makes him suspect that contrary to the official story, she was a murder victim.

22. The accidental death of this investigative reporter seems a little too convenient.

23. The murders all relate to common fears, such as public speaking, flying, and heights.

24. A woman wakes up with a headache and goes into work, only to learn that she’s been missing for a month.

25. Writers are being murdered at the mystery writers’ convention.

26. The painting must have been stolen from the museum in broad daylight, but the security cameras malfunctioned and no witnesses have come forward.

27. Three different guests at the Air BnB died later under mysterious circumstances.

28. A practicing witch or voodoo priestess is accused of murder.

29. The murders are re-enactments of famous murders in novels or movies.

30. He claims to be the rich man who was lost at sea two decades ago.

31. The inspector’s friend is murdered while he is talking on the phone to the inspector.

32. A dead body is found in an unclaimed piece of luggage at the airport.

33. He was murdered on his honeymoon on a cruise ship, and his new, much-younger bride was the only one on board who even knew him.

34. A woman who didn’t know she was adopted meets her twin sister, who gives her a dire warning.

35. One of the pies submitted to the state fair contest was poisoned.

36. The report of a celebrity’s death is false, but he dies soon after.

37. The murder victims all have the same tailor.

38. Who would kill the guest of honor at their 100 th birthday party?

39. The victim was found drowned in a whiskey barrel at the distillery.

40. A wife arranges a romantic “scavenger hunt” for her husband, but someone else changes a few of the clues.

41. The thief who steals rare books always leaves a sonnet behind. (As someone who’s written a few sonnets, I’m particularly fond of this mystery story idea, but you can think of all kinds of creative “calling cards” for criminals!)

42. The wrong body is in the casket at the visitation. No one knows who it is, or where the other body is.

43. The murders were definitely committed by a human, but resemble the attacks of wild animals.

44. After the woman returned the lost wallet, someone began stalking her.

45. The book she’s reading seems to be telling the story of her own life, though she doesn’t think she’s ever met the author.

46. A man who faked his own death must be found in time.

47. Someone in a villain costume and mask attempts to kill an actor at a fan convention. The actor is saved by a fan dressed as a superhero.

48. An Egyptian mummy, or what appears to be one, is found in an unlikely place.

49. A man is found murdered following a heated argument with several people on social media.

50. A body is found in the organic vegetable garden at a hippie commune.

Do you have some thoughts on mystery story ideas?

If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

And if you want more inspiration, please check out my book 5,000 Writing Prompts ! It has 100 more mystery writing prompts in addition to the ones on this list, plus hundreds of other master plots by genre, dialogue and character prompts, and much more.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy writing!

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How to Write a Simple Detective Story

In view of the current open anthology Enigma: The Inner Circle Writers’ Group Crime/Mystery/Thriller Anthology 2018 , I thought you might like to take a look at this blog article from a while back, which outlines how a detective story is constructed. This is just a basic outline, of course, and you can add as much complexity, colour and atmosphere as you wish, but the framework will probably be the same:

Detective stories are amongst the most popular genres of tale in the modern age, and it’s not hard to see why. Set in a recognisably Ironic era, in which systems of belief in an ordered world have broken down, and in which the trusted paradigm is that the universe is empty of meaning and slowly dying, the modern detective story gives readers a shadow of a suggestion that it is still possible for order to triumph: a detective, usually very much an older and wiser figure, is somehow able to piece together from minutiae - the significance of which has totally eluded us - the trail to find the villain. That villain is the only real villain, the source of all evil and disorder. Once found, tranquility returns.

As part of a lesson, I once put together a series of relatively simple steps which, if written out by a group of students, results in a reasonable detective story. This is probably the way Agatha Christie worked in devising her tales, most of which sold millions of copies.

1. Work out a crime.

Don’t make this in any way mysterious. You, the author, must know every detail about this crime. You must devise who did it, how they did it when they did it, where they did it - everything. This isn’t the time to add in unknowns, that comes later. Write it all out in elaborate detail. It can be a murder, a robbery, whatever you wish, but leave nothing out of this initial account.

Here’s an additional thing to work into the framework at this stage: devise a clash between a protagonist and an antagonist which takes place in the past. In other words, a hero and a villain have had some sort of titanic contest years before, and the crime, whatever it may be, is a kind of revenge or follow-up action to that original conflict. You are laying the groundwork here for the motivation of whoever commits the crime. A simple bank robbery, for example, might work as a ‘crime’, but it will not attract readers unless there is an emotional undertow: perhaps the bank is being robbed as an act of vengeance or in order to obtain something which the antagonist needs to attack the protagonist.

Time spent on this first step is worth it: a well-worked-out foundation here is where your story gains its strength from later.

2. Now begin to cover it up.

What does your culprit do to hide his over her tracks? How is the crime itself concealed? What attempts are made to deflect attention? Be convincing, but make sure you leave enough for step 3.

3. Leave three definite and accurate clues.

Work out for yourself which exact pieces of evidence are going to be left scattered around in various ways to lead your detective to the real criminal. These clues have to be real and accurate, not tricks.

4. Develop at least three ‘red herrings’ or false clues.

Scatter these around in the same way that you do the real clues. These are the things which distract and mislead the readers’ attention, the tricks and misdirections which engage readers but to a false end.

5. Now invent your detective.

You can be entirely original about this, but you will notice some patterns in the most famous detectives of fiction: the most well-known have some ‘defect’ in their make-up, something which sets them apart. Sherlock Holmes has his genius, but the flaw in his character is his predilection for cocaine; Poirot is meticulously vain; Miss Marple is ancient, and so on. They are not just your average ‘man or woman in the street’. This is on purpose. They have to command reader attention in some way; they have to be some kind of authority figure either physically or mentally.

6. Invent some other potential culprits.

Of course you know ‘whodunnit’, but the reader doesn’t. You need to have enough false villains on the scene to hook a reader’s interest. Your actual villain can be around too, and should be, but he or she shouldn’t stand out. These extra culprits have to have dark secrets in their past, each one, secrets that entice the reader into thinking that they could be ‘the one’.

7. Create a scenario.

Your actual story can open some time after the crime has been committed or just before. Your detective usually fortuitously arrives on the scene or is present by accident or coincidence. A group of people has gathered - on a train, on a boat, in a village, at a dinner, and so forth. The crime is revealed and the detective sets about piecing things together. The reader, tracking along and observing the same things as the detective, tries to ‘second-guess’ who the villain is. Everything is obscured and muddled by the red herrings.

Sometimes, things are made even more confusing by additional crimes, which take place in an effort by the real culprit to hide the initial crime. In the end, only the detective has been able to see through the fog and spot the real bad guy.

Work this back and forth until you have mastered the sequence. It has laid and will lay the groundwork for many an entertaining tale.

For details about submission guidelines for Enigma and all the other anthologies, go here .

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MONDAY: The Scribbler

James Lincoln Warren

Monday: spirit of the law.

TUESDAY: High-Heeled Gumshoe

Melodie Johnson Howe

Wednesday: tune it or die.

Robert Lopresti

Thursday: femme fatale.

Deborah Elliott-Upton

Friday: bander- snatches.

Steven Steinbock

Saturday: mississippi mud.

John M. Floyd

Saturday: new york minute, angela zeman, sunday: the a.d.d. detective.

Leigh Lundin

Ad hoc: mystery masterclass.

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Ad hoc: surprise witness.

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Aural argument.

"The Sack 'Em Up Men"

"Crow's Avenue"

"The Stain"

"Jumpin' Jack Flash"

"The Art of the Short Story"

"Bouchercon 2010 Short Story Panel"

Monday, September 19: The Scribbler

by James Lincoln Warren

Jim Morrison, the famous Dionysiac rock’n’roll star, claimed that his cult band the Doors was named after a line in the mad genius William Blake’s pseudo-Biblical prophetic manifesto, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell :

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.

Yeah, all right, Morrison was an English major at UCLA, so maybe he actually did read Blake—but I’ve always thought the more likely explanation was that they got the name from Aldous Huxley’s memoir of messing around with mescaline, which was something of a cult favorite in the late 60s, when Timothy Leary was importuning the youth of America to turn on, tune in, and drop out, by which he meant frying one’s brains on LSD. Huxley’s book was called The Doors of Perception , and he was nothing if not erudite, so I have no doubt that he actually did get the title from Blake.

There have been many interpretations of Blake’s book on many different levels—theological, psychological, philosophical, and so on—but the one theme that almost all of its critics seem to agree on is that Blake was writing about the tension between authority and control on the one hand (Heaven), and chaos and freedom on the other (Hell). This rather reminds me on a very small scale of my frequent claim that a good mystery story comprises a marriage of con vention with in vention.

And that was also my intention when I got the idea for Criminal Brief . When we started, short crime fiction was probably at its nadir in terms of readership and general popularity. I wanted CB to be a place where dedicated mystery short story authors could make their case for their art to the public in an accessible manner, to encourage people to seek out and read short stories. To be honest with you, I’m not at all sure that I succeeded in my ambition, but there’s no doubt that the regular contributors—Melodie Johnson Howe, Robert Lopresti, Deborah Upton-Elliott, Steven Steinbock, Leigh Lundin, John M. Floyd, Angela Zeman, Janice Law, and of course, yours truly—performed in what can only be described as a stellar manner. On top of that, we had a slew of guest contributors whose words resonated throughout the mystery community on the internet, including Ed Hoch’s only entry into the blogosphere, but also including such worthies as Doug Allyn, James Powell, Jas. R. Petrin, R.T. Lawton, Stephen Ross, David Dean, Daniel Stashower, and a host of others. We also reprinted a number of classic short stories that were intended to give the Gentle Reader a sense of the mystery short story’s heritage. What a privilege it has been.

I’m not sure that we cleaned the doors of perception well enough to open the gates of infinity, but we certainly polished them up a little. I have renewed hope for the renaissance of the mystery short story, and I’d like to think that we contributed to it if only minutely. But the time has come to close the door on CB .

Alexander Graham Bell had some thoughts on this topic: “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

I do not want the Gentle Reader to look regretfully upon the demise of Criminal Brief . Therefore, it will remain up on the web as an archive resource for the forseeable future. I do not rule out a resurrection of the site as a live presence sometime in the distant future, and if it does it will not come back as a rotating essay-oriented blog, but its dedication to the mystery short story will continue. As in all things, time will tell. For now, the song has been sung—but the melody remains.

In the meantime, the Gentle Reader is directed to Sleuth Sayers , the successor blog to CB . Unlike Criminal Brief , Sleuth Sayers is not intended as an advocacy site for short crime fiction, having a broader mandate, but it is peopled by many of the usual suspects. I wish it nothing but success, and intend to drop in from time to time.

So let the curtain fall, and excuse me if I ask all the wonderful people who have made the journey to take a bow, contributors and commenters alike, as well as all those readers who chose not to enter the conversation but still decided to read what we had to say.

It has oft been said that writing is the most solitary of occupations. I don’t think so—not with the community we have here. So that last clap you hear as the applause fades is made by my hands. And I’m on my feet.

Sunday, September 18: The A.D.D. Detective

PARTING SHOT

by Leigh Lundin

Much as I dislike the thought, journeys come to an end and the CB superhighway has made for a great trip. I expect one of my colleagues could estimate how many bloody words we’ve splattered on this platform, but as we’ve learned, it’s not the number of words but how effective we make them.

I’ve learned a lot and Criminal Brief has helped hone my writing skills. But today, I’m not talking about writing or writing weird Florida news or shining a spotlight on a criminally criminal prosecutor. May former girlfriends gasp: I want to talk about relationships. I want to talk about us.

I’ve made friends within CB and with you, the reader. Dixon Hill sent me a note saying "Strange, isn’t it, how it seems as if we’ve met–though we’ve never met in-person."

That’s true. I feel like I’ve known alisa, ABA, Sheena, Terrie, Jeff, Stephen, Hamilton, Dale, Darlene Poier, Yoshinori, David Dean, and the wonderful Dick Stodghill a long, long time. Usually when people meet, their impressions start from the outside and work inward. Writing like this lets us discover people from the inside-out.

Our Den of Thieves

The same is true of my colleagues. I haven’t met Rob, Deborah, or Janice yet, but I can imagine Rob and I laughing ourselves silly over arcane topics. I picture Deborah as gentle and kind and I imagine (right or wrong) Janice as artistic and intelligent, but casting a wary when-I-get-to-know-you eye upon me (possibly with cause).

Of colleagues I’ve met, they are much like I pictured them but more so. John is the friendliest person I know and now my good compadre-in-crime. Melody is even more playful in real life. And the Zemans are charming, warm and generous.

The real surprise was Steve. One look at him and I recognized he was the school mischief-maker, the joker in a deck of jokers. And though I never met his famous ‘wench’, she makes me smile and I look forward to meeting her some day.

The James Gang

CB started nearly five years ago. James and Rob were well into discussions long before James gave me the MWA tour and then enquired if I’d like to participate in a group blog.

Barely a rookie, I was honored but also concerned: Would I be able to hold my own amongst these pros? I need not have worried; they were kind and patient and gave me a lot of leighway. I began to write.

James dislikes sentimentality, but I owe him big time. He started with friendship and culminated in bringing out a better writer in me.

Like Melodie and the others, my favorite times include the Christmas puzzle and chillin’ at the CB Headquarters . But my most personal blog was one I didn’t write. James did.

Twice I stumbled trying to write about my story English . Writing the short-short proved far easier than writing about it. Sometimes we can’t see inside ourselves, but in a wonderful review, James captured me in one sentence :

I’ve noticed that Leigh doesn’t write so much about crime as he writes about injustice.

That may not mean a lot to others, but the insight meant a lot to me, just one of many reasons I’m grateful to James.

Dark Pastures

Starting today, I move on to a new crime-writing project, a joint venture with Deborah, John, Janice, Rob, and several others, the crime blog SleuthSayers .

This has been a hell of a busy month embroiling several deadlines with SleuthSayers topping the stack. SS uses different software than CB , so we’re still figuring things out. If you like or dislike the design, blame Velma !

So here I am, the last few sentences I’ll write for CB, the last few words anyone will write except tomorrow. I loved the ride and thank you for being a great companion. I couldn’t have done this without you. Bon voyage!

Hurry! See you at S l e u t h S a y e r s !

Saturday, September 17: Mississippi Mud

WRITING TIGHT

by John M. Floyd

No, this title isn’t a description of the way William Faulkner created most of his stories. I’m referring to tight prose, not tight pro’s.

Long ago I was browsing through YouTube videos and found a clip from an old Leave It to Beaver episode. (In fact I think I used it once, in an earlier CB column.) June and Ward were sitting at the kitchen table with the boys, and the Beaver asked his dad to read over an essay he’d written for school. The paper started off with something like “This is about my father, Mr. Ward Cleaver.”

Ward, reading it aloud, stopped and raised his eyebrows and said, “Mr.?”

Wally said, dead serious: “That counts as a word, Dad.” Beaver nodded his agreement.

How well I remember. Every time we were required to write a paper in school, one of our goals was to make it long . Actually, that was probably our main goal. It had to have a lot of words and a lot of pages—the more the better. When we hoisted the finished result in our hands, it needed to have weight , because weight (in our dim minds) meant substance, importance, significance. To create less would’ve meant we were less creative.

Now, having (hopefully) learned a bit more about writing, I realize the opposite is true. So often, at least when writing fiction, less is better.

Stephen King once said that when a story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone, and get rid of every ounce of excess fat. “This is going to hurt,” he said. “Revising a story down to the bare essentials is a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”

I agree. One thing I have found in my years of writing and teaching is that all of us tend to overwrite . In a first draft, that doesn’t matter much. Knock yourself out. But in subsequent drafts, all the extra and ineffective words need to be found and deleted. Each draft should be shorter than the one before it. Jettison anything that sounds repetitious, or does too much explaining. And by repetition I don’t just mean words; writers often repeat thoughts, phrases, etc.—and sometimes only the closest examination will reveal this kind of thing. I think it was Noah Lukeman who said writers should imagine they’re being paid a dollar for every unneeded word (often adjectives and adverbs) that they can find and take out. The result will almost always be a stronger manuscript.

This is one of the reasons that I believe short stories are great practice for those who want to also write novels. In short stories, and of course poetry, not a word can be wasted. “Writing tight” is a necessity.

Stephen King again, from an essay in his book Secret Windows : “The object . . . isn’t to shorten for the sake of shortening but to speed up the pace and make the story fly along.” All of us want to do that.

And this isn’t only true for fiction. Nonfiction too will be better when the writer pares it down, and tightens up all the nuts and bolts.

Which means, I guess, that I should probably stop here.

NOTE: I actually am stopping here: this is my final post at Criminal Brief . Let me just say that I’ve had a wonderful time, and have met some great friends. I’ve learned a lot, about mysteries and about writing, from my fellow columnists and our readers/commenters. Many thanks to JLW and my colleagues, for allowing me to be a part of this group.

Friday, September 16: Bandersnatches

FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT

by Steven Steinbock

We have reached a cruising altitude. You may now use approved electronic devices.

I’m writing this—my final entry in the Bandersnatch journal—while sitting in Seat 9C aboard Delta 6013 en route from LaGuardia to St. Louis. Has anyone else noticed how the pages of books warp while you’re in the air? Seriously. It may just be with trade paperbacks, but I think it happens whenever I bring a book on a plane. Maybe it’s just me.

By the time you, dear reader, are seeing this, I will of course have set down and perhaps will be viewing the famous arches from my hotel room. More likely, though, I’ll be in some panel, perusing books in the dealers room, or making trouble with my friend James Lincoln Warren.

Yes, it’s Bouchercon time again.

As Robert said in his column earlier this week, Bouchercon is a big event, and it can be a challenge for those who prefer to steer clear of massive crowds. That said, it’s possible to find quiet opportunities to visit one-on-one with old friends and new ones. It was, in fact, at the Seattle Bouchercon back in 1994 (the same one that he wrote about in his column) that I first met Rob Lopresti.

Tonight (this being Thursday, the day before these words will appear online) I’m meeting James and a gaggle of other mystery people for dinner. The group includes EQMM editor Janet Hutchings, AHMM editor Linda Landrigan, short story regulars like Robert Levinson and Terence Faherty (and their respective spouses), as well as a bevy or other cool people (Charles and Carolyn Todd, Bruce DeSilva, R.T. Lawton, and others). Nora McFarland and Sandra (“Sam”) Brannan will both be there, and both of them will be on my panel at 8:30 (ugh!) tomorrow morning.

The topic of the panel is “All About Eve.” I have a feeling that the Bouchercon program team has decided to name all the panels after movies. At first I was puzzled. Remember, dear reader, that prior to turning to a life of crime (fiction), I was a Bible scholar. So I had a haunting moment of flashback. Did I sign up for the right convention? Why else would they be putting me on a panel about Eve? But after reading the description, it all came clear. I was moderating a panel about developing strong female characters.

Then I had a different kind of apprehension: why was I, the only male on a panel with five women, chosen to discuss strong women? Are they suggesting that I’m a pushover? What if I am? (When Nora suggested that perhaps the title of the panel should have been “All About Steve,” I really started to worry). My panelists are Sandra Brannan, Vicki Hendricks, Sara Henry, Nora McFarland, Cathi Stoler .

And so, as I wrap up this column, I find myself wearing my criminal briefs for a final time. We’ve had a fabulous run. I’ve made some wonderful friends. It’s been a pleasure to work with Deborah, Rob, Melodie, Janice, Leigh, John, Angela, and most of all our dauntless founder and editor James Lincoln Warren.

Please look for me in the pages (or webpages) of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine where I’ll be manning the Jury Box. You can also find me, as several readers have, at the various mystery conventions that I like to haunt. I also expect that I’ll be making regular visits to Sleuth Sayers where several from our lot will continue to post regular columns.

A big thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read my Bandersnatches week after week for four and a half years. We’ll meet again . . .

Thursday, September 15: Femme Fatale

ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD by Deborah Elliott-Upton

Saying goodbye has never been one of my favorite things. Instead, I’d like to say thanks for the opportunity to be a part of your life for these past years at Criminal Brief . This isn’t goodbye as I know we’ll still be bumping into each other again. The best thing about writers and readers is they somehow find each other. Since I believe there are no coincidences, it is my conviction we were both here at the same time for a reason.

I hope you were as entertained, enlightened and engaged as I have been with Criminal Brief . I’ve been blessed to be here from its inception all the way to its end.

We could never discount the addition of the reader’s comments: they are appreciated more than one may think. It is not only valuable to know what the thinking is about our writing, but also our readers have contributed much information and points of view we’ve appreciated reading.

Thanks to James Lincoln Warren for coming up with this format and painstakingly getting all of contributions online in a timely manner. When I “met” Jim online via the Mystery Writers of America group, I was charmed by his wit and humor. Who wouldn’t be? I asked to join his PHARTS group and wrote an article concerning techniques for writing a screenplay which was tremendous fun for me. When he decided to create Criminal Brief , he asked me to join the roster. I was complimented to join the ranks of such fine writers. Jim has said we sometimes stretched the confines of Criminal Brief ’s structure of writing about short crime fiction and he is absolutely correct. However, I think perhaps we all have been entertained by Jim’s lexicon information, Leigh’s true crime accounts, John’s marketing methods, Melodie’s tales of the lady driving the Hummer, Steve’s vast collections, and Rob’s musical thoughts. As the newbie to the group, Janice has not wandered from the original directive to write strictly about short mystery fiction. She receives a shiny gold star next to her name. We all started out as diligent, but have strayed from the path here and there, but I think we all tried to tie the articles into a mystery vein in some manner. (And I liked writing about Nimrods, Captain Jack, and my dad.)

Almost all of us have traversed into the effects of movies, TV, and actors, and how they have influenced us in our choices. Some of us went where others did not appreciate. (I immediately think of the three blondes we will not name here as it makes at least one of our group unhappy—and yes, for good reason.)

I think it’s all been good. Whether it’s been smooth sailing or a bit rough at times, we have not been bored—which isn’t true of all blogs. I think perhaps it’s because we have so many different points of view involved at Criminal Brief . Not only do we live all over the United States, we also have different lifestyles, voting records, likes and dislikes.

I could not forget to mention the ones who’ve made this trek even more fun: the late Dick Stodghill, the great Bill Crider and of course our around-the-world readership. We’ve managed to corral an amazing comment group and also a diverse cluster of lurkers. Thank you all for being out there and being interested enough to join us.

I agree with Melodie about the week we all wrote about our offices at Criminal Brief . What an imaginative group we have! That was pure fun and from the comments, our readership agreed. James has often been the one finding many of the illustrations accompanying the columns and that is a feat within itself to do day after day for four and a half years.

I hope you continue with most of us at Sleuth Sayers . We have an exciting lineup of writers ready to share! It’s a new adventure on which we are about to embark and there’s plenty of room for you and all your friends. Stay tuned to Criminal Brief for more information about when and where to find Sleuth Sayers!

For now, I won’t say goodbye, but so long for now. I’m sure we’ll all meet again. In fact, I’m counting on it. Until then, “Cheers, friends.” Until next time.

Wednesday, September 14: Tune It Or Die!

COMMUNITY CHEST

by Rob Lopresti

So once again Bouchercon time has rolled around and I will not be in attendance. To tell the truth, I usually am not, because I am the worst traveler outside of a coral reef. And frankly, I am not the most social of animals. Hanging around a noisy bar for conversation is not my idea of a good time.

I do get to the occasional conference. My favorite was the Seattle Bcon, partly because of the event I described here , but also because I was the president of the local chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. That was an ideal position to have at the conference: it brought cachet and no responsibilities whatsoever.

Not long after that conference the chapter of MWA seemed to decline in membership and in the number of meetings. A few people lamented to me that things weren’t like the good old days when I had been the president.

I assured them that this was an example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, although I don’t think I used them fancy furrin words. The varying fortunes of the chapter had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the arrival of the World Wide Web. People didn’t need meetings of people so much because they could gather with like-minded friends on Dorothy-L, and later on blogs, and then social networks.

I’m no exception. Every morning I turn on my iPad, go to Little Big Crimes, and look at my RSS feeds in the right hand column. I click on blogsites like Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine, Sandra Seaman’s My Little Corner, Criminal Brief, and now Sleuthsayers, and I can be instantly engaged in fascinating conversations in our field. No bar bill necessary.

Of course, electronic contacts are not always a substitute for face-to-face, and people seem to have recognized that. Our local MWA meetings continue, with good attendance. In fact, I hear that the speaker at an upcoming meeting will be Robert Lopresti, so get your reservations early.

As I said, I don’t often travel to Bouchercon, but my wife and I love San Francisco, so last year was an exception. And I had more friends there than I have had at most cons, because of the online communities that I have been a part of. The virtual supports the physical, and vice versa. The dance goes on.

When he received the MWA Grand Master Award Donald E. Westlake told the audience at the Edgar banquet “You are my tribe!” A tribe can be a good thing to have out in the wilderness we all inhabit.

My wish to all the brothers and sisters of my tribe is that the dance continues to take you to interesting places, be they physical or virtual, hardbound or softback.

Tuesday, September 13: High-Heeled Gumshoe

BLOGGING SHOES

by Melodie Johnson Howe

I’m hanging up my blogging shoes after this last column for Criminal Brief . Leigh very kindly asked if I would guest blog at the new Sleuth Sayers. Guys, could you come with up a name that doesn’t make me sound like Daffy Duck when I pronounce it? By the way, I often quote Daffy. In the midst of a chase scene in one of his cartoons he abruptly stops, stares at the audience, and says with his famous lisp, “This doesn’t make sense and neither do I.” Then he begins to run for his life again. I often feel like Daffy Duck. But I digress. I intended to talk about our blog.

Criminal Brief is neither. It isn’t criminal. It’s thoughtful, funny, erudite, curmudgeonly and simply wonderful. And it isn’t Brief. It ran for four and a half years. That’s a pretty good run.

When James asked me to come aboard, my first inclination was not to do it. I’m a slow writer. And time is fast. So I thought I couldn’t possibly write a column a week. But then I began to think about all the things I wanted to say. And most of them didn’t have anything to do with the short story.

I wanted to write about what was bothering me, confounding me. I wanted to get down on paper what I observed in my daily life. Also I had never written about my acting career. And then there was my marriage. I wanted to capture the dialogue and the relationship between a husband and wife, who happened to be two creative people. In other words I wanted to explore; open my horizons as a writer. So I told James I would be glad to do it if I could write about anything I wanted and he agreed. And a whole new world opened up to me.

It never occurred to me I would develop friendships on the Internet. Janice and Deborah are the only two of our comrades in crime I haven’t met in person. But I feel I know these two women and would like to sit down and have cup of coffee with them. How about a G & T? And when I met the others in person I felt as if we’d been friends for a long time; and that’s because we got know each other through our writings first. The point of a writer is to connect with readers. And we were readers of each other’s columns.

Criminal Brief has also allowed me to share thoughts with the likes of Jon Breen, David Dean, Stephen Ross, and other writers I admire. And last but not least are the CB readers who have supported us with their vast knowledge, depth, and wicked humor.

My favorite moment in CB history was creating the virtual Criminal Brief Headquarters . Not only was it fun to write but also it was hilarious. And our virtual offices became skewered metaphors for each of us.

We had the longest book signing in history. I think it took us a year to get that damn anthology of short stores to our prizewinner ABA. I’m sure Leigh will correct me, but I think it all started to go wrong when he lost the book. We never had another contest after that.

James deserves a big CB Medal and a smoochy kiss for creating this blog in the first place and then keeping it going. We were not an easy group to herd. So it is with fond memories and love that I will watch Criminal Brief sink into the ether and disappear. She was yar.

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Writing Tips Oasis - A website dedicated to helping writers to write and publish books.

How to Write a Crime Short Story: 10 Top Tips

By Georgina Roy

Crime fiction, regardless of the format – whether a short story, a novella, or a novel, comes in two forms: the protagonist will either solve a crime, or commit one.

In the first type, i.e. solving a crime, we follow the protagonist as they use their brain and their skills to figure out who did the crime or what happened. In the second type of crime stories, we follow the protagonist as they commit the crime, and this type can have two subtypes: the crime happens in the beginning (i.e. first part or act), and the second part focuses on the fallout, or, the protagonist decides to do the crime in the first part, and either goes through with it or not in the second part.

Considering that today we are focusing solely on crime short stories, rather than fiction, the tips below on how to write a crime short story will all be related to writing shorter pieces of work, and they might not work for longer pieces like novellas or novels.

1. Keep your audience in mind

Considering the two types of crime fiction we’ve highlighted above, it is worth noting that while there are omnivorous crime readers, i.e. those who enjoy reading about the solving of a crime just as much as they would enjoy reading about the protagonist committing a crime; quite often, the audience for one type is not the audience for the other one.

The readers who prefer to read solving a crime might not enjoy reading about committing one. So before you embark on the wonderful journey of writing a short story, think carefully about which audience you wish to target and attract.

2. Have a clear theme and idea

Often, short stories do not have the time to elaborate on all the nuances of a certain theme or idea. Practically speaking, a short story does not allow you to dwell longer in the life of the protagonist. Regardless of what type of story you are writing (committing a crime vs. solving a crime), due to the nature of those two events, you would not be writing a short story that spans over several years.

The longer a crime goes unsolved, the more difficult it would be to solve it. This type of urgency is what drives crime novels, let alone short stories. So, the clearer your theme and original idea, the better – for it would allow you to distill it to its essence and present it, in as short manner as possible, in your story.

3. Keep it short

We’re not talking here about trying to say as much as possible in as few words as possible. When it comes to writing crime short stories, you do not need to dwell on the protagonist’s backstory. If he is an experienced detective, there is no need for the reader to know all the details about all of his previous cases to convince them that this detective knows what he is doing – show that in the procedures and the actions he takes to solve the crime, but also in how he reacts to seeing this particular crime.

If your protagonist is somebody who is willing to commit a crime, try to convey their motivations as shortly as possible. The readers do not need to know all the details that led or will lead them to commit the crime, just enough to sympathize with them or, alternatively, find the protagonist compelling enough to follow them to the end.

4. Create a believable crime

In longer works like novellas and novels, you need to create such a crime that will take someone a whole novel to solve. In short stories, specifically short stories that are focused on solving a crime, the crime needs to be out of the ordinary, but the protagonist should still be able to solve it in an “a-ha” moment, that would both make sense to the reader in retrospect, and also surprise them at the same time. If your story is about committing a crime, the crime itself needs to be relatively easy for the protagonist to commit. The planning has already been done and it’s all about the execution and the consequences.

In the second type of crime stories, where the protagonist decides to commit the crime and we follow them as they either go through with it or not, the crime itself needs have a certain psychological effect on the protagonist. Additionally, it should be more difficult to commit and pose a certain danger to them as well.

5. Create a compelling protagonist

The protagonist who solves the crime needs to have the tools and experience to do so. You make that protagonist compelling by how they react to the crime that has been committed, and then what steps they take to solve the crime, as well as what motivates them to solve the crime so quickly.

The protagonist who commits the crime, on the other hand, will be more difficult to create in a compelling manner. This type of protagonist either has to be easy to both sympathize and empathize with, like for example, a person who has been hurt in some way looking for revenge, or, they would be a kind of person who most people would find abhorring, and, they would follow that person just to see whether they get what is coming to them or not (the ending, of course, depends on the message you’re trying to send, stemming from your original idea and theme).

6. Determine the timeline of the crime

Short stories do not have the time to focus on cold cases that have not seen progress in years unless there is new evidence that would help the detective solve a cold case quickly. As such, the crime should be recent enough that there is fresh evidence for the protagonist to work with.

When it comes to the second type, committing a crime, the protagonist needs to be at the right moment to commit the crime. For example, let’s say that a woman is trying to kidnap her own child, who is currently in the custody of the ex-husband who abused her for years. Fearing for the safety of the baby, we do not need to see her stalking her ex-husband and her child for weeks on end; we need to tune in right at the moment when the woman is watching her ex-husband’s new girlfriend take the child to the park, who leaves the kid on the swings and steps aside to take a phone call, and the woman grabs her child and leaves.

7. Different types of subgenres in solving a crime

The first type of crime stories, where the protagonist is solving a crime, are divided into several subgenres (or subcategories):

Whodunit : this is the most famous type, where the protagonist needs to solve the problem of who committed the crime (theft, murder, etc.,) from a certain list of suspects. The protagonist is usually a detective or a private investigator. A specialized subset of whodunit is locked room – where the crime has been committed in a locked room with no way in or out, so the suspects have all been present at the murder/crime scene.
Cozy mystery : similar to whodunit, with the sole difference that the protagonist is most often a woman with no experience in solving crime, and the setting is a small, cozy town rather than a big city.
American noir/hardboiled crime fiction: where the protagonist, in the course of solving the crime, runs into personal danger. Darker themes like abuse, sex, and violence are at the forefront of these stories.
Police procedural and forensic crime: the protagonists are members of the police or a forensic team, like pathologists, and either use standard police procedures to solve the crime, or forensic tools, respectively.

8. Subgenres based on committing a crime

When it comes to committing a crime, while there are two basic subtypes of stories, there are two main subgenres:

Caper stories: opposite of whodunit and procedural stories, the protagonists are criminals who are trying to evade capture of legal authorities – after they had committed the crime, or they commit the crime in the first part of the story.
Heist stories: they always revolve around theft, often grand theft in museums or casinos, and the protagonists are trying to commit the crime by the end of the story.

9. Connect the theme and the subgenre

The theme, or, the point you want your reader to take in while reading the story, needs to directly dictate the type of subgenre you are going to use, and so will the nature of your protagonist. A mother trying to get revenge for the death of her child will most probably not be trying to rob a bank or a casino. A con man looking for his big score (moneywise), who is trying to keep himself out of prison, will not be so willing to murder the guards of the Hope Diamond.

10. Use a certain balance of humor

Short stories, by nature, need to have a certain sense of lightness that would make it easy for the reader to lose themselves in the story. Even stories that deal with darker themes like violence and abuse need to have the narrative deliver the same lightness that makes it easy for the readers to absorb what is happening. Humor is one of the best tools to use in the narrative to make the story lighter for the reader to take in.

However, some themes are more serious, and using excessive humor, for example, in a short story of a mother trying to get revenge and kill the murderer of her dead child, humor would not be welcome. Humor helps to make stories “read” or “feel” softer, but it would also take the reader away from such a dramatic and traumatic story. The only possible type of humor acceptable in such a story might be sarcasm or irony, but even that should be used sparingly and only if sarcasm is a strong element of the protagonist’s personality.

On the other hand, heist stories, whodunit stories, and cozy mysteries would highly benefit from the use of humor. Humor can make any story better, as long as it is used in a manner appropriate for the theme and the point that you are trying to make with it.

Writing Prompts

70 Mystery Writing Prompts That’ll Keep Your Readers Hooked

From whodunits to unsolved crimes, here are over 70 mystery writing prompts that will keep your readers hooked from beginning to end.

The mystery genre is all about gathering clues and evidence to solve a crime or mystery of some sort. Common mysteries to solve may include murder, kidnappings, theft and any other unsolved crimes. The thing that makes a mystery story so appealing is that no one knows who the true culprit is until the very end of the story. And the big reveal at the end is always shocking to the reader. The secret to a good mystery lies in the plot twist . You have to be two steps ahead of your readers – Get inside the head of your readers and think, “Who would your readers think the main culprit is?” Then switch it around, and pick someone who is highly unlikely to be the real baddie.

You can pick a random prompt from our mystery writing prompts generator below to practice your plot twist skills on:

In a mystery novel, characters are a huge part of the mystery. Common characters may include:

Street smart detective – They ask all the right questions, but are the answers to be trusted?
Bent cop – Known for planting fake evidence at crime scenes.
Mysterious guy – No one knows anything about them, and therefore they could be an easy suspect in the case.
The scapegoat – The one everyone is blaming.
The obvious suspect – All clues point to this person.
The unobvious suspect – No real evidence against this person, but somehow they link to the crime in question.

When writing your mystery story think about the characters you would include carefully before diving in. We even recommend creating character profiles for each character, and maybe even a mind map to show their connection to the crime in question.

Take a look at this collection of the best mystery books for teens for some more ideas!

70 Mystery Writing Prompts

List of over 70 mystery writing prompts, from unsolved murder cases to items that vanished into thin air:

The richest man on Earth has a hidden vault filled with millions of dollars, expensive jewellery and gems. One night he goes to add to his collection of gems and notices a sentimental piece of jewellery missing.
One-by-one random things keep on going missing in your house. First your watch, then a teapot. Who is taking them and why?
One of your classmates mysteriously stops coming to school. It’s been nearly 2 weeks since you last saw them. What could have happened to them?
A police officer finds a dead body at a barber’s shop in town. The cause of death was drowning. No one knows how the body got there and who did it.
A person takes a game of snakes and ladders too literally. In random locations around the city, snakes and ladders have been placed. Where do those ladders go? Why are snakes placed in these random places? Can you solve this strange mystery?
You wake up in a warehouse with no memory of how you got there. The warehouse office is filled with newspaper clippings of missing people from the past 20 years. Who is the kidnapper and why are you in this warehouse?
Last night a series of supermarkets and warehouses across the city were robbed. The thief or thieves only steal toilet paper. Can you solve this case?
Meet Benji, the cat detective. Benji is a feisty feline who is on a mission to capture the great tuna can thief.
At exactly 7.08 pm last night a scream was heard from 59 Pebble Lane. The neighbours knocked but no one was home. Later that night, the police arrived at approximately 2.13 am to find a cold dead body on the floor in a pool of spilt tea.
You are a reporter for the Imagine Forest Times newspaper, you are writing an article on the missing bird eggs in the local forest.
Imagine you are a security guard. It’s your first night shift at the local art Museum. The next morning a priceless painting goes missing, and you are blamed. You need to prove your innocence before you are sent to prison, but how?
Write a time travel mystery story where the main character keeps going back in time to find out who really murdered their parents.
You and your friends go to the fairground. You decide to ride the carousel. Round and round you go, and then the ride stops. When it stops you notice one of your friends is suddenly missing. Where did they go? (See our list of writing prompts about friendship for more ideas.)
The main character in your story is caught red-handed with the missing jewel in their hand. But did they really steal this jewel?
Write a diary from the perspective of a paranoid person who thinks their neighbour is stealing from them.
Write down an action scene where the main character trails the secondary character to an abandoned warehouse. What do you think will happen next?
Someone has been stealing mobile phones at your school. You think you know who it is, so you set up a try to catch the thief.
A bent police officer has been planting false evidence at crime scenes for years. Who are they protecting and why?
Write a script between two characters who are meeting in secret to discuss some new evidence in a murder trial.
Imagine you are a detective interviewing a suspect in the crime of jewellery theft. Write down some questions that you might ask the suspect. If you have time, you can also write the possible answers from the suspect’s point of view.
You discover a note in your bag. It says, “I know what YOU have done!” – Who can have left this note, and what are they talking about?
Write a story about a young police officer who is solving the murder case of his best friend from high school. The twist is that this police officer turns out to be the murderer.
For over 10 years, your twin sister was missing. But there she is – Suddenly walking in the middle of the street. Where has she been? What happened to her?
Imagine you are an investigator examining the scene of a murder crime. What types of clues would you look out for? Can you make a list of at least 10 possible clues you might find?
A police car is chasing a potential suspect in a murder trial. Halfway through the chase, the police car disappears. The suspect slows down their car, and wonders, “What happened? Why did they stop coming after me?”
You come home from school one day and notice that your mother’s things are gone. Your first thought is that she left you and your father. But the truth is that she was kidnapped by someone.
A mysterious person has stolen all your teddy bears and is holding them for ransom somewhere. Each day you get a cryptic riddle. If you can solve each riddle you will receive one teddy bear back each time.
It’s the year 3,000. Your main character is a lawyer for a robot. They must prove this robot’s innocence in a human murder trial. (See this list of sci-fi writing prompts for more inspiration.)
Someone keeps stealing textbooks from your school. One day you go to school and see a huge statement art piece outside the school made from the stolen textbooks. Can you find out who did this?
Cinderella has turned into a detective. She needs to solve the case of the stolen glass slippers. After all those glass slippers are super rare.
The main character in your story must prove their innocence in a murder trial. How would they do this? What evidence would they need?
The main character in your story discovers that their brother is the real killer. They then try to destroy all evidence linked to their brother to protect them.
“Poppy! Poppy! Where are you, buddy?” Mindy searched for her pet Labrador everywhere. But she was nowhere to be seen. It turns out all the dogs in town have been missing since last night. What could have possibly happened to them?
Someone has been leaving embarrassing photographs of various people all over town. Can you track down this person? Why are they posting these photos?
Write a mystery story titled, ‘Piece-by-Piece’ about a jigsaw puzzle thief who is stealing random puzzles pieces.
You notice some muddy footprints leading into a thick forest at your local park. You follow this trail of footprints to a secret hatch in the woods. The door of the hatch has been left open. When you go inside you discover something shocking.
Your dog digs up an old lunchbox in your backyard. Inside the lunchbox, you find a key, an address and some old newspaper clipping of missing people. You think you can solve this case of the missing people by just visiting that address. But things get a little more complicated…
This is a mystery story about a boy named Billy who’s home alone and is playing with a toy truck when he finds a strange box. His mother, a lady with a past, is suspicious of this mysterious box, so she calls the police. Billy’s mother is a detective, and they find that the box is really a trap, and Billy is kidnapped.
Write a crime mystery story about how a little girl’s dream of becoming a scientist led to her death. Why would anyone murder a young girl who wants to be a scientist? How did this happen?
A small-town sheriff gets caught up in the biggest robbery in history. When over a million dollars just vanish into thin air, people are quick to blame the shifty-eyed sheriff from out of town. But is he really the culprit in this crime?
When Sara was a young girl she was kidnapped by a strange man and woman who took care of her. But now Sara wants to know what happened to her real parents. Are they still alive? Are they still looking for her?
The clock is ticking. Somewhere in the city, a group of hostages are locked up. With every hour that goes by, one hostage will be killed. The main character, a street-smart detective must solve the clues to find the location of these hostages in time.
A police officer finds himself in a very unusual situation. It is just before 6 pm on a Friday night when police were called to a disturbance in the street. The call came from a man who was allegedly threatening a woman with a knife. The man was arrested at 6.05 pm and taken to the police station. However, it was later revealed that the woman left at home has been murdered by someone else, but who?
A murder mystery party takes a dark turn when one of the guests is murdered for real.
Write a mystery story titled, ‘Who Stole My Homework?’ The main character’s A* worthy English essay is stolen by someone, but who?
Use this sentence as inspiration: Inspector Robins pulls out his notebook and writes down two words: Green fingers.
“10 car windows broken in 10 days! What does it all mean? What does it mean?” Exclaimed Detective Riley.
During a stop and search, a police officer finds a dead body in the boot of a car. But is the car driver really to blame?
A lost bracelet ends up in your best friend’s locker at school, along with other precious items. Your best friend is wrongly accused of stealing these items.
One girl must find her stolen prom dress before the prom. In the days leading up to the prom, more and more of her accessories for prom night are being stolen. Who is this thief?
Write a mystery thriller titled, “Come and Get It”. It’s about an arrogant criminal who is stealing sentimental items from each police officer in the state, He leaves these items in random locations in the city, along with a note that says: Come and get it!
Every night the car alarms for every car on your street turn on at exactly 2.03 am. why is this happening, and who is responsible?
A mysterious hacker has hacked into the city’s power grid. They have the power to on and off electricity whenever they want. Can you catch them before they do any more damage?
A secret admirer is leaving expensive gifts for your main character. At first, these gifts seem great, but then they soon take a dark twist (see our Valentine’s Day Prompts for more inspiration).
Your main character is at their senior prom. Dancing the night away. Suddenly the lights go off. Pitch darkness for a minute. When the lights come on, your best friend is gone. And there’s a message in red paint on the wall: You’re next!
Your teacher gives back your English assignment, and you got an F! Looking closer, you realise that this is not your assignment at all! The same starts happening in your other classes. Someone has been swapping your assignments – But who?
For the past few days, you have been receiving anonymous emails from someone. The emails are telling you not to be friends with him. You don’t take any of these emails seriously until the police come knocking on your door.
A family picnic at the park becomes unbearable when you open up the basket to discover every family members untold secrets.
You are at a Chinese restaurant with your family. It’s time to open up the fortune cookies. When your mother opens up her fortune cookie, it says: “One of your children has been very naughty!”. Then your father opens his cookie up, it says: “Who’s been sneaking around behind mommy’s and daddy’s back?” All eyes at the table are on you. But what did you do?
Your main character is a bent cop. Trying to manipulate the course of justice, and helping real criminals get away with murder. One day, someone plants evidence that gets this bent cop arrested for a murder they did not commit.
Write down a scene between two characters. In this scene, the ‘real’ criminal is trying to convince a detective that someone else is guilty of the crime of stealing from a church.
There are three potential suspects in the murder case of Phillip Green. You are the lead detective on this case. What questions would you ask these suspects to find the real murderer? Make a list of at least 10 questions you may ask.
A health inspector arrives at a vegan restaurant to discover rotten vegetables, and raw, old meat. The owners know nothing about this and believe someone planted this as sabotage. Who can have sabotaged the vegan restaurant?
Write a short mystery story for kids titled, ‘Why is the sky blue?’ One child’s curiosity about the sky leads them to discover a secret playground in the park.
Your main character is a news reporter who is convinced that the killer of Rosie Moore is still out there. They know that the police have convicted the wrong person for this heinous crime. Can your main character find the real killer before the wrong person is sentenced to life in prison?
Someone has been replacing all shampoos around town with a hair removal solution. When half the town’s hair starts falling out, it is up to you, a top detective to solve this crime.
Write a mystery story set in the future where a secret cyber group called the ‘Merry Man’ are hacking the bank accounts of rich people and giving this money to the poor. Your main character is a police detective trying to hunt the members of this cyber group down.
A mysterious person is playing a nasty game of hide and seek with you. They have kidnapped your friends and family members and hid them in various locations within the city. You have exactly 1 hour to find each person before something bad happens to them.
Someone has left a note in your locker at school. The note reads: Help me, please! You ignore this note, but more notes start appearing in your notebooks, bag and even at home. Until eventually you get a package through the mail. You open this package and scream…
Write an animal mystery tale about a dog who wants to find the original owner of a doll he found in the park.
Can you solve this bonus mystery prompt: Someone has been stealing socks from the locals at night. Who could this be and why would they be doing this? (See video prompt below for more ideas.)

Did you find these mystery writing prompts useful when writing your own story? Let us know in the comments below!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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Detective Short Stories in English

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All Tenses

List of Short Detective Stories in English

The Mystery of the Shattered Ice: Story, Exercises, Answers | Online & PDF Booklet Chief Roger McCollum patrols the small town of Northbury, Pennsylvania, where crime is scarce. But when the mayor calls him with an urgent request, he must put his detective skills to the test. Can he crack the case and protect his community, all while keeping the local kids out of trouble? Find out in this heartwarming detective story.

Detective Nora and the Ancient Statue: Story, Glossary, Exercises, and Answer Key | Online & PDF Booklet Nora and William, fellow students, travel to Mexico for an international conference, but their short trip turns into a surprising crime scene, which they now must solve! Read the story and follow the clues to try and solve the mystery.

New Year's Robbery: Can Detective Beatrice Solve the Case? (Story + Glossary) | Detective Story in English | Online Join Detective Beatrice on a thrilling New Year's Eve adventure as she works to solve the mystery of the stolen art in a cold New Year's Eve. Will she catch the thief and recover the valuable piece before the clock strikes midnight? Find out in this exciting detective story.

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Submitted into Contest #151 in response to: Write about a character who keeps ending up in the same place. ... view prompt

Crime Fiction Mystery

This story contains themes or mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse.

The summer I turned sixteen and got my license, Kyle Lewis was pulled dead from the lake. It was the week before Christmas and heat pressed down over the town. People went to the lake to cool off, but Kyle didn’t drown. There was no water in his lungs.

Coming back now, ten years passed, like always when I returned to visit my parents, I found myself slowing down when I reached the lake. The turn off was on the long road which led to their house and then on into town, and I felt myself pulled toward it, as if a magnet lay in the deep centre of it, drawing me. I stopped and got out the car and stood there on the side of the road, looking out toward the water, the shimmer of sun on the still surface.

The memories rushed back at me. The evenings my father and I spent out in the garage working on the car he’d bought for us to do up together. My sister sobbing at our table and my mother comforting her while my father stood silent. The long days of summer and the police and the rumours people whispered to one another. The swagger of the Ryan brothers around town.

And the last day of Kyle’s life, recounted to police by those who’d seen him. That day he’d slept until eleven. He and my sister Taylor had been up late drinking the night before, and when they woke the empty bottles and glasses were still on the bench, the smell of booze hung in the air of their little house.

They lived on the same long road as my parents did, but further into town. I passed their house each day when I biked home from school, dreaming of the day my car would finally be ready for me.

Kyle was hungover and he sat on the couch and rolled a cigarette while Taylor made them coffee. She asked him if he wanted anything to eat and he said no, he wasn’t hungry. He was quiet and she knew he was worried. He was worried because he owed Dean Ryan and his brother Pete money, and they were getting impatient.

When told this, the police wanted to know what he owed them for. Taylor said he bought some car parts off Pete Ryan and hadn’t paid him yet, but eventually she told them the truth. By then he’d been found and lay cold in the morgue, and she wasn’t worried anymore about what might happen to him. It already had.

Kyle drank his coffee and smoked two cigarettes one after the other, then he showered and pulled on the jeans and navy tee shirt he would die in.

He told her he was going to visit a friend and drove out the way he always did, tires squealing, sending up a cloud of dust which hung in the still air. At the Mobil on the corner, he pulled in to buy more cigarettes and an energy drink. While he was stood there at the counter, Pete Ryan walked in and came up behind him.

“I’m coming to collect today,” Pete said.

That was what the cashier heard him say, and she didn’t know what it meant. She said Kyle didn’t reply, or if he did, she didn’t hear it. Or maybe she knew more, just like we all knew more, and didn’t want to get on the wrong side of the Ryan brothers.

My dad had gone to high school with them both, in the same year as Dean who was the oldest, and he said even back then they were raising hell all over town, making a name for themselves.

After Kyle left the Mobil, he came to ask my father for money. When he pulled in Dad and I were out in the garage, tightening the brakes in the car. We’d spent the last six months working on it. Just like he’d promised it would be, now that I could drive it was almost ready.

Kyle got out and my dad looked at him, something cold coming over his expression. He stood silent and waited.

“Can we talk?” Kyle asked him.

They headed inside to the kitchen. A minute later I followed and sidled up to the door, stood silent, hardly breathing. Dad was standing against the bench with his arms folded, Kyle in front of him with desperation sliding off him.

“Please, I wouldn’t ask you if I had anyone else to go to. I swear to God, I’ll pay you back. I just owe Pete for this car I bought off him...”

My father cut him off with a hard laugh. “That piece of shit you're driving’s not worth five hundred dollars let alone five thousand. You come here begging me for money at least have the guts not to lie about why.”

A liar was one of the things my father despised most. Almost as much as he did a man who would hit a woman. My sister’s boyfriend was both those things.

“Alright, but it’s not what it sounds like,” Kyle said, his tone thin and pleading. A way I’d never heard him speak to my sister. For her he’d never crawled. “I sold some pot for them, and I owe them money from it. It was only a one-time thing, I just got to get square with them.”

It was a version of the story I’d heard, which was that he’d been selling a long time for them. And he’d only skimmed a small amount, but they’d added interest.

Dad stood up straight from the bench, and even though he was the same size as Kyle he seemed to loom over him.

“You want me to fix your mess now? What sort of man are you?”

It was a question both asked and answered in his scathing tone. A liar. A coward. The worst kind. I knew exactly what sort of man my father was, what he expected me to be. A man who was strong, who didn’t cry or complain, who took care of his family.

Then my dad spoke again. “I know what kind of trouble you’re in. I’ll pay the Ryan brothers off for you, and you leave town, leave my daughter. That’s the deal.”

Kyle made an odd noise, helpless and angry sounding. “You can’t just tell me to leave town.”

The words weren’t all the way out and my father had him around the collar, slammed him back against the wall.

“You think I give a shit if Dean Ryan finishes you off? You’re in my house now, and if I ever see so much as a scratch on my daughter again, I’ll break both your arms.”

Then he stepped back, folded his arms again, as if the moment had never happened. Everything felt still. The only sound was a fly buzzing against the window, loud and frantic.

Kyle stayed slumped against the wall a second, eyeing my father, indecision in his clenching and loosening fists. Then without another word he turned and left. Saw me there in the hallway and his eyes met mine, knowing I’d witnessed it, his moment of humiliation.

He pushed past me roughly, shoving his shoulder into me. I felt a shiver of apprehension then. Not for myself, but my sister. My father had wounded him, and she would bleed for it.

He left our house and went back to his. Driving fast up the long road which ran between us. He was tense when he got back, pacing and smoking in the kitchen. He and Taylor argued, she told the police.

They argued because he asked if she would leave town with him, and she said no. She didn’t want to leave her family. He told her if she really loved him, she would go with him. While they were arguing she tripped over, she hit her face against the bench and split her lip.

Later that day Kyle drove the short distance into town and went into the pub which Dean and Pete Ryan didn't drink at. He got drunk and he started talking big, saying he wasn’t scared of the Ryan brothers. He had a knife and he was ready to kill which ever one came for him first.

About nine in the evening the doorman kicked him out. He was marched outside and told to walk it off and come back for his car in the morning.

The doorman stood there and watched him leave. He was the last to see him before he was pulled bloated and broken boned from the water, his unsteady walk as he headed down the road which led to his own house, and past that my parents’ house, and if he kept going further still the lake.

The next morning the car was there on the street still, Kyle not in his bed, and my sister starting phoning around to see if anyone knew where he was.

Two days later his body rose up to the surface of the lake, and was spotted by a man out fishing. Both Ryan brothers were pulled in for questioning. People saw them escorted into the station.

After seeing Kyle at the Mobil, Pete Ryan had gone to spend the afternoon watching his son play cricket. He’d stood on the sideline and watched him make run after run, and after he’d taken him out for dinner. Then he’d dropped him back to his mother’s house and gone around to his brother Dean’s house.

He and Dean sat outside in the warm night and drank a box of Woodstock. Sometime about midnight, he couldn’t remember for sure, Dean headed to bed and Pete stretched out on the couch and went to sleep.

They were each the others alibi. Nothing ever linked them there to the lake. Still, many in town believed it was them. Others said there was no sense in the brothers killing him over a few thousand dollars, after all, now they were never getting their money. They said Kyle pissed plenty of people off, and maybe he mouthed off to the wrong person as he made his way home.

The police came to our house the day after he was found to speak to my father. They sat in the lounge as the fan stirred air overhead and I passed them cans of lemonade from the fridge.

Dad told them about Kyle asking him for money, coming over while we were working out there on the car, and he nodded his head toward it, the freshly painted Ford.

Then one of the cops shook his head and laughed. Looked at my father. “You can’t have been too pleased to have your daughter shacked up with him,” he said.

“I sure wasn’t,” my dad replied.

I wished he’d lie then, for his own sake. Not admit he’d hated his daughter’s murdered boyfriend. But Dad always said, your word is all you have. Be someone people can trust. There’s no one on this earth I trust more than him.

It was a story now, a decade later, the haunted lake. Kids who swam out there claimed they felt something grab at their legs under the water. He was always trying to be someone big in town, Kyle Lewis, and eventually he was.

Every time I visited, Dad and I would drift out to the garage after dinner. Just like we used to when I was a kid still living at home. There was something soothing about being out there with him, the petrol scented concrete and the glow of the florescent light, the way we understood one another without having to speak. My childhood was something unending there.

Dad took two beers from the fridge in the garage and passed me one and we stood drinking, looking toward the road. It was quiet out here at night. I wondered if he felt the pull of the lake like I did.

“Do people still think it was the Ryan’s who killed Kyle?” I asked, not looking at him. We never spoke of that.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said. “People don't talk much about it now.”

I remembered the day Kyle was pulled from the lake, the convoy of police cars driving past as we stood there in the garage. The solemnness of their cars with sirens and lights off, and the scraping sound of Dad scrubbing sandpaper over the car. The stark look of the metal underneath the old paint.

“Dad, stop, they might see,” I had begged him. He paused only long enough to look up at me.

“Everyone knows we been doing up this car, son,” he said. “No one will think a thing about it.”

He was right of course. Everyone was too busy looking at Dean and Pete Ryan. The police looked right at the car as they sat in our house and looked away again. My dad bought a new headlamp to replace the smashed one and took the car in for a new paint job after he’d banged out the dent, and no one ever said a thing except to ask what colour he wanted it.

But for all those years afterward when I went out there to the lake, I couldn’t stop myself imagining it. My dad in the darkness hauling the body from his car. Carrying him over the stones so as to not leave a trail, and how he did that I didn’t know.

He dropped him in all the way round the far side where trees grew low into the water and no one ever swam, and it was time enough before he was found for what evidence there was to be lost.

I could only imagine it because I had sworn to never speak of that night, not to anyone. Not even him.

The memory I carried was buried inside me now, of driving up the road to test the brakes on the car and rounding a corner and seeing him there. The animal look of him in my headlights, the drunken lumber, the glowing eyes, and for a instant I saw again him barging me in the hallway of my house, hitting my sister in his own house.

There was a moment I could have braked and didn’t. I could have swerved and didn’t.

My dad was there in minutes after I called him, stood with me looking at the lifeless shape of Kyle Lewis on the side of the road. There was the sound of something deep in the night, frogs and birds, coming from the bush.

Then he put his hands on my shoulders, looked at me steadily.

“Listen to me, this is my fault. I was the one driving. You got that? You can never speak about this again, do you understand?”

He pressed his own keys into my hand, ordered me to drive his car home and shower and go to bed and forget this ever happened. I got into his car and saw in the rear-view mirror the car there on side of the road, my father beside it, phone in his hand.

That moment was the end of my first life, the hazy days of childhood where anything felt possible. The life which came after was both darker and clearer, the knowledge of exactly what I was.

“Who’d you call that night?" I asked him. "I’ve always wondered.”

I didn’t know if he’d answer. I’d made a promise to him, and that was what we did. We kept our word. He’d protected me all these years.

“I called Dean Ryan. Told him I’d hit someone on the road and I needed his help. We go back a long way, me and him. He helped me dump him out there.”

He nodded his head toward it, the lake we couldn’t see from here but could feel. It was something which would always be there between us, the dark magnet of the past, pulling at us.

“What’d you have to do for him?”

Dean Ryan did no favours. What he gave, you paid for. My dad looked at me again, and I felt the weight of all the things I didn’t know.

“It was bad for him, everyone seeing Kyle still walking around after ripping him off. I paid off Kyle’s debt to him, and he let people think what they wanted.”

I thought then of Dean Ryan’s long silence. Denying or admitting nothing. The silence which had grown between me and my dad. All of us bound by it.

That night I had known, as I always had, my father would do anything to protect me. Because I knew what sort of man he was; one who took care of his own. Same as I was.

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294 likes 193 comments

The way you sustained the tension throughtout was masterful. Just an incredible job.

Thanks for your comment!

Hello Kelsey,great story.You really deserved the win.I love how you finally revealed the murder at the end and all along drawing in the interests of your readers. Kudos👍

Thanks for your comment, glad you enjoyed!

I know I'm a little late, but I hope you still see this; your story was so, so good! Sometimes it can be hard for me to really get "pulled in" to a story, but you did it so well here. And I liked all of the characters (except for the bastard boyfriend), the father especially. I hope you write more :)

Thanks Mavis, I'm so glad you enjoyed the story and the characters.

What an excellent story and a well deserved win! Congrats. I loved that at first I thought it was the Ryan brothers, then the father only to to discover it was 'you'. Perfect!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed!

Hi Kelsey! This is my second attempt writing up this comment, because I lost connection the first time around and I lost it, but I'll try to gather my thoughts again: loved reading this. Mystery is something I consider a different genre to write, hence why I haven't attempted it myself. I wish I had the brainpower to pull it off as you did! I really, really enjoyed how you gave us the pieces of the puzzle but also through the lense of how they told the story: how Taylor tripped and hit her head, split her lip hit HARD and it was so much str...

Thanks Riel, I appreciate your kind comments. This was my first attempt at writing a mystery/twist ending story and it was definitely hard to write. I didn't actually think about the pull to the lake giving it away but I can see why you picked it up, have to include it though to fit with the prompt! I'm glad you still enjoyed the rest even though you had guessed it :) That line was my favourite too actually, for the same reason.

Congrats for the win!!! I feel like this was long overdue - so so well deserved 👏🎉

Thanks, was a big surprise to wake up to this morning (the email comes through at about 3am my time!)

It hit me hard too. So simple yet carries so much weight.

Great. Storytelling. I think it takes a lot of talent to give away the ending at the very beginning, but keep readers captivated enough to want discover what led to that ending. Your writing is smooth, an effortless read. You kept all your characters well organized and distinct, and the way you revealed the truth behind the murder was perfectly paced. And I enjoyed the theme of this fiercely loving family who are willing to do anything for each other. Great job.

Thanks, Aeris. I'm glad you though the way of telling the story in reverse worked. I was worried there might be too many characters by short story standards actually, so appreciate your comments on that!

I was hooked all the way through. This was a great, suspenseful read. I had my suspicions that bounced back and forth as you revealed details. I love it and hope to read more from you.

Thanks for commenting, glad you enjoyed!

The story was great. You did an excellent job keeping the attention. Couldn’t stop reading. It was great how you drew the readers in with the suspense of who did it. Great job. Looking forward to reading more from w

Thanks for your comment, glad you enjoyed the story!

Dear author, I am quite taken with your story. I am impressed by how you hid the murderer and the murder weapon in plain sight. The narrative flows like water and is easy to follow, which is a difficult thing to achieve. I keep coming back and reading the story again and again, and each time I am just as impressed as the first. I really want to ask how you managed to stay on track and tie up all of your loose ends? really any type of advice on narrative would be welcome.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting. This story was fun to write although did take a few drafts to get it the way I wanted it. I had the main plot for this in my head before I started writing which helped, I knew I wanted to write from the pov of the person who committed the crime while making it look like someone else had done it. So it was a matter of trying to work out where to put clues and misdirects, I was hoping the reveal would be a surprise but also make sense. The only part I didn't plan was the involvement of Dean Ryan wit...

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and share your process. It's really insightful. I appreciate it.

This story!!! So masterfully written-the character, the plot, all the little details, the mis-directs, and the prose. It is rare to find a story that has all of these, but I have found it in this one. Thank you for a master class in short story writing (and also, incidentally, for commenting on Zack's story because that allowed me to discover yours). Can't wait to read more of your work, but first, I am going to go back and read this one.

Thanks so much Wally, I'm glad you enjoyed the story. It was my first go writing mystery so it was a bit of a struggle although fun to try something different!

Well you nailed it! Looking forward to reading more of your work.

Wow, what a gripping, engaging story. It was somber and I even imagined it in sepia colors, yet it was an edge-of-your-seat kind of thriller with heartbeat drumming in the background. Love the simplicity yet effectiveness of your prose. You really captured the ethos and pathos of the story arc. You have quite a skill for depicting that small town rustic scenery, and the slow but tense atmosphere that went with it. Love the development of your characters, understated yet seemingly painted in detail. Thank you for the great read!

Thanks Leo, really appreciate you taking the time to let me know what you think of the story. My favourite setting to write is a small town where almost everyone is connected in some way!

Hi Kelsey! I’m sorry I missed congratulating you on this piece! And what a brilliant one it was. I had a tough time picking a favorite line since you had so many beautiful ones. However, I settled on this one: …then he showered and pulled on the jeans and navy tee shirt he would die in. This piece reminded me of so many of those made for TV series about crimes that have passed. I swear I felt like reading this story was like watching a show. I think I loved most that in telling story you captured an entire town. I would love a sequel where ...

Thanks so much for your comment Amanda! I love your comparison to a TV show, I definitely see the story in a movie (in my head) type way when I write. I love true crime stories so wanted to give it that sort of factual beginning to end type retelling.

Wonderful example of HOW the first sentence can already make or break a story from reader's perspective. Also, a style I appreciate reading, impressive.

Thanks so much for your nice comment, I always try to have the first sentence something which will catch attention, so glad you thought it worked here.

This story got everything that makes the best thrillers: Southern gothic-like atmosphere, believable characters who sidestep the "villain" cliches thanks to the emphasis on their human weaknesses and strengths, just the right amount of things left unsaid yet crystal clear (the sister "tripping" over the bench) and of course a very adroit, well-delivered twist. All the qualities of a great novel condensed in one great story. I hope you try your hand at a longer form, if you haven't already, because you obviously have the talent for it.

Thanks so much for your comment. I was aiming for a gothic sort of feel but wasn't sure if I'd managed to create it, so I'm very happy to hear you say that! It is definitely my goal to publish a novel one day, and what I have written does cover some of the themes in this story (though it is in fairly early draft form right now) so very much appreciate your words on that too.

Hello Kelsey, I was captivated right from the beginning , I could clearly picture the images in my head and I literally screamed when I found out that it wasn't the Ryan brothers but "you" . A great work indeed , you really deserved the win. Cheers.

Oh wow this is so dang good! So intense! You wrote this amazingly well. I did not see the ending coming at all. I love a story where an abuser gets what’s coming to him, too. Great job! Congratulations!😻

Hi Kelsey H, Enjoyed your story so much I have selected it to be our story for our Literary Shorts group this week! We meet on Mondays at 1:00 pm. We usually start off by giving some background on the author. Could you please send me a brief introduction to you so I can pass it on to our club members. (We are becoming fans of Reedsy and the stories that fit into our theme of literary shorts.) You can email me your information to [email protected] if you prefer. Thanks. Pat Ruhe

Thanks for your comment! Sorry hope not to late with the intro, you can just use my profile if you want but that's about it, I live in NZ, I love to read and write in my spare time, though I have only started writing short stories since finding Reedsy. I enjoy writing family relationships and dynamics and that is what most of my stuff is focused on.

A well deserved win. I enjoyed the story too much to even try looking for any "errors" in writing, grammar, and what not. I bet you could turn this into a novella or mystery novel, and it would be just as good, only longer and more detailed. And I would be first in line to read it. Will have to read more of your work.

Thanks for your comment. I actually have an idea of turning this into a novel, so very glad to hear you say that!

Awesome. I hope.you post the chapters on here so we can enjoy the story as it unfolds. I did a novella here that has all the chapters on here. It's titled Special Ingredient, and that's the title of the first chapter.

This is really well written you make it look so easy. I wish I could write like that; A well done piece using the prompt and nice style, happy writing and a deserving win.

This was an amazing read, would you mind if I illustrated this as if it were the book cover? I’m looking for short stories to practice illustrating and the visuals this gives me are beyond amazing. You truly are talented, I could not take my eyes off the screen.

Thanks for your comment. Yes that's fine, let me know if you have a website or something I can see it on!

You know I have read this story a few times, I’m just trying to get better, did you know exactly how you were gonna show the reveal, or did you come out naturally through process, like did you rewrite this at all? Just curious

Hi, so I had the plot and sequence of events in my head right away but trying to figure out how and when to do the reveal was the hard part. I rewrote the second part of the story a few times. I knew he was going to be out in the garage looking at the road when he reveals what happened which is why I tried to make the exact layout of the lake/house/road etc clear earlier on, and that he would start it by remembering working on the car since that goes back to the clue in the first sentence when he says how he got his licence that summer. ...

Oh wow thank you for the detailed reply I really appreciate it. I definitely agree with leaving some stuff to the imagination. Yeah the timing of the reveal was great in my opinion and made sense. I feel like the narrator was like a traitor to the reader at the end lol like he knew the whole time.

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Announcing the Winners of the 2024 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction

Series editor jenny minton quigley on the importance of finding the unusual in the ordinary.

Storytelling methods have changed a lot since the days when O. Henry was alive and writing his own immensely popular stories. What is striking about O. Henry is how he never divulged his deepest secret, which only came to be known after his death: that he had been arrested for embezzlement, fled, and returned to spend more than three years in prison.

Louis Menand suggested in The New Yorker that O. Henry’s endings were inspired by the secrets of his past, which he kept carefully concealed. O. Henry’s claim in an audio recording unearthed by Mike Springer at Open Culture and archived in the Austin Public Library that he was merely and simply transcribing his own ordinary observations and experiences in his stories is a cover for the ingenious narrative inventiveness with which he reliably entertained millions.

Although we may not read O. Henry’s stories as often as we once did, his literary spirit lives on in different form in the honorees of the prize his friends created in his honor. This year’s winners, a variety of celebrated and emerging writers, offer us peeks into their processes, their inspirations, what Nabokov called “the throbs” of a story.

But the true secrets of a writer, like those of O. Henry, may remain more deeply buried. What is unusual in a contemporary short story is more likely to be the manner of its writing, the spell that it casts upon the ordinary. O. Henry said, “ The unusual is the ordinary rather than the unexpected .”

Through Amor Towles’ 2024 selection of O. Henry Prize winning stories we are allowed glimpses into the minds, lives, and relationships of ordinary people. The stories introduce characters moving through all the stages of life, their revelations conjured up through vivid imagery—a couple driving through snow in a car with a stranger and their cat, a band of RVs in the desert, a canoe drifting on a lake under the stars, a greenhouse full of soccer balls.

We are living in a moment when it is crucial to be able to imagine the souls of our fellow human beings, to see past their curated social media personas, their filtered self-portraits, and their polarized allegiances—to part the curtains on the fleeting, momentary, miraculous sight of their secret selves that is essential for empathy and human connection.

–Jenny Minton Quigley

Emma Binder “ Roy “, Gulf Coast

Michele Mari “The Soccer Balls of Mr. Kurz,” translated from the Italian by Brian Robert Moore, The New Yorker

Brad Felver “Orphans,” Subtropics

Morris Collins “ The Home Visit ,” Subtropics

Jai Chakrabarti “ The Import ,” Ploughshares

Amber Caron “Didi,” Electric Literature

Francisco González “Serranos,” McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern

Caroline Kim “Hiding Spot,” New England Review

Katherine D. Stutzman “Junior,” Harvard Review

Juliana Leite “My Good Friend,” translated from the Portuguese by Zoë Perry, The Paris Review

Kate DiCamillo “The Castle of Rose Tellin,” Harper’s Magazine

Colin Barrett “Rain,” Granta

Robin Romm “Marital Problems,” The Sewanee Review

Allegra Goodman “The Last Grownup,” The New Yorker

Dave Eggers “The Honor of Your Presence,” One Story

E. K. Ota “The Paper Artist,” Ploughshares

Tom Crewe “The Room-Service Waiter,” Granta

Madeline ffitch “Seeing Through Maps,” Harper’s Magazine

Jess Walter “The Dark,” Ploughshares

Allegra Hyde “Mobilization,” Story

__________________________________

The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Winners , edited by Amor Towles and Jenny Minton Quigley, will be published in September by Vintage Books.

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Writing Genres

How to Write Crime Stories

Last Updated: January 29, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by David A. Payne, JD . David A. Payne is the President and Executive Producer of RainStream Media, a media company who focuses on telling true crime stories with underlying themes of social justice. He has extensive experience in media and entertainment, having served as both General Counsel and a C-level executive for comapnies such as Turner Broadcasting, CNN, and USA Today. He is also a lawyer - he received his JD from the Duke University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in California. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 240,702 times.

Like many authors, crime writers sometimes get an itch to break the conventions of the genre and create something unique. This is a fine impulse to listen to, but not one you want to take too far. Weigh the advice you hear against your own opinion, and find a path forward that includes everything you love about the mystery genre, garnishing the story with your own style.

Outlining the Plot

What could have led to this crime scene?
What motivation would cause someone to commit the crime, or to frame someone else?
What kind of person would follow through on that motivation?
Use Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? questions to get you started: Who committed the crime and who did they do it to? What was the crime? When did it happen (morning, evening, afternoon, dead of night)? Where did it happen? Why did they do it? How did they do it?

Recognize that the size of the place will influence the development of your story. For example, in a large city or busy public place, you will have lots of opportunities to introduce witnesses. However, in a “locked-room mystery” (one where all the characters seem to be present in the same room throughout the occurrence of the crime), you will likely have no external witnesses, but may be able to draw upon your characters opinions and biases of each other.
Focus on the elements of your setting that are essential to the story. For example, is weather essential? If it is, write about it in great detail. If it is not, only mention it briefly or leave it out altogether. A dark, gritty setting adds atmosphere and works well with stories centered on organized crime. Setting a crime in an idyllic, ordinary town adds its own kind of chill.

Some characters should be potential suspects for having committed the crime (and at least one should actually be guilty of the crime), some should be supporting characters that serve to make the storyline interesting (a love interest or meddling mother-in-law, perhaps), and one (or more) should be focused on solving the mystery.
Well-written characters will have motives for acting in ways that further the plot.Okay, the gritty noir detective or genius investigator is an option, but come up with alternatives or twists.
Make the crime matter personally to the protagonist, to raise the emotional stakes. This could be related to the protagonist's mysterious past, a close friend or family member in danger, or the fate of the town, country, or world. [1] X Research source

Step 4 Consider your antagonist or villain.

Describe your villain well, but not too well. You don’t want your reader to guess right from the beginning of the story who is the culprit. Your reader may become suspicious if you spend a disproportionate amount of time describing one character.
You may want to make your villain someone that has been slightly suspicious all along. On the other hand, you may want to make the revelation of the culprit or criminal a complete shock. “Framing” someone throughout the story is a surefire way to keep your readers hooked to your mystery short stories.
Instead of a villain, consider including a sidekick. Maybe your sleuth has a friend or partner that will help her sort the clues and point out things that she misses. [3] X Research source No one says the sleuth has to do it all alone! What if the sidekick and villain end up being one in the same?
Think of the basics. Male or female? What is the detective's name? How old are they? What do they look like (hair color, eye color, and skin tone)? Where are they from? Where are they living when your story starts? How did they become part of the story? Are they victims? Are they the cause of the problems in your story?

Present an opportunity for mystery. Create a situation in which a crime can reasonably occur and one that you will be able to reasonably recreate yourself. Did all the power go out in the city due to a thunderstorm? Was a door or a safe accidentally left unlocked? Paint a vivid picture of the situation surrounding the occurrence of the crime that will be the focus of your mystery.
Don’t underestimate the power of the “backdrop” for the crime. [4] X Research source An intricate understanding of the setting in which the crime takes place is an important tool that will help when it comes to developing your narrative.
Here are some suggestions for crimes: Something has been stolen from the classroom, Something is missing from your bookbag, Something strange is found on the baseball field, Someone has stolen the class pet, Someone is sending you strange notes, Someone has broken into the Science materials closet, someone has written on the bathroom wall, someone has tracked red mud into the building.

Step 6 Consider clues and the detective work.

You should include evidence processing skills such as fingerprinting, toxicology, handwriting analysis, blood spatter patterns, etc.
The detective work must be good. Develop how your detective or protagonist ultimately solves the case, keeping their personality and qualities in mind. Make sure it isn't cheesy or too obvious.

Writing the Story

If you want to write about what happens before the crime, you can go back in time for the second chapter, adding a subheading such as "one week earlier."

This is especially important for the biggest reveal — whodunnit? — and the wrong choice can ruin a novel for a lot of readers. The villain should either be a suspect or demonstrate enough suspicious behavior that a clever reader can guess the identity.

Community Q&A

Give yourself time. You can plan everything in advance, or you can write rapidly and edit later. Both approaches require a great deal of time, and a willingness to make major changes. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 1
Enlist people to edit your story and give feedback. After some polishing, steel yourself and show the work to strangers. Their advice will be harsher but more honest than your friends'. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 1

Crime fiction is a genre filled with cliché. There's a fine line between paying tribute to your favorite stories and style and straightforward copying. Thanks Helpful 13 Not Helpful 0

↑ http://armchairinterviews.com/pages/crime-fiction-tips-and-pet-peeves
↑ https://writerunboxed.com/2022/05/03/hiding-your-villain-in-plain-sight/
↑ https://screencraft.org/blog/writing-a-likeable-sidekick-7-archetypes-you-can-choose-from/
↑ https://jerichowriters.com/how-to-write-an-immersive-setting/
↑ https://www.novlr.org/the-reading-room/the-art-of-the-plot-twist-how-to-keep-your-audience-guessing

About This Article

If you want to write a crime story, start by choosing a crime, then work backward, describing what led to the crime. Think about what kind of person might commit a crime like this, and what might motivate them to do so. For instance, if you’re describing a bank heist, your criminals might be a gang of petty thieves looking for a big score, or it could be parents of a sick child who need money for treatment. Give the reader clues, but throw in some misleading details as well so the audience won’t guess what’s going on too early in the story! Read on to learn tips on describing your crime scene! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Reel Rundown: ‘What Jennifer Did’ gives view into dark recesses of mind of woman who resorted to murder of parents

America, it appears, is obsessed with crime. Or, at least, with true-crime programming

A 2022 poll by the public opinion and data company YouGov indicated that half of Americans enjoy true-crime content. Furthermore, one in three said that they devoured something related to true crime at least once a week.

Patricia Bryan, a professor emerita from the University of North Carolina Law School, has an opinion as to why this is. Co-author of the nonfiction book “Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America’s Heartland,” Bryan says it has to do with a confluence of what she describes as “escapism and entertainment.”

“It speaks to why people go into haunted houses or ride a roller coaster,” she said in an interview with her university’s magazine. “There’s something about facing danger when it’s not real, it’s not personal. People like to be scared or like to see the dark recesses of someone’s mind.”

That may explain why one of the highest-rated movies streaming on Netflix right now is the documentary “What Jennifer Did.” Written and directed by Jenny Popplewell, the film tells the story of a 2010 murder that occurred in a Toronto suburb.

Jennifer Pan is the daughter of a Vietnamese couple who had immigrated to Canada. But while the couple, mother Bich Ha Pan and father Huei Hann Pan, had adapted to a middle-class Canadian lifestyle, they retained a strict Vietnamese attitude toward parenting.

Jennifer’s parents demanded excellence from her, and they controlled every aspect of her life, not allowing her to date or even attend parties all through high school. She had some musical talent, as her piano teacher Fernando Baldassini explains, but she fell short of her parents’ expectations in other areas. And over the years, she found ways to fool them into thinking that she was achieving what they expected of her.

Yet all this, and more, would come to light only gradually. And only after the night that she called emergency services in a panic, claiming that someone had broken into the house, tied her up and shot her parents.

With Jennifer’s mother dead and her father seriously wounded and in a coma, the police had little to go on but the young woman’s testimony. Investigators began to question her story, though, and their suspicions were confirmed when dad woke up.

Director Popplewell reveals all this slowly, even if her film’s title gives away who did what from the very beginning. Watching investigators slowly break down Jennifer’s story, confronting her with one contradiction after the next, isn’t that much different from watching what plays out each week on such fictional shows as “Law & Order” or “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

Still, while the who, what, where and how aspects of the crime eventually are solved, Popplewell never truly gets to the heart of why. Yes, Jennifer Pan was controlled and manipulated, maybe even abused.

The fact is many children grow up in similar if not worse circumstances. Yet, few of them resort to murder.

Entertaining as it can be, maybe delving into the recesses of some minds is just too daunting a task for us to easily understand.

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Dallas Morning News reporter wins Poynter award for short writing, other staff recognized

Maggie prosser was recognized for her story about how a mother remembers her daughter who died from a fentanyl overdose.

The Dallas Morning News and public safety reporter Maggie Prosser were honored as finalist...

By Julia James

6:33 PM on Apr 23, 2024 CDT

Dallas Morning News reporter Maggie Prosser won a Poynter Journalism Prize on Tuesday for her story about how a grieving mother commemorates her daughter who died from fentanyl poisoning .

Prosser, who covers public safety, won the Roy Peter Clark Prize for Excellence in Short Writing, which honors stories of less than 800 words in any medium. The story was part of a newsroom initiative to chronicle the impact of fentanyl on North Texas.

“Last year, The Dallas Morning News and nearly 60 journalists spent months chronicling the impacts of fentanyl in our community,” said Executive Editor Katrice Hardy. “So much of this work, from inside schools to hospitals to the battle at the border and for law enforcement, was all aimed at educating our community to save lives. Maggie Prosser’s poignant and painstakingly woven short story was a powerful window into one mom’s life after losing her daughter to an overdose.”

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Prosser specifically thanked the story’s subject for her openness.

“This is an absolute honor, but all of the recognition goes to Kathy Travis — one of the strongest women I’ve had the privilege of meeting and knowing,” she said. “Over nearly a year of reporting, Kathy was patient, kind and generous with her time and Jessica’s story. She always believed in the power of these 425 words, and I’m extremely grateful to Poynter for acknowledging what Kathy knew all along.”

Poynter also recognized The News staff as a finalist for the Deborah Howell Award for Writing Excellence for its coverage of the Allen mall shooting. Megan Cassidy and Gabrielle Lurie of the San Francisco Chronicle won for their 18-month investigation of the link between migrants from Honduras’s Siria Valley to San Francisco’s drug crisis. Wright Thompson of ESPN was also a finalist for his story about Joe Montana.

“The finalist nod to this newsroom for the tragic Allen Mall shooting is another example of our journalists never losing focus on always informing and staying committed to our purpose no matter what this community is going through,” Hardy said.

The Poynter Journalism Prizes have been awarded annually for 45 years. The awards have changed institutional homes and names over the course of their existence, most recently being housed at the News Leaders Association. This is the first year the Poynter Institute has hosted the awards.

Related: The Dallas Morning News named newsroom of the year in Texas journalism awards

Julia James , Breaking News Reporter . Julia is a breaking news reporter with the Dallas Morning News. She is a Louisiana native and a graduate of the University of Mississippi where she studied journalism and public policy. She previously covered education for Mississippi Today in Jackson, Miss.

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Guest Essay

What Sentencing Could Look Like if Trump Is Found Guilty

A black-and-white photo of Donald Trump, standing behind a metal barricade.

By Norman L. Eisen

Mr. Eisen is the author of “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial.”

For all the attention to and debate over the unfolding trial of Donald Trump in Manhattan, there has been surprisingly little of it paid to a key element: its possible outcome and, specifically, the prospect that a former and potentially future president could be sentenced to prison time.

The case — brought by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, against Mr. Trump — represents the first time in our nation’s history that a former president is a defendant in a criminal trial. As such, it has generated lots of debate about the case’s legal strength and integrity, as well as its potential impact on Mr. Trump’s efforts to win back the White House.

A review of thousands of cases in New York that charged the same felony suggests something striking: If Mr. Trump is found guilty, incarceration is an actual possibility. It’s not certain, of course, but it is plausible.

Jury selection has begun, and it’s not too soon to talk about what the possibility of a sentence, including a prison sentence, would look like for Mr. Trump, for the election and for the country — including what would happen if he is re-elected.

The case focuses on alleged interference in the 2016 election, which consisted of a hush-money payment Michael Cohen, the former president’s fixer at the time, made in 2016 to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Mr. Bragg is arguing that the cover-up cheated voters of the chance to fully assess Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

This may be the first criminal trial of a former president in American history, but if convicted, Mr. Trump’s fate is likely to be determined by the same core factors that guide the sentencing of every criminal defendant in New York State Court.

Comparable cases. The first factor is the base line against which judges measure all sentences: how other defendants have been treated for similar offenses. My research encompassed almost 10,000 cases of felony falsifying business records that have been prosecuted across the state of New York since 2015. Over a similar period, the Manhattan D.A. has charged over 400 of these cases . In roughly the first year of Mr. Bragg’s tenure, his team alone filed 166 felony counts for falsifying business records against 34 people or companies.

Contrary to claims that there will be no sentence of incarceration for falsifying business records, when a felony conviction involves serious misconduct, defendants can be sentenced to some prison time. My analysis of the most recent data indicates that approximately one in 10 cases in which the most serious charge at arraignment is falsifying business records in the first degree and in which the court ultimately imposes a sentence, results in a term of imprisonment.

To be clear, these cases generally differ from Mr. Trump’s case in one important respect: They typically involve additional charges besides just falsifying records. That clearly complicates what we might expect if Mr. Trump is convicted.

Nevertheless, there are many previous cases involving falsifying business records along with other charges where the conduct was less serious than is alleged against Mr. Trump and prison time was imposed. For instance, Richard Luthmann was accused of attempting to deceive voters — in his case, impersonating New York political figures on social media in an attempt to influence campaigns. He pleaded guilty to three counts of falsifying business records in the first degree (as well as to other charges). He received a sentence of incarceration on the felony falsification counts (although the sentence was not solely attributable to the plea).

A defendant in another case was accused of stealing in excess of $50,000 from her employer and, like in this case, falsifying one or more invoices as part of the scheme. She was indicted on a single grand larceny charge and ultimately pleaded guilty to one felony count of business record falsification for a false invoice of just under $10,000. She received 364 days in prison.

To be sure, for a typical first-time offender charged only with run-of-the-mill business record falsification, a prison sentence would be unlikely. On the other hand, Mr. Trump is being prosecuted for 34 counts of conduct that might have changed the course of American history.

Seriousness of the crime. Mr. Bragg alleges that Mr. Trump concealed critical information from voters (paying hush money to suppress an extramarital relationship) that could have harmed his campaign, particularly if it came to light after the revelation of another scandal — the “Access Hollywood” tape . If proved, that could be seen not just as unfortunate personal judgment but also, as Justice Juan Merchan has described it, an attempt “to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election.”

History and character. To date, Mr. Trump has been unrepentant about the events alleged in this case. There is every reason to believe that will not change even if he is convicted, and lack of remorse is a negative at sentencing. Justice Merchan’s evaluation of Mr. Trump’s history and character may also be informed by the other judgments against him, including Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling that Mr. Trump engaged in repeated and persistent business fraud, a jury finding that he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll and a related defamation verdict by a second jury.

Justice Merchan may also weigh the fact that Mr. Trump has been repeatedly held in contempt , warned , fined and gagged by state and federal judges. That includes for statements he made that exposed witnesses, individuals in the judicial system and their families to danger. More recently, Mr. Trump made personal attacks on Justice Merchan’s daughter, resulting in an extension of the gag order in the case. He now stands accused of violating it again by commenting on witnesses.

What this all suggests is that a term of imprisonment for Mr. Trump, while far from certain for a former president, is not off the table. If he receives a sentence of incarceration, perhaps the likeliest term is six months, although he could face up to four years, particularly if Mr. Trump chooses to testify, as he said he intends to do , and the judge believes he lied on the stand . Probation is also available, as are more flexible approaches like a sentence of spending every weekend in jail for a year.

We will probably know what the judge will do within 30 to 60 days of the end of the trial, which could run into mid-June. If there is a conviction, that would mean a late summer or early fall sentencing.

Justice Merchan would have to wrestle in the middle of an election year with the potential impact of sentencing a former president and current candidate.

If Mr. Trump is sentenced to a period of incarceration, the reaction of the American public will probably be as polarized as our divided electorate itself. Yet as some polls suggest — with the caveat that we should always be cautious of polls early in the race posing hypothetical questions — many key swing state voters said they would not vote for a felon.

If Mr. Trump is convicted and then loses the presidential election, he will probably be granted bail, pending an appeal, which will take about a year. That means if any appeals are unsuccessful, he will most likely have to serve any sentence starting sometime next year. He will be sequestered with his Secret Service protection; if it is less than a year, probably in Rikers Island. His protective detail will probably be his main company, since Mr. Trump will surely be isolated from other inmates for his safety.

If Mr. Trump wins the presidential election, he can’t pardon himself because it is a state case. He will be likely to order the Justice Department to challenge his sentence, and department opinions have concluded that a sitting president could not be imprisoned, since that would prevent the president from fulfilling the constitutional duties of the office. The courts have never had to address the question, but they could well agree with the Justice Department.

So if Mr. Trump is convicted and sentenced to a period of incarceration, its ultimate significance is probably this: When the American people go to the polls in November, they will be voting on whether Mr. Trump should be held accountable for his original election interference.

What questions do you have about Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial so far?

Please submit them below. Our trial experts will respond to a selection of readers in a future piece.

Norman L. Eisen investigated the 2016 voter deception allegations as counsel for the first impeachment and trial of Donald Trump and is the author of “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

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Short Film Released Ahead of Columbine Anniversary Links Causes of Death for Children: Cancer and Gun Violence

‘American Cancer Story’ was released ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, in which 13 innocent people were killed 25 years ago

Taking Over Films / Klick Health

Twenty-five years ago, an unimaginable tragedy rocked the suburban community of Littleton, Colo. — and the nation. On April 20, 1999, students and staff arrived at Columbine High School for what they believed was just another school day. But what would happen later that morning would change the lives of many for years to come.

The massacre began a little after 11 a.m., when two teenage gunmen opened fire at their high school, killing 12 students and one teacher, and injuring 24 others. The shooters subsequently died by suicide in the school library.

At the time of the attack, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, but since then, other school shootings, like the massacres at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, and Texas’ Robb Elementary School in 2022, have claimed more lives.

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, Change the Ref (CTF) released a 90-second short film titled American Cancer Story , which “links gun violence and pediatric cancer in an emotional storyline about a young girl who beats cancer only to face a school shooting,” a press release shared with PEOPLE states.

CTF is an organization that encourages youth leadership and uses art to inspire people to work to end the gun violence epidemic in the U.S., its website says .

According to the latest data from the CDC , gun violence became the leading cause of death for children and teens in 2021, accounting for almost 19 percent of fatalities — more than car accidents or pediatric cancer, CNN reported .

According to the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation, cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among children.

The film was directed and written by José Padilha , known for his work on the Netflix original series Narcos and the 2014 film RoboCop . It also features an original score written by Maroon 5 founding member and lead guitarist James Valentine , who said in the release that he was “drawn to this project because I've been concerned about these two issues for a very long time.”

For Patricia and Manuel Oliver , co-founders of CTF, the film’s message hits close to home. Their son, 17-year-old Joaquin "Guac" Oliver, was one of 17 people killed in the mass shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla .

“These are two important issues that we are confronting,” Patricia, who also appears in the film as a teacher, said in the release.

Manuel added, “This is not about gun violence versus cancer; this is gun violence in alliance with cancer. How can we prevent both of them? Because a victim is a victim, and every father and mother who loses a child goes through the same pain.”

Patricia and Manuel previously opened up to PEOPLE about their pain and how they turned it into activism.

“I told them, ‘We are allowed to cry. We are allowed to be sad. We are allowed to scream. But we have to do something about it,’” Patricia told PEOPLE in 2019. “Whatever we do, we have to be outside because nothing is going to happen if we’re in here, in our room, crying and grabbing a pillow.”

Missy Mendo, then a 14-year-old freshman who survived the Columbine massacre, tells PEOPLE that she did not have a "normal" high school experience following the shooting and is still dealing with the horrific memories 25 years later.

"I feel like each anniversary is different," Mendo, now 39, says. "It depends on what's going on in my life situationally, but genuinely around April 1st is where you're starting to make human errors that you don't traditionally make, and it almost feels like a roller coaster that's going up and up and up, and it just never goes down."

The film’s website asks viewers to share the project and demand urgent change from politicians and lawmakers. It is also raising funds for 10 pediatric cancer charities and is running as a public service announcement on a variety of television networks, per the release.

Referencing the short film, Padhila said it was one of the most impactful projects he’d ever directed.

“I hope it strikes a chord with everyone so we can help change the story for children in America.”

To watch the short film, visit americancancerstory.com.

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Detective Stories
In the tradition of the original Strand Magazine (1891-1950), The Strand features a wide array of stories reminiscent of the Golden Age of crime writing, from cozy whodunits to hard-boiled detective stories, suspenseful thrillers to humorous mysteries, set in a variety of places from Victorian England to turn of the century Prague to modern day England, and written by the leading authors of ...
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Detective fiction is a fantastic genre, as it allows the reader to follow a detective as they try to solve a crime or unravel a mystery. As a writer, you may try your hand at creating a short detective story for a class or as a writing challenge. To write an effective detective story, start by finding inspiration and creating an engaging plot.
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Short Detective Story Essay (Critical Writing) The detective did not look like the gumshoes from old dime-store novels. He was a lot thinner and he wore a close-fitting bodysuit rather than a raincoat. He was, however, just as focused on getting his man and finding the facts as Sherlock Holmes ever was.
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Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery & Detective Fiction Analysis. In her introduction to Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery, and Horror (1928-1934), Dorothy L. Sayers writes that the detective story ...
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The detective work must be good. Develop how your protagonist ultimately solves the case, keeping their personality and qualities in mind. Make sure it isn't cheesy or too obvious. 8. Begin writing. Start with an introductory chapter or two, to introduce the characters and setting. Then make the crime scene happen. 9.
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3. Leave three definite and accurate clues. Work out for yourself which exact pieces of evidence are going to be left scattered around in various ways to lead your detective to the real criminal. These clues have to be real and accurate, not tricks. 4. Develop at least three 'red herrings' or false clues.
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A short story is usually between 5,000 and 10,000 words, but may be as long as 20,000 words (80 pages, double-spaced). The author H.G Wells said that it's a short story if you can read it in half an hour. To write a mystery within this limited space means that you'll have to make every word count.
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List of Short Detective Stories in English. The Mystery of the Shattered Ice: Story, Exercises, Answers | Online & PDF Booklet. Chief Roger McCollum patrols the small town of Northbury, Pennsylvania, where crime is scarce. But when the mayor calls him with an urgent request, he must put his detective skills to the test.
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Pair this text with " Don't Fear the Bermuda Triangle " under the Paired Texts tab to keep your students guessing. After reading, students can compare the explanations offered for both mysteries. " Rumpelstiltskin " by The Brothers Grimm (5th Grade) In this short fairytale, a girl is imprisoned by a king who believes she can turn ...
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She is the series editor for The Best Short Stories of The Year: The O. Henry Prize Winners, and the author of a memoir, The Early Birds. She is the daughter of Walter J. Minton, the storied former president and publisher of G. P. Putnam's Sons, who first dared to publish Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov in the United States in 1958.
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Writing the Story. Download Article. 1. Establish the genre. The crime, or the discovery of the crime scene, almost always occurs in the first chapter, but this cliché can be effective. Right away, it establishes the tone of the story, whether that's occult, violent, emotional, suspenseful, or exciting.
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