Most of the murder mysteries I read – and that’s about ALL I read anymore – start out with a particular sleuth.
- Tony Hillerman has his legendary lieutenant Joe Leaphorn.
- Michael Connelly has his detective Harry Bosch.
- Ian Rankin has his cranky Insector Rebus.
- Walter Mosely has his noir gumshoe Easy Rawlins.
- C.J. Box has his straight-arrow game warden Joe Pickett.
Maybe add in a sidekick – or two or three – the more the merrier. You know, like Jim Chee, Joe Pike, Siobhan Clarke, Mouse Alexander, or Nate Romanowski. You get the picture.
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Believe me, I get it: If you want to write a mystery series, you need a hero who endures, and who reflects the author’s basically laudable personality. You also need an alter ego who expresses some of the darker elements that maybe don’t fit so well inside a hero’s positive persona. A tinge of the psychopath is always a nice touch for the sidekick. Think Joe Pike or Nate Romanowski going all whoop-ass on the bad guys. Or Mouse Alexander just getting out of bed each morning.
Then you have the setting. Be it scenic Four Corners Dinetah, Noir 1950’s L.A., Old Town Edinburgh Scotland, or backcountry Saddlestring Wyoming, the setting is almost like another character, and remains constant throughout the series. It is the familiar backdrop in front of which all the action takes place.
Last but not least, you have the victim and the circumstances of a crime that drives the plot to its ultimate conclusion. Figuring out whodunnit and ensuring that the bad guys get their comeuppance is, of course, crucial. This is what makes each installment of a series distinct and memorable. It’s also usually what gives each book its title: Coyote Waits. The Brass Verdict. Resurrection Men. Three Inch Teeth. You get the picture.
A couple of things I almost left out are peripheral elements that add heft and texture to each tale: Alternate suspects. Discarded hypotheses. A hero’s foibles. Having the FBI (or Scotland Yard) come in and step on toes of local law enforcement is always a welcome distraction from a too-straightforward plot. An aging protagonist with aches and pains and a wee bit of a drinking problem? Even better.
Still with me? So far, so good? Alright then….
Walter Mosely essentially IS Easy Rawlins. The L.A. noir sensibilty is embedded in every story. Walter/Easy is a black PI who overcomes a societal deck that’s always stacked against him to solve crimes and come out on top against all odds.
CJ Box essentially IS Joe Pickett. Add in the Wyoming landscape, and then all you’ll need is a (disposable) victim plus a current-events hook. The hook can be anything from a greedy multi-national energy company, to an eccentric Bay Area software CEO, to White Nationalists intent on starting a race war. CJ/Joe is the guy who wears the white hat and stands tall.
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What if you weren’t interested in writing a series of murder mysteries, but only in writing one stand-alone story? That would free up an author to write him-or-her self into the plot as maybe a victim, say – or maybe even just an interested bystander. Maybe the jury foreman at the bad guy’s trial? You wouldn’t necessarily need a sidekick to take all the psychopathic weight off the hero, because the sleuth is no longer central. And the narrator is gonna have a mixed bag of contradictory character traits like we all do.
I like the victim angle because, while it does pose some narrative challenges (the narrarator is gonna be dead before any investigation or trial, after all), it opens up a whole new array of whodunit possibilities: Was it the angry neighbor? The crazy cousin? Or – always suspect #1 in these sorts of murder mysteries – the jealous spouse? With a “Lovely Bones” type of beyond-the-grave narrarator, the final reveal can happen for the main character watching right alongside the reader. Assuming, of course, that they’re in the dark beforehand about who’s gonna end up conking them on the head from behind with a claw hammer at the climax.
Background setting? Narrator’s foibles? Alternate suspects? Timely curent-events hook? I’ve got plenty of ideas, but I don’t wanna spoil it for y’all. So, I better stop right here. The possibilities are nearly endless. But the smart money? That’s gotta be on the crazy cousin – just sayin’.
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A mild-mannered recent retiree loves to hike. He signs up for a summer of trail-building at his local State Park. His partially buried body is discovered – with a fractured skull – by a mysterious couple visiting from Ohio. Last one to see him alive? It’s the ambitious trans-gender Park Ranger, Aelin (pronouns: she/her, but that could change). What’s his wife’s alibi? Airtight, at a work conference in Indiana. Prime suspect? The anti-social dog-groomer next door who’s been renovating their house for the past 2 years with an extremely loud – and annoying – claw hammer.
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Working title for the first installment is “Willow Creek Falls.” I even went up there and scouted out the setting yesterday. You can see that post here. Next one might have to be titled “The Bear Spray Way.” You know, as an homage to Hillerman (The Blessing Way) and C.J. Box (3″ Teeth). There are 6 or 7 different trails in Rox State Park. A body could be discovered on each one of them. Then, we move on to nearby Chatfield Reservoir for a drowning, then further afield to Castlewood Canyon for a fall off a cliff, with a Big Finale on the Colorado Trail starting from the dam at the top of Waterton and ending 500 miles away in Durango. So many hikes, so many deserving victims, and so little time. If I play this right, it might take me all the way through to the end of retirement – assuming a rogue bear doesn’t get me first. And if you’re reading this, you’re due for a cameo in at least one of them. So, now I just gotta figure out how to make it all work without re-incarnation. Stay tuned….
