Activity

Things that make one mystery story stand out above others, for me at least, are a puzzling crime, plenty of suspense (and twists!) and a cast of quirky characters. I mostly read traditional and cozy mysteries, there are quite a few other types and each has a different feel and style. I’m not really familiar with them, other than that they tend to be darker and grittier or more focused on professionals involved in the crime-fighting world.

Most mysteries are about murder, because it’s the easiest way to have high stakes. A culprit who has killed is more of a threat to the sleuth because of the potential they’ll kill again – and likely it’ll be our sleuth if they aren’t quick/ wise enough – and readers are more likely to care about a death than about a missing pie. If we want to avoid writing about a murder, though, we’ll need to up the stakes – find a way to make that missing pie extremely important to the victim’s well-being. Maybe it’s the last pie the baker made with her grandma, who is in hospice care and not doing well, and she really wants to win the blue ribbon at the State Fair for her grandma. Maybe instead of the pie missing, it’s the recipe card that has been passed down for generations and our baker feels she’s letting down all her female ancestors by losing it and by not participating in the fair. I don’t know what, really, just trying to come up with ideas that hopefully illustrate what I mean about giving more meaning to the item so that readers will be cheering for our sleuth to solve the mystery.