In a new post, mystery writer Zara Altair says your murder suspects’ secrets can create the red herrings you need to keep your sleuth – and your reader – guessing. “Your role as a writer is to make the suspects difficult,” she says. “You want them to mislead your sleuth, lie to protect their secrets, forget important details and cause trouble for your sleuth.”
However, each of your suspects has some tie to the murder victim that brings them into conflict with your sleuth, but they also have a private life, and that can involve secrets. Use these secrets to help your suspects challenge your sleuth. They might be hard to find, unwilling to talk, or otherwise confrontational. They might lie, tell half-truths, or refuse to talk altogether. Your sleuth will try to uncover these secrets, and so will your reader. “As long as you have a firm grasp on each suspect’s relationship to the victim, you’ll help your reader plunge into the clues, relate to the suspects, question their actions, and keep guessing until the end,” Altair says.
She suggests asking the following questions:
- How are they suspicious?
- What secret do they want to keep?
- What lie do they normally tell to hide the secret?
- What is their backup lie?
With these questions, you’ll create a picture of your suspect, but also identify how they hide information. Your suspects should also create problems for your sleuth, either with lies or mis-direction, or with some kind of flaw. Does the suspect often forget the time? Do they have bad eyesight or hearing? Are they protecting someone?
“When you first introduce the suspect in your story, you have an idea of how the suspect will add obstruction to solving the mystery puzzle,” Altair says. “You control how the information the suspect gives your sleuth reveals clues. And hides information.”
